Corsica Partners Acquires Benz International Group

March 9, 2021 – Acquisitions and consolidations continue to make news in the recruiting industry, with a number of notable purchases in recent months. Recently, Sarasota, FL-based executive search firm Corsica Partners acquired Benz International Group. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founding partner Chris Benz was named managing director and search-for-search professionals practice lead. “We are delighted to have Chris and the Benz International team join our Corsica family,” said managing partner and CEO Dan Veitkus. “As a full-service, talent acquisition and advisory firm, we are uniquely qualified and deeply committed to extend versatile options to our private equity, venture and family office backed companies,” he said. “We understand there are times when the preferred solution for our clients may be to scale up their internal recruiting capabilities by adding exceptional recruiters to their team and by leveraging our RPO capabilities. Our investment in the search-for-search professionals practice underscores our commitment to deliver agile solutions that provide our clients with optionality and flexible choices.”

The search-for-search professionals practice will offer investors and growth clients additional specialized services, including recruiting in-house, search professionals to scale internal teams as well as recruiting executive search professionals for search firms.

“The search-for-search professionals practice demonstrates Corsica’s commitment to clients extends well beyond the short-term vacancies to be filled,” said Mr. Benz. “Our focus is to provide long-term, sustainable growth capabilities that can scale and modulate based on the client’s requirements. Corsica has been serving customers with innovative talent acquisition solutions for more than 15 years and I’m excited to join the firm and to lead the Search-for-search practice to continue the tradition of delivering measurable value to clients and candidates.”

Founded in 2006, Corsica Partners is an executive search, recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) and growth advisory firm. The firm serves Fortune 500 brands and privately backed technology companies across the globe. Its partners are all former technology executives who spent decades building, growing and leading businesses. Corsica Partners’ search expertise extends from the boardroom to the back office, encompassing roles in the C-suite to building and scaling across business functions, including sales, marketing, finance, human resources, engineering and product teams.

Recent M&A activity

Acquisitions have kept the recruitment industry in a state of flux. Here’s a sampling of recent acquisitions taken from the Hunt Scanlon Media archives:

ZRG has made a major move into the sports, entertainment & media sectors by acquiring Turnkey Search. Renamed TurnkeyZRG, all Turnkey staff and assets merge into ZRG and the firm will continue to be led by Len Perna, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Turnkey. Turnkey will now adopt ZRG’s tech-enabled, data-driven approach to the search process which it says will give the newly merged firm a competitive edge in the hunt for sports, media, and entertainment talent. Larry Hartmann, CEO of ZRG, called the deal a “blockbuster acquisition.” Hunt Scanlon Ventures facilitated the introduction and transaction between ZRG and Turnkey, both perennial leaders in Hunt Scanlon’s rankings of executive search firms. “Len Perna built Turnkey into the most formidable sports recruiting brand in the nation,” said Scott A. Scanlon, CEO of Hunt Scanlon Media.

Caldwell has signed an agreement to acquire IQTalent Partners. Founded in 2009, IQTalent Partners provides talent acquisition solutions to 300 corporations from Fortune 500s to startups across a wide range of industries and functions throughout North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and South America. The firm recently launched IQTalent Xchange, a market concept using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) combined with human expertise to create a passive candidate marketplace. The proprietary platform includes more than 300 million global professionals, offering its customers unprecedented access to the most qualified candidates.

Global CEO advisory firm Teneo has acquired U.K.-based Ridgeway Partners, an advisory firm specializing in executive search, board appointments and succession planning for a wide range of companies. The acquisition follows a string of mergers that have taken place since the global pandemic began nearly one year ago. Ridgeway, headquartered in London, has been built from a small, affiliated business into a sizeable independent partnership. And it has been seeking growth and expansion opportunities in the face of the pandemic. The firm has expertise in board appointments and advisory services to both public and private companies, including a special focus on the appointment of diverse directors. Ridgeway’s functional expertise include executive committee roles in finance, IT/digital, risk and HR, operating across all sectors. In addition, Ridgeway has industry experience in retail financial services, investment banking, asset and wealth management, insurance, consumer markets, oil and gas, and technology.