Driving Growth Through Specialized Talent Acquisition
March 28, 2025 – The Bridger Group is a 57-year-old executive search firm working exclusively in the building products and commercial interior products industries. The firm focuses on identifying top candidates for roles in sales, sales management, and executive positions within these sectors. Jordan Underwood, managing partner at The Bridger Group, recently joined Hunt Scanlon Media to discuss the firm’s significant growth, its evolving recruitment strategies, and its vision for expanding business within the building materials and interiors industries.
“Our growth has come largely from our people and our process,” said Mr. Underwood. “We have tripled in size since 2020, both from a revenue and headcount perspective. Our leadership team (the partners in our organization) comprises some of the best recruiters in the industry and greatly accelerated our growth by launching into a team-based model versus a solo-producer model. By not focusing only on hiring people, but bringing on the right people and putting them on the right seat on the bus, these leaders are growing and fostering their own teams in their unique segments of the industry, passing on years of knowledge and first-hand experience to each new team member.”
Mr. Underwood attributes the firm’s success to empowering the firm’s best people to grow. “Rather than facing the bottleneck many organizations face with one person or one division hiring, has been the true catalyst for our success,” he said. “Beyond adding new talent to the team, we also significantly changed our internal process. We have expanded the operations side of our business to help streamline our search process, maximizing the time and talent of every search consultant at our company.”
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Organizations are still surprised to hear this, but we continue to only work in the building materials and interiors industries, so our growth has been due to greater and greater penetration within the verticals of those industries, according to Mr. Underwood. “As we continue to grow, we still see a massive opportunity to acquire more and more market share as we further segment our business and focus on both upstream and downstream companies throughout the entire building industry,” he said.
Partnering with Organizations Nationwide
“We partner with organizations nationwide, so we are seeing this growth evenly spread across the U.S., said Mr. Underwood. “Having said that, we did hit a high watermark for placements last calendar year, and we are becoming more diversified in the disciplines we recruit for within an organization. Twenty years ago, our organization solely recruited sales individuals. Now, as we’ve added resources and personnel, we successfully recruit operations, engineering, design, marketing, manufacturing and finance professionals across the U.S. for our clients,” he added. “We always felt we had the ability to do so, but now that we have the human capital to diversify our searches within our client base, it is amazing to see the added value we bring to each organization we partner with, which has tremendously helped our growth.”
Economic conditions play a crucial role in shaping job opportunities and career progression in the building products and construction industry, Mr. Underwood explained.
Growth and M&A Activity to Surge Across Recruitment Sector In 2025
Hunt Scanlon Media has released its annual rankings of leading executive search firms, giving the sector its first official performance review on last year’s activity. In the U.S. and globally, billions of dollars poured into the high-end recruitment sector in 2024, despite an economically challenging year. “The recruiting sector found stability and recovery in 2024 even as economic headwinds persisted right up through to the election,” said Evan Berta, chief market analyst at Hunt Scanlon. “Growth rates topped out at six percent, and the stage has been set for a strong run ahead.” Fee revenue at the 50 largest executive search firms in the U.S./ Americas – the industry’s largest region – reached $6.041 billion, according to Hunt Scanlon. More than half (59 percent) of search firms reported positive growth, while 20 firms reported double digit gains. Russell Reynolds Associates grew by 10.8 percent in the Americas – the strongest growth rate among the Top 5 SHREK firms – catapulting it to the No. 3 spot on the Top 50 roster. Globally, the firm ranks No. 2.
According to Hunt Scanlon, search firms are finding growth by leveraging acquisitions, expanding service offerings, and integrating AI-powered recruiting tools to enhance their capabilities and gain a competitive edge. “Last year also saw a notable increase in demand for interim executive hiring and leadership assessment and consulting services as organizations sought more agile and flexible talent solutions to address evolving workforce needs,” said Scott A. Scanlon, the co-founder and CEO of Hunt Scanlon Media who also oversees the firm’s burgeoning M&A advisory group.
“Shifts in inflation, interest rates, and supply chain dynamics directly impact hiring trends, wages, and long-term career stability. Interest rates significantly affect the demand for construction projects,” he said. “Higher interest rates lead to increased borrowing costs for developers and homeowners, slowing down new projects and reducing job opportunities. Conversely, lower interest rates stimulate investment in residential and commercial construction, creating more hiring opportunities. Cut last sentence if this is too much.”
Optimistic for 2025
“We are very optimistic about our growth continuing throughout 2025,” said Mr. Underwood. “We have audacious five-year goals for our organization and that begins with a successful 2025. We truly believe that our specialized and proven recruiting process uniquely positions us to continue to gain market share in the building materials and interiors world.”
“The Bridger Group is also targeting key industries to expand our services into that will serve to diversify our organization,” Mr. Underwood said. “By bringing the same level of professionalism and service we have built our foundation on to new industries, we believe there is even more growth potential for The Bridger Group.”
The Bridger Group’s expertise encompasses various product verticals, including roofing, flooring, doors, insulation, and windows, allowing them to tailor their search processes to the specific needs of their clients. The firm operates across the U.S., Canada, and Latin America, serving a diverse clientele in the building materials and commercial interiors industries.
Mr. Underwood has spent the majority of his career in sales, and he thrives in this environment. Mr. Underwood enjoys helping clients and candidates meet their goals and will go above and beyond to ensure they succeed. His background working in financial sales in Chicago also gives him unique insight into running the operations side of the business.
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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
