PRESS RELEASES

ECA Partners Makes Key 2026 Hires to Build Out Interim & Consulting Practice

Firm adds three Directors and elevates a Senior Director from Executive Search as private equity and enterprise demand for flexible, project-based talent accelerates

Santa Monica, CA. October 6, 2026 — ECA Partners, a Top-50 executive search firm known for its evidence-based, data-driven recruiting process, today announced a series of key additions to its Interim & Consulting practice. The hires represent a deliberate investment in a business line that traces back to the firm’s earliest days, and they come as private equity firms and their portfolio companies increasingly turn to flexible talent models to execute against compressed timelines.

Founded in 2010 as Ex-Consultants Agency, ECA was built and led by former management consultants from firms including L.E.K. Consulting, Booz & Company (Strategy&), and EY-Parthenon. Its original value proposition was straightforward: place talent from top-tier management consulting firms into interim and project-based roles at private equity-backed businesses and enterprise clients. That model has since grown into a full-service search firm with more than 4,000 completed engagements and over 400 private equity firms and portfolio companies served. Sixteen years on, the firm is doubling down on the offering it started with.

New Additions

ECA announced the addition of three new Directors to its Interim & Consulting team, as well as the move of Senior Director Ryan March, who joins from ECA’s Executive Search team.

Ben Everett-Wilson joins ECA from West Monroe’s CFO Advisory practice, bringing deep experience across the office of the CFO as well as hands-on transaction diligence, post-merger integration, and separation work. He now applies that experience placing interim executives and project-based consultants across strategy, finance, post-merger integration, and diligence engagements. He joins ECA’s growing New York office, extending the firm’s established presence among New York-based private equity firms and continuing ECA’s long-standing practice of bringing on search professionals from consulting backgrounds.

Will Robbins-Cole joins ECA from Soni Resources, where he served as Senior Talent Manager assisting his clients find finance, accounting, and human capital professionals in the Boston area. He now concentrates on finance and office of the CFO placements, partnering with private equity investors, portfolio executives, and corporate strategy leaders on interim executive and project-based consultant engagements. Based in Boston, he extends the firm’s coverage across the New England market.

Brandon Umbarger joins ECA from CoStar. He brings experience in commercial real estate, as well as sales and commercial excellence to the New York office. Focusing on value creation and strategy, he supports investors and executives by placing candidates into interim and consulting roles.

Ryan March moves to the Interim & Consulting practice as a Senior Director from ECA’s Executive Search team, where he placed senior executives across a range of industries. He brings a search-trained approach to executive assessment and deep client relationships to the interim and project-based business, partnering with large enterprise organizations and private equity-backed companies across healthcare, life sciences, industrials, consumer, and technology. He helps leadership teams bring in experienced interim executives and consultants for strategy, finance, and transformation initiatives that drive growth.

Outlook for ECA’s Interim & Consulting Practice

Client demand for interim and project-based staffing has risen sharply. Private equity firms and their portfolio companies are increasingly drawn to a model that gives them access to top-tier operators and consultants without the commitment of a permanent hire, supported by flexible, contingent engagement structures.

“The additions we have made this year say everything about where we see the business going,” said Andy Schluter, Director at ECA Partners. “The demand with our clients has been building for a while and it is great that we were able to get the senior bandwidth to meet it.”

The Interim & Consulting team also functions as a natural complement to ECA’s Executive Search practice. Together, the two groups allow the firm to match the type of talent solution to the situation at hand rather than forcing every need into a single hiring model, and to support private equity clients at every stage of the portfolio investment lifecycle:

“A fund working through a carve-out may need an interim CFO on Day 1 and a permanent hire two quarters later,” said Ken Kanara, CEO of ECA Partners. “Having both practices under one roof allows us to serve our clients across end-to-end talent needs.”

With the expanded team in place, ECA expects to continue scaling the practice across its core functional areas, including finance, operations, strategy and transformation, technology and AI, and commercial excellence.

 

About ECA Partners

ECA Partners is a Top-50 boutique executive search firm focused on strategy, operations, and finance talent for private equity firms and their portfolio companies, spanning interim, project-based, and full-time hiring needs. The firm has been in operation since 2010, has completed more than 4,000 engagements, and works with over 400 private equity firms and portfolio companies. ECA is headquartered in Santa Monica, California. For more information, visit www.eca-partners.com.