Egon Zehnder Acquires The Prince Houston Group
July 23, 2025 – Egon Zehnder has acquired The Prince Houston Group, a leading boutique executive search firm based in New York with a strong focus on asset and wealth management. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Hunt Scanlon Ventures, based in Greenwich, Conn., served as an advisor to Egon Zehnder on the transaction. The integration of The Prince Houston Group into Egon Zehnder takes immediate effect, ensuring a seamless transition for clients and teams. “This acquisition is part of our strategy to grow organically as well as through carefully selected expansion opportunities that align with our values and long-term vision,” said Michael Ensser, the global executive chair of Egon Zehnder. “The Prince Houston Group’s depth of expertise in asset and wealth management and its bespoke approach will bolster our financial services practice in the U.S. and around the world,” he added.
The Prince Houston Group serves a broad spectrum of outstanding clients across asset and wealth management, family offices, endowments and foundations, hedge funds, private equity funds, and insurance organizations. The firm’s search mandates range from chief executive officers and chief investment officers to all levels of investment, distribution and corporate talent.
With a bespoke, high-integrity approach, their expertise will strengthen Egon Zehnder’s presence in the U.S. financial services sector.
A Perfect Fit
Through this transaction, Egon Zehnder welcomes a highly specialized team with deep sector knowledge and strong client relationships, while The Prince Houston Group joins a global platform of 600 consultants across 67 offices in 36 countries that offers broader reach and impact as well as leadership advisory services.
“Search begins with the excellence of our consultants and a collective, global mindset,” said German Herrera, managing partner of Egon Zehnder U.S. “The Prince Houston Group embodies both. We look forward to welcoming The Prince Houston Group team to Egon Zehnder and to the great things we can achieve for our clients and partners together.”
“My team and I are thrilled to join Egon Zehnder, a firm I have long admired,” said Marylin Prince, founder and managing partner of The Prince Houston Group. “This partnership enables us to expand our reach globally and we are aligned philosophically in how we serve clients. In every respect, this is a perfect fit. We look forward to combining our strengths to better support our clients in the financial services space.”
Tailored Talent Strategies
“The Prince Houston Group brings decades of deep relationships and a proven track record of advising hedge funds, family offices and institutional investors,” said Mr. Herrera. “Their boutique focus complements Egon Zehnder’s broad platform, allowing us to deliver even more nuanced insights and tailored talent strategies to clients across the investment landscape.”
Hunt Scanlon Releases 2025 Mid-Year Executive Search M&A Report
Amid ongoing economic uncertainty and geopolitical volatility, M&A activity has remained resilient across the human capital sector. More than half of executive search firm founders polled by Hunt Scanlon are open to exploring a transaction. Strategic buyers and PE sponsors continue targeting specialized, scalable human capital platforms with embedded client relationships and sector-specific expertise. Founders and their management teams therefore are expressing cautious optimism heading into the second half of 2025.
In this inaugural issue, we highlight these trends as well as several notable M&A transactions across the space, including Hunt Scanlon Ventures’ advisory role in Egon Zehnder’s acquisition earlier this month of The Prince Houston Group — a landmark deal in asset and wealth management recruiting. According to Hunt Scanlon, the transaction points to deepening consolidation among search firms . . . and the big bet that global human capital solutions firms are placing on growth in U.S. markets.
Whether you’re evaluating a potential acquisition or sale, preparing for a capital event, or monitoring broader human capital market activity, this report delivers timely intelligence and actionable trends shaping one of the fastest growth segments of professional services. Click here to view the report!
Mr. Herrera noted that this partnership brings together the best of both worlds. “The Prince Houston Group’s high-touch, specialized knowledge of asset management talent and Egon Zehnder’s expansive global network and service offerings, including leadership advisory, board consulting and succession planning,” he said.
“For clients, particularly hedge funds and family offices, this means access to a broader bench of expertise and resources without sacrificing the personalized service and deep market understanding they rely on,” he noted.
Client-First Philosophy
“Egon Zehnder’s strategy isn’t focused on scale for scale’s sake,” Mr. Herrera continued. “We grow selectively through partnerships that add meaningful capabilities and reflect our core values. The Prince Houston Group aligns perfectly with our client-first philosophy and deep sector expertise. A strategic fit for us means cultural alignment, complementary strengths and a shared vision for client impact. This acquisition checks all those boxes and directly supports our growth trajectory in the U.S.,” he said.
Both firms are built on enduring relationships, deep market knowledge and a commitment to client impact over transaction volume, according to Mr. Herrera. “This cultural alignment removes many of the typical integration hurdles,” he added.
“Our teams are already speaking the same language – professionally and philosophically. That shared foundation allows us to combine seamlessly, focus on our clients’ evolving needs and maintain the exceptional service experience they expect,” he said.
“By uniting Egon Zehnder’s leadership advisory expertise with The Prince Houston Group’s boutique asset management insights, we’re uniquely positioned to support clients navigating new industry demands, whether that’s digital transformation, ESG integration or generational leadership transitions,” Mr. Herrera said.
“Our combined firm offers a full-spectrum approach to talent: helping clients find the right leaders today and developing them for tomorrow’s challenges through world-class advisory services,” he noted.
Egon Zehnder currently ranks as a Top 5 global executive search firm, according to Hunt Scanlon Media. With more than 600 consultants across 67 offices spanning 36 countries, Egon Zehnder works with public and private corporations, family-owned enterprises, and non-profit and government agencies to provide board advisory services, CEO and leadership succession planning, executive search and assessment, and leadership development solutions. Since 1964, the firm has been at the forefront of defining top leadership in the face of changing economic conditions as well as major transitions in the executive search field.
Recent Deals
Hunt Scanlon Ventures has facilitated a number of M&A transactions across the executive search space in recent months. Here is a look at a few:
Talento Human Capital has acquired R2 Global, a highly respected technology recruitment and staffing firm known for its niche expertise across cloud & data, business systems, and e-commerce. This strategic move will expand TalentoHC’s existing footprint in the technology sector and launch, as well as strengthen, its technology search & staffing service lines. “The combination of TalentoHC’s talent acquisition expertise with R2’s deep technical focus marks an exciting new chapter for both organizations,” said Juan Gaitan, CEO of TalentoHC, based in Coral Gables, FL. “R2’s agile approach to technology staffing and recruiting aligns perfectly with our mission to deliver tailored recruitment solutions. Together, as R2 Powered by Talento, we are positioned to become a premier go-to partner for IT talent and innovation,” he added. “TalentoHC and R2 Global customers will benefit tremendously from the portfolio of human capital offerings that the combined organizations now provide,” said Scott A. Scanlon, CEO and co-founder of Hunt Scanlon Ventures.
Global talent advisory firm ZRG has acquired Aspen Leadership Group, a search firm focused on placing and supporting top fundraising leaders and executive talent in educational institutions and the broader non-profit sector. “The addition of Aspen Leadership Group is nothing short of transformative,” said Larry Hartmann, CEO of ZRG. “Their expertise in development and advancement is the perfect complement to our growing education practice, and as we roll into 2025 we are unlocking the collective power of these exceptional niche businesses under the unified banner of ZRG’s education practice, creating unmatched solutions for academic and non-profit leadership.” Aspen Leadership Group, established in 2013, conducts a wide range of searches across the fundraising, education and non-profit sector and is widely considered the eminent leader in its field. Its clients include Brown University, PBS, Robin Hood, the Humane Society of the United States, the Leakey Foundation, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Denver Zoological Foundation, among others.
Talento Human Capital (TalentoHC) has acquired The PeterSan Group and PeterSan Legal Staffing. The merger brings expertise in legal recruiting to TalentoHC’s customer experience model and comprehensive human capital services, including retained executive search, professional and management recruiting, RPO, staff augmentation, and human capital consulting. Managing partners Peter Gosule, Peter Goldfeder, and Sandy Friedman of The PeterSan Group will lead the TalentoLegal business unit from New York City, where the firm has been rooted for three decades. “The PeterSan transaction fits in well with our platform strategy as we build onto our customer-centric model and expand our industry and functional vertical focus,” said Juan Gaitan, CEO of TalentoHC, based in Coral Gables, FL. “The intersection of these two approaches will create opportunities for continued growth and value for our customers, candidates, associates and shareholders.”
ZRG acquired Jamesbeck, a New York City-based recruitment firm specializing in senior-level talent for the broad investment management community across private market and traditional firms. “This strategic move aims to establish ZRG’s presence in asset management and will support the firm’s existing private markets clients by adding a new channel for senior roles at the management company level across investments, product, and fundraising,” said ZRG. “Jamesbeck has been at the forefront of decisive changes that have impacted asset management leadership for more than two decades,” said Scott A. Scanlon, CEO of Hunt Scanlon Ventures. “The firm’s acquisition by ZRG will be beneficial to clients across the global investment management space who have come to rely on its network, judgment and guidance around senior-level leadership talent,” he noted. Jamesbeck specializes in the investment management industry across public and private markets. The firm recruits senior-level talent across investing, distribution, product and C-suite positions on behalf of a range of clients from boutiques to the largest multi-product organizations. Jamesbeck’s Melissa Norris, managing partner, and Beth Rustin, founding partner, will become the co-heads of asset management search at ZRG.
Related: How Search Firms are Winning Through M&A and Unlocking Value
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
