Hedley May Adds Former CHRO as Partner in New York
June 28, 2022 – The executive search field continues to be a welcoming landing pad for HR executives looking for a career change. For CHROs, chief talent officers, and other C-suite HR executives, the cross-over skills required in the search business are nearly identical. London-headquartered executive search firm Hedley May has added former Houlihan Lokey CHRO Janine Cristiano as a partner in New York. “We are delighted to expand Hedley May’s market presence in the U.S. and enhance our franchise,” said Laura McPhail, U.S. partner. “Janine adds specialized expertise to our platform that will provide our clients with fresh insight as they seek to develop world class HR functions.”
“With her exceptionally deep and wide-ranging HR leadership experience, Janine brings fantastic insight, knowledge, and understanding to our global HR practice and Hedley May as a whole,” said Karen Frizzell, partner leading the HR practice in London. “I am very excited about Janine’s arrival as it will further enhance Hedley May’s reputation for having a market leading HR search practice, able to seamlessly execute U.S. and global HR leadership appointments.”
Ms. Cristiano previously served as chief human resources officer at Houlihan Lokey, Ares Management, and Smith Barney, and as head of human resources for corporate groups at Ernst & Young. She has developed and led international teams based in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the U.S. who were responsible for delivering the full suite of HR services to their companies. Ms. Cristiano has experience building HR functions from the ground up as well as reorganizing inherited structures that require transformation.
“I have first-hand experience with the dedication, professionalism, and excellence of Hedley May, having worked in close partnership with the firm since 2009,” said Ms. Cristiano. “Hedley May has established a preeminent position as a global boutique search firm of choice, and I am beyond excited to join this talented group of search professionals and to work with clients in appointing outstanding HR professionals.”
Founded in 2009, Hedley May specializes across functional and advisory roles in areas including compliance, risk, finance, audit, human resources, reward, legal, governance, marketing, communications, operations, and cybersecurity.
HR Leaders Transition to Recruiters
For CHROs, chief talent officers, and other C-suite HR executives, the crossover skills required in the search business are nearly identical, and Hunt Scanlon Media has recently tracked a number of successful transitions. We have taken note of the trend among top-ranking HR executives reestablishing themselves as executive recruiters. Here’s a look at some of the more prominent ones:
N2Growth, a Philadelphia-based management consulting and executive search firm, named former HR executive Jos van der Steen as partner, focusing on the firm’s European retail, financial services and digital transformation practices. “In his capacity as HR director, Jos has always been a vocal supporter and client of N2Growth,” said Jaco Erasmus, EMEAA partner and member of the N2Growth board. “Having made a career switch to executive search, we are honored to welcome him as partner within the executive search practice of N2Growth Benelux. Every HR director knows how crucial it is to get the right executives onboard at the right moment in time. Jos has been on the hiring side of the table for many years and offers a lot of experience and understanding with respect to clients’ executive search needs.”
Minneapolis, MN-headquartered Versique Search and Consulting expanded with the addition of former HR leader Jenna Estlick to be the firm’s managing director of client partnerships. In her role, she will be responsible for leading the human resources client partnerships team and providing solutions to the HR community through best-in-class consulting services. “We are so thrilled Jenna will be leading our HR consulting – client partnership division,” said Chris Dardis, president of consulting services at Versique. “Her values and personality are a wonderful match for our company, and her tremendous professional experience will be a great benefit to our team, our clients, and our candidates. Having known Jenna for a number of years, I am personally excited to partner with her to continue to grow our company and provide our unique service to the local HR community.”
Platinium Executive Search added former HR executive Céline Daubresse as a partner. “We are very pleased to welcome Céline here at Platinium Executive Search, as her international HR track record in various EMEA HR roles is both contrasting and complementary to ours,” said Olivier Bouhoulle, founder of Platinium Executive Search. “I’m certain that having someone on board who has been on the other side of the table for years, and who understands perfectly the daily constraints and objectives of our key HR director clients, is a huge asset to our company.”
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media