Heidrick & Struggles Enters Agreement to Acquire RosExpert in Russia and WE Partners in Ukraine and Kazakhstan
December 22, 2021 – Executive search, leadership consulting and culture shaping services provider Heidrick & Struggles has entered into agreements to acquire RosExpert in Russia and WE Partners in the Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
The transactions are expected to close in Q1 2022, subject to relevant regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. These acquisitions form part of Heidrick & Struggles’ strategy to expand its global footprint and grow its local presence in key strategic markets around the world.
RosExpert is a Russian consulting company founded in 1996, specializing in executive search and leadership assessment and development. RosExpert’s clients are 25 percent of the largest Russian and international companies according to the RBC 500 rating. WE Partners is a consulting company specializing in the executive search and leadership assessment and development. The firm operates in the Ukraine and Kazakhstan markets serving the largest national and global companies in key industries. Total revenue for the firm reported in 2020 exceeded $1.5 million, and estimated revenue by the end of 2021 it is expected to grow by 25 percent to $2 million.
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Recent Alliance & Acquisition
Heidrick & Struggles and Eightfold AI, a provider of AI-driven talent development platforms, recently formed a partnership to develop a new digital leadership platform that is intended to offer organizations a new way to understand, assess and make decisions about leadership talent. Anthony Colella, a global managing partner who joined Heidrick & Struggles earlier this year, is responsible for leading the development of the firm’s new digital capabilities and solutions, and he brings expertise in establishing and growing digital products businesses. “The partnership between Heidrick & Struggles and Eightfold AI is the first step in bringing to market a new digital offering that combines leadership advisory and talent development with leading technology and AI,” said the firm.
Related: Heidrick & Struggles Names Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary
The alliance is expected to bring a new digital leadership platform that offers real-time leadership insights, data analytics and AI to fragmented leadership development and planning processes. The platform is designed to give companies the ability to optimize talent forecast planning and alignment to business needs through rapid, data-driven technology insights, powered by the combination of Heidrick & Struggles’ experience across executive search, leadership and organization assessment and development, and on-demand talent capabilities, and Eightfold AI’s deep learning artificial intelligence platform.
Heidrick & Struggles also closed the acquisition of Business Talent Group (BTG), a marketplace for high-end independent talent on demand. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The addition of BTG complements Heidrick’s strategic growth initiative to expand its suite of executive talent solutions to address new and ongoing client demands. BTG will continue to be led by co-founders and co-CEOs, Jody Greenstone Miller, and Amelia Tyagi, and operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Heidrick.
“We are also very excited to welcome BTG to Heidrick & Struggles and to offer our clients a full spectrum of executive and high-end on-demand talent solutions – a key strategy we set out to achieve – as we make the future of work a reality today,” said Krishnan Rajagopalan, president and CEO. “We look to build on our momentum as we execute our 2021 initiatives to grow our scale and impact with clients, expand our suite of leadership solutions and capabilities, and invest in new innovative, tech-driven offerings to drive future growth and shareholder value.”
Related: Heidrick & Struggles Posts Record Revenue Gain
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media