Heidrick & Struggles Launches Disruptive Innovators Team
May 4, 2018 – Heidrick & Struggles has launched a “disruptive innovators team” to “advise companies on the cusp of rapid growth, breakthrough innovation and market disruption.” Tim Alexander Lüdke has been named leader and global managing partner of the firm’s new practice.
“The disruptive innovators team will serve as a catalyst leveraging expertise from practices throughout the firm to help a new breed of companies accelerate their paths to industry disruption,” said Krishnan Rajagopalan, president and CEO of Heidrick. “With a full complement of talent and leadership solutions, we are well positioned to help emerging organizations reach their ambitions for growth, scale and brand impact.”
Mr. Lüdke, who will report directly to Mr. Rajagopalan, had been European regional managing partner for the firm’s global technology & services practice. He has more than 25 years of industry and executive search experience advising some of the world’s foremost leaders in the tech space.
New Offering
Heidrick said that its disruptive innovators team will work with upcoming organizations to develop their go-to market strategies by filling talent gaps, advising on transformation and change management, and accelerating their growth and development. In particular, the team will leverage Heidrick’s global expertise advising companies in a multitude of technology sectors, including fintech and BioTech.
“We are uniquely positioned to serve highly ambitious companies through the unique challenges that accompany disrupting an industry,” said Mr. Lüdke. “We will support the CEOs and boards of these developing companies in materially speeding up their paths to greatness.”
Prior to joining Heidrick & Struggles, Mr. Lüdke was a managing partner at a boutique executive search firm in Munich. Over the course of his search career, he has specialized in placing senior leaders in the areas of hardware, services/outsourcing, software and telecommunications. He also has extensive experience working with owners, boards and executives within larger family and private-equity owned companies. While working in the technology sector, Mr. Lüdke served as CEO of Nemetschek, a global architecture, engineering and construction software company.
Leadership Changes
Heidrick recently announced a series of changes to its leadership team. Mark R. Harris, joins Heidrick as CFO, succeeding Richard W. Pehlke who retires in March. Mr. Harris had been CFO at Hercules Capital, a publicly traded business development company, with responsibility for the finance, accounting, operations, treasury, legal and investor relations. Stephen Beard, Heidrick’s executive vice president, general counsel and chief administrative officer, has also chosen to leave the firm, to pursue other opportunities. The chief administrative officer role will be eliminated. Kamau A. Coar, vice president, associate general counsel, has been promoted to general counsel. In this role, Mr. Coar will be responsible for the firm’s legal and regulatory matters globally.
Heidrick & Struggles Launches Consulting Division
Just recently, Heidrick & Struggles launched its Heidrick Consulting business in the market globally. The new business combines the firm’s Leadership Consulting and Culture Shaping businesses into a single integrated line of advisory services.
New Practice Leaders
Heidrick recently appointed Amy Goldfinger and Mike Theilmann as co-leaders of its global human resources officers (CHRO) practice, based in New York City and Dallas. This follows the departure of Dan Kaplan who left the firm to lead Korn Ferry’s CHRO practice.
Ms. Goldfinger has been with the firm for 11 years advising clients in HR transformation, accelerated leadership, talent management strategy and execution, leadership assessment and development, and onboarding. She leads senior-level HR searches including CHRO, heads of talent management, heads of organizational development, chief learning officers, heads of rewards and heads of recruiting for companies in every industry.
Mr. Theilmann joined the firm last June with more than 25 years of global experience across retail, hospitality, consumer goods and venture capital. He had served as CHRO of J.C. Penney where he partnered with the CEO to accelerate growth through talent and a customer-centric focus.
In addition, Ron Lumbra becomes managing partner for the firm’s centers of excellence, responsible for the functional practices and the private equity practice within executive search, the firm’s strategic accounts, and H Labs, the enterprise-wide product development function delivering validated diagnostics for the firm’s client teams. Previously, Mr. Lumbra had been regional leader, Americas.
Rebecca Foreman Janjic has been appointed global managing partner for the firm’s global technology & services practice, succeeding Mr. Cullen. Based in the San Francisco office, she also co-leads Heidrick’s big data & analytics specialty practice. Her own executive search work focuses on recruitment of C-suite and VP-level executives within software, internet, and technology services companies.
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor; and Andrew W. Mitchell, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
