Riviera Partners Adds Four New Partners in New York

March 26, 2019 – Riviera Partners, a search firm specializing in C-level engineering, product and design leader placements, has announced an expansion in New York with the promotion of four recruiters as partners.

In order to meet increasing market demands, the San Francisco-based recruiter promoted directors Isa Guardalabene, Jason Hann, Sandy Ma and Sophie Thomas. The move will support Riviera Partners aggressive growth and the company’s strong belief that organic team development equates to long term success, said the firm.

“This group of technology veterans are on the front lines when it comes to market trends and emerging technologies that are shaping tomorrow’s most successful companies,” said Will Hunsinger, CEO, Riviera Partners. “Their expertise and relentless focus on excellent client service, combined with our proprietary recommendation engine, allows them to quickly identify, engage  and place the most qualified candidates in critical roles.”

New Partners

Ms. Guardalabene specializes in placing engineering executives at early and growth stage companies such as Getaround, Blend, Tonal and Planet Labs.

Mr. Hann focuses on placing senior-level engineering leadership at public companies such as GitHub and Five9, as well as Venture-backed companies like Caffeine, Course Hero and SmithRX.

Ms. Ma has expertise in engineering and product leadership roles at the director, senior director and vice president (for succession planning) levels for high growth companies including DoorDash, Grubhub, Amplitude and PagerDuty.

Ms. Thomas specializes in helping mid to late-stage companies scale and has worked with clients such as Autogrid, Databricks, Glassdoor, Nuro, Thumbtack, NimbleRx, Shipt, Twilio and RigUp.

Finding Top Talent

Riviera Partners is a global recruiting firm specializing in the technology industry. The firm provides clients with optimal placements by combining recruiter interactions and experience with data-driven findings about candidates. It has other offices in Palo Alto, Los Angeles and New York. The firm has recruited for key executive roles at Pinterest, Postmates, Tinder, Twilio and partnered with venture-backed concerns, including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Benchmark, Accel, Menlo Ventures, KPCB, Greylock and General Catalyst.

Last year, Riviera Partners named Mr. Hunsinger as its CEO. He has been part of the Riviera team for two years, serving as chief operating officer before his promotion. During that time, he has helped drive significant expansion of Riviera’s executive search practice as well as launching R[2] (R Squared), Riviera’s marketplace for software engineering talent that combines data science, machine learning and recruiter curation to match talent.

“Riviera Partners has experienced significant growth over the past two years,” said Michael Morell, co-founder and managing partner of Riviera Partners. “Will’s leadership and operational expertise will allow us to capitalize on this momentum, continue scaling our business and ensure our recruiting professionals have the support and freedom to focus on exceptional service delivery to our clients.”

A Recent Acquisition

“Technology, data science and machine learning have the potential to transform recruiting and deliver an exponentially better experience for our clients and candidates,” said Ali Behnam, co-founder and managing partner of Riviera Partners. “Will’s vision for how to unlock that potential and his experience growing companies is exactly what we need to take Riviera’s talent platform to the next level.”

Earlier this year, Riviera Partners acquired New York-based technology-focused executive search firm Bamboo Talent. Financial details of the deal were undisclosed.

Riviera Partners said that its proprietary recruiting platform combined with Bamboo Talent’s vertical specialization and market-specific expertise will allow the combined entity to better serve a national client roster of innovative companies.

“Hiring the right technology leadership is increasingly difficult as demand grows for key individuals that can create value within organizations,” said Mr. Hunsinger. “This is particularly true in New York where some of the top technology organizations are expanding operations, traditional industries are pursuing digital transformation, and venture capital investment has seen unprecedented growth.”

Founded in 2014, Bamboo Talent is recognized for building lasting relationships with candidates, companies and venture capital partners. The team at Bamboo has partnered with companies from their earliest funding rounds through every stage of growth. The firm has a broad network of relationships with seasoned engineering talent, CEOs, CTOs, founders, venture capitalists and talent partners.

“Everything that Riviera Partners does is focused on long-term relationships and client results, which is core to our sustainable recruitment ethos,” said Will Potter, co-founder of Bamboo Talent. “Riviera’s impressive track-record and deep insights will accelerate our ability to offer better experiences and results to both clients and candidates in the New York City market, while still living our values.”

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

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