Riviera Partners Expands Public Practice
September 21, 2026 – San Francisco-based Riviera Partners, a recruitment provider specializing in C-level engineering, product, and design leader placements, has expanded with the addition of Archer McFall as a partner within its public practice serving large, publicly-traded companies and late-stage, pre-IPO companies.
“Getting the right CTO, CIO, or chief AI officer in place, building the team structure around AI, making sure the board has enough technical knowledge to ask the right questions — these decisions shape whether a company’s AI investments actually pay off,” said Will Potter, managing partner at Riviera Partners. “Archer has spent his career solving these problems for public and late-stage companies, and his experience makes Riviera a stronger partner for clients at this level.”
Mr. McFall brings nearly 15 years of experience in technology-focused executive search, advising boards, CEOs, and investors on succession for CTOs, CIOs, chief product officers, and leaders across digital, data, AI, and security functions.
He joins Riviera after six years with Modern Executive Solutions, where he rose from managing director to senior partner, leading the firm’s software & technology practice globally. Prior to Modern, Mr. McFall served as managing director, technology practice at ZRG Partners and held senior consultant level roles at TritonExec, Dore Partnership, and Marlin Hawk.
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. Riviera Partners has recruited for key executive roles at Pinterest, Postmates, Tinder, Twilio, Uber, Asana, Dropbox, GitHub, DoorDash, Hulu, and partnered with venture-backed concerns, including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Benchmark, Accel, Menlo Ventures, KPCB, Greylock, and General Catalyst.
Related: Riviera Partners Appoints Chief Operating Officer
Through machine learning algorithms, Riviera Partners identifies specialized, highly qualified candidates that fit an organization’s needs from 600,000 professionals across tech geographies. Riviera can often provide a short list of candidates in 30 days and has a success rate of over 95 percent.
Recent Acquisition
This past June, Riviera Partners acquired Lateral Labs, a specialized recruiting firm serving top AI startups. “The acquisition comes as companies remain challenged to meet the demand of organizational AI readiness,” the firm said. “Adding Lateral Labs positions Riviera Partners to help companies meet that challenge across the full arc of an AI company’s growth, offering executive and technical talent search from seed-stage startup through IPO.”
“Our research shows as few as two percent of companies are organizationally ready to execute with AI, and the gap almost always comes down to talent,” said Kyle Langworthy, partner and head of AI, ML and data practice at Riviera Partners. “This acquisition gives companies deeper access to the most in demand AI and machine learning talent their businesses need to execute.”
Private Equity Recruiting – Return on Investment: Creating Value with Talent
Talent has become a defining driver of performance in private equity, shaping how firms manage risk, execute strategy, and deliver sustained returns. As deal cycles tighten and value creation depends increasingly on operational excellence, leadership quality and organizational design are no longer secondary considerations — they are central to how firms source, underwrite, and scale investments. From talent diligence and CEO succession to team integration and leadership development, human capital decisions now influence outcomes across the entire investment lifecycle.
Hunt Scanlon Media will convene more than 250 private equity operating partners, chief talent officers, and executive recruiters at the Hilton in Chicago on September 29, 2026. The program will explore how firms are elevating human capital into a core driver of investment outcomes—redefining how leadership is assessed, built, and deployed across the portfolio to support growth, execution, and long-term value creation.
To register for Hunt Scanlon Media’s upcoming conference please click here!
Lateral Labs partners with some technical teams in AI, including Cursor, ElevenLabs, Runway, Scale AI and Luma Labs. The firm’s retained and contingent search models meet the specific demands of machine learning and AI research roles through deep domain knowledge, talent relationships and repeatable processes. The company was established in 2024 by founder and CEO Rob Infantino, a veteran recruiter for leading AI labs including OpenAI and Amazon Web Services.
“The people who build great AI are rare and in high demand, and reaching them takes real relationships, infrastructure and know-how,” said Mr. Infantino. “Together, Riviera Partners and Lateral Labs can support an AI company’s hiring across its full lifecycle — from its first technical hire through IPO — spanning research, science, infrastructure, engineering, product and leadership roles.”
Related: Riviera Partners Names Managing Partner and General Manager of Paragon
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
