Russell Reynolds Associates Adds to Energy / Natural Resources Practice
January 11, 2016 – Russell Reynolds Associates has expanded its Houston office with the appointments of Brian Bayne and Stuart Vardaman. They join the firm’s energy and natural resources search practice.
In addition to serving in the energy and natural resources practice, Mr. Bayne will also serve as a member of the firm’s corporate officers practice. With more than 17 years of experience in business and corporate development, he previously served as general manager and global energy practice lead for Axiom Law, a global legal services company. There, his responsibilities included general management, client development and attorney recruiting. Before that, he spent more than a decade at IBM as North America director of petroleum, chemicals & industrial products for IBM’s global business services division.
Mr. Vardaman spent the past three years as an energy sector recruiting specialist with Spencer Stuart. Prior to that, he spent four years with Gallup, a private global consulting firm where he worked with clients across several industries, including oil and gas, retail and financial services.
“With Houston as a global energy center, it is more important than ever to have top talent in our Houston office. These new additions to our energy and natural resources practice demonstrate our commitment in the region,” said Mark Adams, leader of Russell Reynolds’ operations in the U.S.
“Both Brian and Stuart have impressive track records in the energy industry and have demonstrated great success in their careers thus far,” said Steve Newton, who leads operations in the firm’s Houston office. “We are thrilled to welcome them to Russell Reynolds Associates and look forward to bringing added value to our clients.”
A recent report issued by ManpowerGroup, ‘Strategies to Fuel the Energy Workforce,’ found that 58 percent of energy executives said they struggle to find the talent they need and 74 percent believe the problem will worsen over the next five years.
The study also found that the talent shortage may already be slowing growth and expansion throughout the sector. By some estimates, there will be three million energy sector jobs by 2020. In the utilities subsector, where half of the workforce is already over the age of 40 — 100,000 net new jobs are projected. Many of the positions will require tech-savvy candidates to keep pace with future developments.
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In response, a number of headhunting firms have been growing within the energy sector to fill critical roles for clients. Preng & Associates appointed Steve Raben as a senior consultant in its Houston office. He has led over 500 domestic and international client assignments for public and private oil & gas, petroleum equipment, service and hydrocarbon processing & transportation companies, at the board, C-suite and business segment leadership levels.
Korn Ferry recently bulked up its staff in the sector, naming former Heidrick & Struggles recruiter Chad Hesters as managing director of the firm’s Houston office and a senior client partner in its energy search practice.
Heidrick & Struggles, in turn, strengthened its oil, gas and power expertise in the firm’s global industrial practice with the addition of David Pruner. He joins the firm from Wood Mackenzie, a global research and strategic advisory firm specializing in the energy, chemicals, metals and mining industries, where he has been a senior vice president for the past 12 years.
Extract Talent opened its doors to serve clients ranging from Fortune 100 companies to startups. The firm concentrates in the downstream sector of the oil, gas, chemicals, and catalysts industries.
Contributed by Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor, Hunt Scanlon Media
