True Search Adds New Leaders, Expands CFO Role
May 25, 2022 – Executive recruiting firm True Search has added Aisha Christian as general counsel, Didi Dayton as head of platform and community, and is expanding current chief financial officer Korhan Kivanc’s role to include responsibilities as True’s chief operating officer. “The addition of Aisha to the team and Korhan’s expanded role signify that our business has entered a new phase of strategic growth. Our organization will be even stronger as a result of their expertise,” said Brad Stadler, co-founder and co-CEO. “Didi will help ensure every executive and company we work with benefits from the full strength of True’s global community. Her role will be critical to our ability to seamlessly offer platform products and services to all talent stakeholders in the tech, VC, and PE spaces.”
Ms. Christian will oversee corporate transactions, employment law, risk management, compliance, governance, and M&A activities. A Harvard Law graduate, she has held senior positions at KIPP NYC, CNBC/NBC Universal, Russell Reynolds Associates, and Rent the Runway. Ms. Christian brings corporate experience, professional search experience, and has insight into how the legal department of a scaling organization should operate.
“Her role at True gives the firm’s infrastructure an incredible lift, and allows True to be more proactive in how the firm evaluates contracts, agreements, and investments,” the firm said.
Ms. Dayton comes to True from Wing Venture Capital, where she built a substantial network of CXOs, CISOs, data scientists, and technical leaders and led business development to help advise and grow Wing’s early and growth stage portfolio companies. Prior to her role at Wing, she spent over 25 years building hyper-growth startups and leading GTM revenue, alliances, growth and strategy efforts, and post-M&A integrations, specifically in the cybersecurity industry. “Executives, investors, founders and True clients and candidates will benefit from the network of like-minded leaders Didi aims to build,” the firm said.
Mr. Kivanc will formally provide guidance for and oversight of finance, accounting, IT, data privacy, legal, and corporate real estate. He will also continue his current focus on corporate development, M&A activities, and strategic investments. Mr. Kivanc has more than two decades of financial management experience, most recently as CFO at The Chartis Group.
“Korhan has been instrumental to our strategy and success, and his promotion reflects the reality of his influence on the direction of the firm,” said Joe Riggione, co-founder and co-CEO. “Aisha and Didi are powerhouses in their fields with the entrepreneurial spirit and deep knowledge True needs to continue to disrupt the talent industry. We’re excited to be adding innovative thought partners to our leadership team who will provide action-oriented solutions to help set and meet strategic goals.”
Serving the Private and Public Sectors
Working in both the private and public sectors, True Search has offices throughout the U.S. as well as the EMEA and APAC regions. Since the late 1990s, the firm’s founders have refined their search process with a blend of data-centric insights, relationship-building, and experience to produce a methodology that consistently improves hiring decisions and accelerates growth. Its clients include Jet, Work Front, and Summit Partners. True Search is a subsidiary of True Platform, a global portfolio of human capital services and products for high-growth tech and tech-enabled organizations. True recently placed No. 7 on the Hunt Scanlon Media “Top 50 Recruiters” ranking.
Related: True Search Expands Leadership Team
True recently named Chin Yee Ng as general manager, Asia-Pacific; Darci Galvin as vice president of global client services; William Che as chief information officer; and promoted Andrea Watt to chief people officer. “Each leader brings subject matter expertise to help support the increasing demand from True’s client base,” the search firm said in a statement. True experienced a record growth year in 2021, adding 399 employees to its global team and bringing total office count to 20 worldwide. “As True expands, our leadership needs evolve,” said Mr. Riggione. “Chin Yee, Darci, Will and Andrea will deliver the quality work and uphold the values True is known for as our company matures. Not only do they have proven track records, but they also are culturally aligned with the values of our company.”
Recent Funding
LLR Partners, a private equity firm based in Philadelphia, made an investment in True this past spring. The partnership is aimed at developing and expanding innovation within the talent space.
LLR Partners, which has raised more than $5 billion to fund investments across the technology and healthcare sectors, is said to have bought into True’s mission: to disrupt a stagnant industry in desperate need of tech-driven talent solutions. “They expressed interest and we were compelled to listen,” said Mr. Stadler at the time of the investment, “even though we were not looking for a financial partner. “Through our discussions, we quickly became aligned on how they could operationally and strategically support our long-term vision.”
“We also aligned on our ability to control our own destiny with no pressure to transact,” said Mr. Riggione. “Our collective vision is for True to remain independent and become the industry’s dominant brand. We couldn’t be more excited about partnering with LLR to get there.”
Related: True Search Recruits New CFO for PE-Backed MikMak
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
