True Search Launches Gaming, Media & Entertainment Practice
October 26, 2020 – Haddonfield, NJ-based executive recruitment firm True Search has launched a new practice dedicated to the growing gaming, media and entertainment industry. “Our team’s deep heritage within the industry, coupled with our ability to find talent that enables growth in rapidly evolving creative sectors, made our global launch of the gaming, media and entertainment practice a natural next step,” said Joe Riggione, co-CEO of True Search.
The search firm said that the gaming, media and entertainment space has experienced explosive growth over the last few years, attracting tens of billions in new investment with technology-fueled creativity driving new business models and cultivating a new wave of talent. True’s search team has worked with some of the most active players in the space including Dots, Discord, Epidemic Sound and FanDuel.
Building teams with multi-disciplinary expertise has become a condition of success for companies in the growing gaming, media and entertainment market, True Search said. The firm has partnerships with brands such as Activision, King, Buzzfeed and Discovery Communications.
True’s sector specialists include: partners Jenn DeCastro and Thor Bucy in New York; Matt Skiba in Los Angeles; Yoko Senga in San Francisco; Aaron Walker in Philadelphia; Dan Hampton in Toronto; Cosmo Lush, Gerard Miles and Duncan Evemy in London; Will Bruce in Stockholm; Gert Stuerzebecher and Angela Grammatikos in Berlin; and Phil Diamond in Singapore.
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 Talent Advisory, a global portfolio of human capital services and products for high-growth tech and tech-enabled organizations.
Recent Expansion
In September, True expanded with a new official practice dedicated to private equity firms and their portfolio companies. The formation of True’s private equity practice is expected to bring greater business insights, executive talent networks and collective expertise to PE brands such as Warburg Pincus, Vista Equity, JMI Equity, Summit Partners, Susquehanna Growth Equity, L Catterton and others.
“Private equity is a $3 trillion industry that requires not only a mastery of knowledge of the space itself, but also a tailored outlook and a passion for creating value,” said Mr. Riggione. “We’ve assembled an exceptional team of dedicated experts who will strengthen the existing strategic partnerships with our clients and candidates. This natural progression for us also enables us to reach even more firms seeking growth opportunities and quality executives to lead the charge,” he said.
True also recently launched an edtech practice to support the rapidly evolving world of technology-supported education. True’s edtech specialists include: partners Matt Engel in Boston, Alex Gold in Singapore, Kevin Griffiths in Sydney, Alex Klein in Los Angeles, Kathleen Scheld in New York, Steve Tutelman in Philadelphia and Tessa Wehausen in San Francisco.
AboveBoard Launched to Provide Recruiting Professionals With More Inclusive Pool of Candidates
True Search has launched a new executive hiring platform, AboveBoard. True co-founded AboveBoard with the goal of making executive search more accessible, efficient and equitable for its members and the companies who seek them. The diversity-focused startup says it will bring an innovative, transparent solution to the need to bring more women and executives of color to leadership roles.
In July, True expanded its consumer practice with the addition of two partners: Diane Lavietes, New York beauty, fashion and lifestyle expert, and Matt Skiba, former head of executive recruiting at Snap. Operating globally from 15 offices, True’s consumer practice works with the most innovative consumer-facing brands within beauty, fashion, lifestyle, new retail, consumer digital, health, wellness and foodtech.
Most recently, Ms. Lavietes served as head of Odgers Berndtson’s consumer retail board in the U.S., where she worked with clients such as L’Oreal, Unilever, Shiseido, Lixil (Grohe and American Standard) and Sakura Art Products. Mr. Skiba joins True from Snap, where he was the head of global executive recruiting. He has completed 67 executive level and strategic searches globally, in tandem with leading Snap’s executive recruiting initiatives.
“Today’s companies must continuously find ways to evolve, especially in an environment that requires creative thinking to stay competitive,” Mr. Riggione said. “Our ability to place the talent that drives ‘what’s next’ is core to True’s service, and having Diane and Matt join the team further enhances our ability to keep consumer-focused companies moving forward.”
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media