ZRG Partners Fastest Growing Search Firm In the Americas
April 11, 2017 – ZRG Partners posted revenues in its Americas region of $18.6 million last year, a 67 percent rise and a large enough increase to make it the fastest growing search firm in the region, according to the latest statistics report soon to be released from Hunt Scanlon Media. ZRG currently has 42 consultants across 14 offices global offices, with global revenues of $21 million.
ZRG has been expanding its consultant ranks and sector specializations over the last several years and now provides human capital services to a number of key markets, including financial services, aerospace & defense, consumer, cybersecurity & defense / intelligence, education, healthcare & life sciences, industrial, non-profit, private equity & venture capital, professional services, and technology. The firm has been leveraging a capital infusion completed in 2015 that provided expansion funding to fuel its growth.
Hitting Metrics and Liquidity Goals
“This was a great year for us as we executed year two of our growth plans with our shareholders,” said CEO Larry Hartmann. “We are pleased to have not only achieved our growth goals, which required significant investment, but also maintained our profitability metrics and liquidity goals.” He said the firm ended the year without any debt and with resources in place to drive continued growth.
“While life sciences and healthcare has been the biggest sector for ZRG the past few years, our industrial practice has now grown to equal size,” said Mr. Hartmann. Additionally, he said, ZRG’s private equity team has shown stellar growth servicing the unique needs of middle market PE firms and their portfolio companies. “ZRG will continue to grow and invest in the consumer, financials services and technology areas in the coming years,” he noted.
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The positioning of ZRG Partners as a serious alternative to the Big Five with a global footprint and data driven approach to the search business, he noted, “continues to resonate with clients as well as search professionals who crave a client focused platform to do great search work.”
Looking ahead, he said ZRG will continue to seek 30 percent annual growth. “Hires made in 2016 and the investments made into expanded business lines will provide the platform for our core areas to continue to post double digit growth rates,” Mr. Hartmann said. “Our strategy for continuing our growth includes growing our existing client relationships with broader solutions, continuing to hire search professionals who seek a global platform solution and considering strategic acquisitions in geographies and verticals that fit our long term strategy.”
Highlights From 2016 Include:
- In November, the firm named Sharon Stein as a managing director in its financial services, private equity and consumer recruiting practices. She works from the firm’s New York office. Ms. Stein has served clients across a broad range of sectors including, private equity, financial services, technology, consumer packaged goods, hospitality, and retail. For the past 10 years she has supported her clients as the founder and president of Sagamore, NA, a search firm that recruits C-suite executives and leaders in general management, marketing and strategy.
- ZRG recently added Philipp Sturm as a managing director and country head of Germany. He works out of the firm’s office in Frankfurt and will also serve as a member of the its global industrial practice. Mr. Sturm brings a decade plus of solid and relevant executive search experience to ZRG. Prior to joining the firm, he worked at Korn Ferry in its global industrial practice.
- In September, the firm named John McLean as a managing director in its global life sciences search practice with the acquisition of certain assets of Illinois-based consulting practice McLean Consulting. Mr. McLean, who works out of ZRG’s Chicago office, has 14 years of executive search experience, served several recruiting firms, including Witt/Kieffer, DHR International and Johnson & Johnson before founding his own practice. ZRG also appointed Samantha Foster as a managing director and member of the firm’s global industrial practice. She leads the firm’s efforts in the aerospace & defense vertical, where she has spent more than 12 years supporting clients globally.
- The firm added Paul Stefunek to its roster in 2016 as a managing director. He supports the firm’s technology practice and serve as a member of the firm’s industrial and private equity team. Previously, he was a partner with DHR International and before that was chairman and managing partner of paul-lawrence associates.
- ZRG also named Alexander Spielberg as a managing director and member of its global industrial and life sciences practice in its Frankfurt, Germany office. Mr. Spielberg previously spent six years with Korn Ferry in its global industrial search practice and most recently was a partner at European boutique search firm Exgeniam Executive Search Personalberatung KG supporting clients in the life sciences and industrial sectors;
- At the start of 2016, ZRG established a footprint in Brazil with the addition of Denys Monteiro as chief executive officer. He was most recently CEO of Fesa, Brazil’s largest independent executive search firm where he worked for 18 years. Joining Mr. Monteiro from Fesa are: Aldo Bergamasco, head of the firm’s consumer goods practice; Rodrigo Byrro, a head of the practice of TMT (technology, media and telecommunications); Geraldo Teixeira, head of the firm’s insurance practice and a member of ZRG’s financial services and industrial practices; Leonardo Ribeiro, head of the firm’s education and healthcare practices and a member of the firm’s life sciences, consumer and TMT practices; and Aline Lex, who will serve as head of financial services and private equity in São Paulo.
Contributed by Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor, Hunt Scanlon Media
