Professional Search history

According to James H. Kennedy, publisher of Executive Recruiter News, the nation’s executive search companies now number 1,500, up from 1,000 in 1980, and earn fees of $2 billion a year, double the 1980 figure.”

Fueled in part by that urgency, in 1982 AERC changed its name. “Under the auspices of President John Richmond, in 1982 the organization voted to change its name from the Association of Executive Recruiting Consultants to the Association of Executive Search Consultants.

According to a New York Times article about Gerard Roche, “CEOs Are His Nectar” published in 1987, the demand for executive search services was “fed by the turmoil in executive ranks occasioned by the spate of corporate mergers and acquisitions.

In 1994 AESC’s Board of Directors convened a Special Task Force on Diversity to identify ways by which member firms could further increase the diversity of their professional staffs.

The corporate offices were moved to the current location at 2414-2 Lakeview Drive, Suite 2 in 2000.

In a 2004 AESC statement Peter Felix, then-president of AESC, said: “AESC acts as the official representative of the industry to legislative bodies, including the US Government and the European Commission.

Noelle Carver has been a freelance writer since 2009, with work published in "SSYK" and "The Wolf," two U.K. literary journals.

In 2013, it was revealed that many of the largest internet companies, from Microsoft to Google, were involved in monitoring communications between the NSA and foreign nationals.

In recognition of the expanding role of member firms AESC embraced leadership consulting in its identity, and in 2014 changed the name of the organization to the Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants.

In 2015, Max Rosett allegedly scored a job at Google under somewhat suspicious circumstances.

Martin Poduska, June 21, 2017 9 min read