New Budapest Office

December 29, 2008: While many headhunters are closing their doors due to lack of recruiting, a few headhunters are actually expanding. These optimistic headhunters are responding to the changing needs of employers hit hard by the current recession.

Smart employers are taking advantage of the slow economy. Among their strategies are the following recession tactics:

Advertise more aggressively while competitors are afraid to advertise.
Replace marketing executives with financial executives who can tighten the financial belt.
Hire more “interim” (also called “contract”) employees who specialize in turnarounds.

For the second and third choices, these smart employers need help from headhunters who are focused on meeting these two needs (financial executives and interim executives).

Being client-centric, one optimistic headhunting organization, Cornerstone International Group, is expanding its capacity in selective areas of the world. For instance, Cornerstone has recently added offices in Edinburgh, Scotland (retained executive search), and a third office in Mexico City, Mexico (turn-key compensation & benefits). Soon, they plan to announce multiple new offices in the U.S. and Canada, plus new offices throughout Eastern Europe.

Following a careful screening process (based on multiple client firm recommendations), Cornerstone has just added a new recruiting office, EastEuroCo, in Budapest, Hungary.

EastEuroCo Ltd., owned and managed by its founder, Sándor Söpkéz , has joined Cornerstone International Group, which is one of the top ten retained search organizations in the world. EastEuroCo will handle client assignments based in CEE (Central & Eastern Europe) that focus on Hungary, as well as other locations in Central and Eastern Europe where the firm’s expertise is needed by Hungarian client firms.

From its world headquarters in Los Angeles, Cornerstone’s Chairman and CEO, William Guy, stated “EastEuroCo brings to Cornerstone a long standing competence in Central Europe.”

“EastEuroCo is one of the first pioneers in the CEE arena that brings relevant recruiting expertise, including both financial executives and interim executives.” Recruiting services are offered in several languages including German and English. “The addition of EastEuroCo to Cornerstone International Group will help us expand our market to include additional clients, both in CEE and elsewhere in the world,” Guy added.

According to Sándor Söpkéz, “For over 18 years we have been working closely with international client organizations from various industries including IT, financial services and banking, FMCG, energy, construction, telecommunications, production, automotive, etc.” Cornerstone will allow EastEuroCo to better serve its clients globally. Cornerstone International Group is the world’s fourth largest retained Search organization with approximately 100 offices strategically located in virtually every major geographic market around the globe.

With his background in business economics, Sándor Söpkéz established his Hungarian firm in 1991, and since then has been recognized as a leader via a rigorously structured and disciplined approach to executive search at executive and middle management levels, as well as high-impact individual contributors, whether permanent or interim.

In addition to providing executive search services across a wide variety of sectors, EastEuroCo has a track record of successful consulting assignments including post-merger work force integration, HR audits, and executive coaching.

Marko Mlakar, Managing Partner of EastEuroCo’s sister office in Slovenia, explained, “We are proud to have been selected by Cornerstone International Group as a qualified member of a world class organization. It is quite the change for us to have been put through a rigorous selection process, which includes multiple client references, a pre-requisite for joining Cornerstone. Joining the group is, therefore, very meaningful to us as it validates our rightful place in the global search community.”