Top recruiter leaves AT Kearney, after report of phoney Harvard degree

The firm has been investigating accusations that Shen falsely claimed to have a master's degree from Harvard University and a master's from Tufts University in the US, according to the recruitment industry newswire Hunt-Scanlon.

A spokesman for AT Kearney declined to comment on the Hunt-Scanlon report, saying only that Shen had left the firm and that his successor would be announced soon.

The report also said that Shen's former employers at the Whitney Group, another search firm, had denied claims by him that he had co-founded the firm.

Hunt-Scanlon last week quoted Shen as saying that press releases sent out on his behalf had contained inaccurate academic credentials, through no fault of his.

Shen, a flamboyant figure, was based in the US and spearheaded an expansion of AT Kearney's financial services search operation in Europe. However he then laid off some staff in London at the end of last year.

Other headhunters have suggested that disgruntled staff then began to ask questions about his credentials.

EDS, the global services firm which owns AT Kearney, won a 2001 US business ethics award conferred by the Society of Financial Services Professionals.