Whitehead Mann poaches TMT recruiters from Heidrick

All three were recently managing partners with rival headhunter Heidrick & Struggles.

In Hong Kong, Mike Goldstone joins Whitehead Mann to serve as sector chairman of TMT. He was with Heidrick for 14 years and most recently ran his own recruiting firm, Goldstone & Co.

Whitehead Mann continues to run its financial services practice in Hong Kong from London. Sources close to the firm said that both Philip Marsden, who is managing partner for the financial services group, and Jonathan Baines, who is sector chairman with a "watching brief" for Asia, have been reluctant to consider being based there.

But in recent months a ravaged TMT sector has encouraged some search firms as well as financial institutions to pick up additional expertise in the sector.

Whitehead Mann has also hired Michel Coucke to co-manage the global TMT practice in London, with Dona Roche-Tarry in an equivalent position in New York. Coucke was managing partner of Heidrick's European communications practice at its Belgian operation, while Roche-Tarry was managing partner of its North American communications practice in its Greenwich office.

Gerard Clery-Melin, Whitehead Mann's chief executive officer, said: "In one step, Whitehead Mann has substantially extended the international reach and depth of the firm's TMT practice."

This is the third round of new hires at Whitehead Mann this year, leaving the senior ranks at Heidrick & Struggles further decimated. In March Jean Allen, a marketing and communications recruiter, left Heidrick in New York to join Whitehead Mann. In Europe, Herbert Bechtel was hired from Heidrick to serve as managing partner of Whitehead Mann's Frankfurt office.

Whitehead Mann also hired Hermann Sendele from rival Spencer Stuart to serve as managing partner in the Munich office when it was newly established earlier this year.