Ray & Berndtson files for bankruptcy
Some of its assets are to be bought by AT Kearney Executive Search, the headhunting division of the management consulting firm, which is itself a subsidiary of global services firm EDS.
Paul Ray, head of Ray & Berndtson, is expected to join employment at AT Kearney, as are unspecified "key partners and staff" at eight of Ray & Berndtson's US offices.
However, in Europe search firms with the Ray & Berndtson name operate as separate corporate entities - in France, Germany, Spain and Sweden. Confusingly, in the UK, a merger between search firm Odgers International and Ray & Berndtson created a financial services search firm branded as Odgers Ray & Berndtson.
Under the leadership of veteran headhunter Richard Boggis-Rolfe, the London-based firm has now bought exclusivity of the use of the name 'Ray & Berndtson' in the US, Japan, the UK and Ireland.
Boggis-Rolfe said: "We see this as a great opportunity. Although we looked at the same sort of deal AT Kearney now appears to have done, we decided against it."
After several rounds of redundancies at Ray & Berndtson, Paul Ray's brother, Breck Ray, left in May with four fellow recruiters to set up a boutique of his own in Fort Worth, Texas, the headquarters of the original Ray & Berndtson.
Headhunters close to Ray & Berndtson suggest that one of the fundamental problems there was a ballooning cost base and rash bonus commitments to consultants.
