HeadFirst Group and Impellam Group join forces

LONDON, 21^st MARCH 2024: HeadFirst Group and Impellam Group today announced that they have joined forces to become one of the world’s leading STEM talent and Managed Service Providers with a distinctive HR tech platform for professionals. The expanded group has €8 billion spend under management, 2,100 expert colleagues, and over 75,000 professionals serving customers across the globe.

This strategic step provides customers with a unique, truly global tech and talent solution to ensure they stay at the forefront of their industry. The deal has created an unparalleled force in digital, IT, data, life sciences, clinical and engineering talent and leaves the expanded group well-placed to drive market beating growth and to deliver increased value for colleagues, customers, professionals, suppliers, and shareholders.  

Han Kolff, chairman of the Board, commented: "We are proud to have brought industry leaders HeadFirst and Impellam together. As well as vast geographic reach, our expanded group combines world-class expertise and market-leading tech, providing customers with mission critical talent, hereby creating a unique platform for growth in a growing market. I am confident HeadFirst and Impellam will power the next world of work together.”

Julia Robertson, CEO of Impellam and the enlarged group, said: “We have an exciting future ahead of us. In a world where talent and tech must come together to build better businesses, we will collaborate to leverage the combined strength and capability of our market-leading brands, our people, and our distinctive technology. Our complementary cultures and our focus on our customers’ needs will ensure we deliver market-leading, digitally enabled, and differentiated solutions to our customers across the world.”

Experienced team driving growth agenda

Leading the future success and growth of the combined business, the Board of the new group includes: Han Kolff, non-executive chairman, Julia Robertson, group CEO, Tim Briant, group CFO, Marion van Happen, CEO of HeadFirst Group, as well as non-executive directors and co-founders Koen Bekkering and Boyd Sleeman. 

There will be no immediate changes to the day-to-day operations of Impellam Group and HeadFirst Group. Impellam and HeadFirst will continue to deliver industry-leading solutions to customers, suppliers and professionals.  

Following the completion of the transaction, Lord Ashcroft, the former majority shareholder of Impellam Group will serve as non-executive director on the board.

About HeadFirst Group

HeadFirst Group is a leading, international HR-tech service provider and the largest platform for professionals in the Benelux, operating across fifteen European countries. The organisation offers a wide range of HR solutions, such as Managed Service Providing, Recruitment Process Outsourcing, IT Sourcing & Recruitment and HR consultancy. More than twenty-five thousand professionals work for over five hundred customers in Europe, through which HeadFirst Group realises an annual gross revenue in 2023 of over two and a half billion euros. The main brands of HeadFirst Group are MSP (including intermediary services) labels HeadFirst, Between and Staffing Management Services, RPO and recruitment specialist Sterksen, IT talent sourcer StarApple, and Belgian HR-tech company ProUnity.

For more information about HeadFirst Group: www.headfirst.group.

About Impellam Group

Impellam is a connected group providing global workforce and STEM talent solutions. Our 1700 people and market leading brands work across a broad spectrum of industries and job categories throughout North America, the UK and Europe and Asia Pac. Our award-winning Global Managed Services provide a diverse range of digitally enabled, multi-disciplinary workforce solutions to organisations. We are upper quadrant industry leaders in Managed Service Provision and Services Procurement, and IT. Our STEM businesses are specialists in recruiting and engaging talent in the key growth markets of technology, digital, data analytics, science, clinical and engineering and work with customers across all sectors and sizes. We believe in the power of work. Through the power of work, we build better businesses and help people lead more fulfilling lives.

Our brands include: Comensura, Guidant Global, SRG, Lorien, Carbon60 and Bartech.

For more information about Impellam Group: www.impellam.com.

Note to editors

Please contact Bart van der Geest, Head of Marketing & Communication at HeadFirst Group, on +31(0)6 – 15 89 95 74 or bart.vandergeest@headfirst.group or Kirsty Tranter, Global Head of Communications at Impellam Group, on kirstytranter@impellam.com.