Heidrick spent 22 years as the only publicly listed SHREK firm.

Which means we got something extremely rare in executive search.

Actual numbers.

Revenue. Margins. Cyclicality. Growth. Fees. Public filings. The sort of thing search firms usually prefer to discuss in hushed tones over a burgundy carpet.

Now Advent and Corvex have taken it private for $1.3 billion.

Roughly $1 billion of revenue.

Around 13% EBITDA margins.

A 9 to 10x EBITDA multiple.

That multiple is the interesting bit.

You do not pay that for a cute little cyclical advisory shop that lives and dies by whether boards are feeling busy this quarter.

You pay it because executive search behaves more like an annuity than the industry likes to admit.

CEO churn.
Board refreshment.
Succession panic.
Activist pressure.
Private equity turnover.
The occasional chairman discovering LinkedIn and demanding “digital leadership”.

Lovely little recurring revenue machine.

The pitch to clients is judgement, trust and access.

The pitch to private equity is much simpler.

People keep getting fired.

And someone has to invoice for the replacement.