CEO Harvey Nash Albert Ellis

On this day thirty years ago, Harvey Nash was born.

During those three decades we have grown from a small single office in central London, to one of the most successful talent companies in the world, with multiple offices and leading brands stretching across four continents. We are also the most valuable Technology & Executive recruitment and outsourcing business listed on the London Stock Exchange.

And wow, what a journey.

We have survived, in fact we have grown through, four major downturns. From the early 1990s, just two years after we were established, to the dot.com downturn and Sep 11 tragedy of 2001, through to the financial recession of 2008.

We have worked with some of the most fascinating and demanding organisations in the world –  from governments, to huge multinationals through to small start-ups – along the way helping over 100,000 people into a new career.

We have and still are, providing talent to ALL the most successful technology companies of all time – Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft. We have provided Board talent and advisory services to some of the largest global companies in the world and placed digital talent on salaries from $100k through to $1m. Our outsourcing business in Vietnam is the largest foreign investor in the sector and second only to the state owned enterprise.

We have evolved and adapted as the world has changed. During Harvey Nash’s life we have witnessed some of the most amazing events of modern times, from the fall of the Berlin Wall, the invention of the “world wide web” and the smartphone and experienced the impact of social media on our lives.

What are the most game changing events over this time?

• Working with such a talented team, watching you all grow and develop, some of you to the most senior leadership positions in the company
• Creating the world’s largest and most respected IT leadership survey – the CIO Survey, representing almost 5,000 IT leaders across 84 countries
• Diversity and Inclusion, from Inspire through to ARA in the USA and Women in Tech
• Being the first recruitment company in the world to be awarded EY’s National Equality Standard
• The successful expansion of our portfolio of services
• The incredible growth journeys of all our recruitment brands – Harvey Nash UK, Ireland, Scotland, Belgian and Dutch businesses becoming market leaders in their sectors in the last decade
• The spread of outsourcing across Asia, the USA, Australia the UK and Ireland almost entirely organically
• Seeing Sweden’s Alumni search business become the number one in the Nordics expanding all services

This list goes on…..

But I am also very proud, perhaps even more so, of the small things. Like how one of our offices helped a homeless person into a new job, how the ‘cheeky’ question raised by one junior consultant resulted in us working with one of our biggest clients, how attention to detail and going that extra mile has helped us do things that other organisations do not.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our success story. Our cherished clients, our valued candidates and above all our people.

So what of the future?

Well of course no one really knows what the next three decades will bring. Automation? Disruption? New opportunities? We can only guess at the possibilities. But what I am convinced of is that smart people will be the key to any organisation’s success and I will remain as passionate about finding and developing the best people, for clients and for ourselves, as I always have.

Here’s to the next thirty years!

Albert Ellis, CEO Harvey Nash

30 years of Harvey Nash – Watch the video, read our CEO’s message, test your knowledge of 1988 – www.harveynash.com/hn30