ZRG Partners, a Rochelle Park, New Jersey-based global talent advisory firm, has acquired Jamesbeck, a US-based executive recruiter focused on the investment management industry.

Financial details of the July 1 acquisition weren’t disclosed.

Melissa Norris, Jamesbeck co-founder and managing partner, said in an interview that her team will be tasked with establishing and building out an asset management practice for ZRG, with the two firms bringing complementary capabilities to fast-growing market segments such as private equity.

Norris and fellow Jamesbeck co-founder Beth Rustin will become co-heads of asset management search at ZRG.

For example, said Norris, ZRG has a “robust and successful private equity portfolio company team” that works with the companies private equity general partners invest in — the lack of which has left Jamesbeck unable to serve private equity clients that, for example, might be seeking a chief financial officer for one of their portfolio companies.

Likewise, ZRG, without an asset management practice, has not been in a position to help big private equity clients secure needed talent, so it’s very complementary — there is no overlap, just an ability to refer business to one another, she said.

Meanwhile, even a “very formidable, successful executive search boutique” such as Jamesbeck will stand to benefit greatly from ZRG’s technology capabilities at a time when technology is poised to become an ever-greater disruptor in the industry, Norris said. “As a boutique firm, you only have so many resources to apply toward technology enhancements and improvements,” she said.

Larry Hartmann, CEO of ZRG, wasn’t immediately available for comment. But in a news release, Hartmann called the acquisition of Jamesbeck a “game-changer for ZRG.”

“This takes us to a new level in financial services and more specifically investment management and enhances our ability to support private markets firms at both the portfolio company level and the management company level,” Hartmann said.

“Our goal is to be a leading partner in all talent matters for private markets firms globally, and this acquisition is a significant step in that direction,” he said.

In late 2018, private equity firm RFE Investment Partners acquired a controlling stake in ZRG. A ZRG spokesman deferred questions on the potential evolution of ZRG’s ownership structure to Hartmann.

(This story by Douglas Appell originally appeared in Pensions & Investments as “Talent adviser firm ZRG acquires asset management recruiter Jamesbeck.”)