Lincoln, our Paris-based talent representation and management consultancy partner, has acquired a majority stake in Cooper Fitch, the largest privately-owned search firm in the Middle East.

Cooper Fitch is based in Dubai and will continue to operate in the region under its current brand as part of the acquisition while also gaining additional flexibility and resources to accelerate the company’s growth regionally.

"Lincoln already operates in 8 countries in Europe and Asia. The acquisition of Cooper Fitch - a leader company in the United Arab Emirates - strengthens our international presence and ability to serve international companies.

The Middle East region is becoming increasingly strategic with the deployment of numerous regional headquarters, the acceleration of intra-regional trade and a movement of talent from the Asian hubs, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore to Dubai.

Cooper Fitch is ahead of the curve on talent mobility, and their expertise will allow us to offer more opportunities to talented members of the Lincoln community.”

Gwenael Perrot, CEO of Lincoln

"The increasing flow of investment in the region is acting as a magnet for worldwide talent. This partnership provides new opportunities and additional resources to accelerate our expansion plans in the Middle East and Europe while maintaining our DNA”.

Trefor Murphy, founder and CEO of Cooper Fitch

“We keep on executing our growth plan. With this new partnership, we enter new geography for The Talent Club while we increase the number of international opportunities for our talents to thrive. We proudly welcome Trefor and his team to our exciting journey“.

Jerome Caille, Chairman of The Talent Club

About Lincoln:

Founded in 1992 in Paris, Lincoln is a leading provider of Talent Management and Talent Representation services and has been identified as a key player in the Executive Search industry. Lincoln brings together Talent Acquisition - Executive Search and Executive Interim Management - and Talent Development - Leadership Advisory and Outplacement, within specialised industry practices. With a presence in Europe and Asia, Lincoln supports leaders and managers throughout their professional lives.

About Cooper Fitch:

The brand was created following Trefor Murphy's acquisition of Morgan McKinely's Middle East business. The €6m turnover firm by the end of 2021 offers a heritage of expertise and relationships in the region, operating since 1997. Cooper Fitch provides recruitment, executive search, HR consulting and recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) services to thousands of organisations in the Gulf. As a market leader, they provide world-class recruitment and HR consulting services.

Grass is Green, the Austrian based football agency, becomes part of the You First family. The acquisition enables You First to establish a solid presence in the German Market, thus further expanding the reach and options for its represented players.

"We keep on executing on our ambition to become one of the top three players in football representation worldwide. Grass is Green provides not only more geographical reach to You First but also shares and enhances our vision on how to deliver best-in-class service to our clients”.

Juan Aísa, CEO, You First

New partnership expands client services with enhanced data and insights capabilities in the sports and entertainment industries.

Madrid, Spain [9 February 2022] – Leading global sports & entertainment holding group of agencies You First is pleased to announce it has acquired a majority stake in UK based Goodform Ltd. The acquisition provides You First with a strong position in the UK market as well as leading data and insight capabilities that strengthen its range of services and brings significant opportunities globally with the combining of the two organisations. This move will enable Goodform to apply its market leading Fan Insight approach to wider global markets, as well as expanding its data and insights work into global football and basketball and other talent management. 

Established in 2002, Goodform is one of the UK's longest established independent sports marketing agencies.  Specialising in data and insight, the award-winning agency’s expertise in both data and research services provides their clients with a holistic audience view that informs both strategy and omni-channel marketing, driving better engagement and audience growth on a global scale. ‘Sportswise’, Goodform’s Customer Data Platform, has become an essential product, allowing its clients to easily analyse and understand their audience across multiple channels and touch points. 

Goodform’s extensive experience spans rights holders, governing bodies and major international events, including Formula 1, NBA, UK Athletics, Six Nations, Formula E, Watford FC, British & Irish Lions and the EFL [English Football League] amongst many others. Their work includes F1 Fan Voice, Formula 1’s award-winning always-on global research community with over 100,000 members from over 100 different countries, providing insights that have informed key decisions at speed and utilised across Formula 1’s business.  Likewise, Goodform’s audience insight and engagement expertise for EFL, as their retained CRM & Data agency for the past 7 years, has played a key role in the growth of iFollow, the EFL’s OTT product, that generated over £42m in revenue for EFL Clubs during the 2020/21 season.

You First is a global talent management, brand services and content marketing ecosystem of agencies in the sports and entertainment industries. Operating in 14 countries the agency manages the careers of more than a thousand talents and offer end-to-end integrated brand services and innovative solutions in digital assets, consulting, sponsorship, creativity, events, content production and influencer marketing to 160 brands through 21 offices worldwide. The addition of Goodform to the existing You First footprint provides the agency with its first office presence in the UK – a market where it currently already provides services to brands along with player representation services. Goodform, which will continue to be led by its existing managing director Alison Dalrymple, is at the forefront of its sector, in part by the development of in-demand products; an example being its ‘Sports Fan Panel’- which allows organisations to gain insights from sports fans and comprises 10,000 sports fans, representing 50 different sports and providing insights on 60 topics that shape decisions within sport.

“Alison Dalrymple and the team at Goodform have carved out a unique place for themselves in the UK & global sports market, providing rights holders and others with metrics and data that makes a significant difference to their engagement with fans, sponsors and other stakeholders. Having this new skill set within You First will provide not only new business opportunities, but also additional services that can be offered to existing clients – which is very exciting. We look forward to partnering with Alison and the very talented team at Goodform”.

Juan Aísa, CEO, You First

“We are thrilled to become part of such a successful global agency; number 1 in Spain, number 10 in Europe and in the top 20 most valuable sports agencies in the world*. We share the same work ethic and philosophies and a huge passion for sport, with the focus on client goals and always delivering excellent service. The further growth opportunities this partnership presents are already evident with the two agencies already coming together to provide services to a major sports team and benefiting from this new relationship. We are extremely excited by what lies ahead”.

Alison Dalrymple, Managing Director, Goodform

“Goodform’s expertise in data and insights – when combined with You First’s extensive knowledge of brands – will enhance our added value proposal and the decision-making process for brands in selecting the right business, platforms and communication proposals in the sponsorship and entertainment ecosystem. Data & Insights are also key in the activation and follow up. We will benefit greatly from Goodform’s ability to use its sophisticated technology to not only support rights-holders and properties, but also to bring solutions to brands and to individual talents that You First works with globally”.

David Brabender, Managing Director, Global Brand Services, You First

ABOUT YOU FIRST

You First is a global talent management, brand services and content marketing holding group of agencies in the Sports and Entertainment industries. Founded in 2002, it operates in 14 countries through 21 offices, leveraging a powerful combination of global reach and solid knowledge of each local market.

More than a thousand talents in Sports and Entertainment trust You First. The agency manages the careers of more than 400 basketball players, 300 football players, 70 esports talents, and up to 100 talents in media. These include NBA and European League players such as Ja Morant, Serge Ibaka and Walter Tavares amongst others; football players such as Gerard Moreno, Alexia Putellas and Fabián Ruiz; athletes from other disciplines such as Ona Carbonell and Damián Quintero; esports talents, including ElMiilloR or Kapo013 and other lifestyle talents and content creators from the entertainment industry.

You First also supports brands on an end-to-end integrated brand services and innovative solutions in digital assets, consulting, sponsorship, creativity, events, content production, and influencer marketing to more than 160 brands worldwide.

You First is formed by professionals with a deep team spirit, committed to conquering daily challenges, and loyal to their clients' interests. Always by their side. Always on their side.

ABOUT GOODFORM

Established in the UK in 2002, Goodform is one of the UK's longest established independent sports data and insight agencies. The award-winning agency’s expertise in both data and research enable their clients to gain a deeper understanding of current and potential fans, inform strategy and drive global audience growth - with extensive experience in supporting rights holders, governing bodies and major international events. Goodform clients and experience includes Formula 1, UK Athletics, Six Nations, Formula E, Watford FC, British & Irish Lions, EFL [English Football League], WRC (World Rally Championship), Rugby League World Cup 2021 and Commonwealth Games Birmingham 2022, amongst many others.   

*Forbes - List of the World’s Most Valuable Sports Agencies

Dear Partners of the Talent Club,

We are sad to announce that Philippe Foriel Destezet passed away (too fast and too soon) on June 27th in a hospital in Paris. Philippe was 85.

Philippe was not only our key Partner in The Talent Club Family for 2 years ( with You First Sports, Between Technologies, Lincoln Executive Search, The Bozz, Sport Carriere, Hopla Software, GammaUX, Digital Jobs, The Influencer, Seven, Tandem, Eventologies, Knot, United Heroes) as our major Investor.

He was our point of reference for the last 30 years as the exceptionally successful and inclusive entrepreneur able to create in 30 years the worldwide Leader in employment services (25 Billion Sales, 5000 offices in 65 countries, Listed in New York, Paris and Zurich), ranging from

• temporary work services to permanent placement,
• engineering to IT consulting
• outplacement to career management services,

Philippe always behaved with a perfect education and a smile for everyone, exporting enthusiasm and importing stress.

Philippe started in 1964 in Lyon under the ECCO brand with a small agency composed of a Branch Manager (himself as a sales developer) and a small team to guarantee agility and quality of service (recruitment manager & administration manager).

Thanks to his drive, ECCO became the leader in France and then Philippe started to conquer the world: Belgium, Switzerland, UK, Canada, South East Asia. USA, Japan, Australia, South Africa…

But the most successful countries outside France (great success thanks to his partner Philippe Beauviala), were Italy and Spain in terms of growth and profitability: this was indeed a very special period as professionals for many of us, with the drive of Philippe Marcel as Head of Europe and us running behind!

• Spain = >50,000 people at work daily & Adecco #1. From 0 to 1 B Sales (1990/2000)
• Italy= >50,000 people at work daily & Adecco #1. From 0 to 1 B sales (1997/2001)

In 1996, ECCO merged with ADIA and Philippe created the #1 globally (where Miguel acted as Head of Southern Europe and Latin America Board Member, Luis as Head of Marketing & Sales, Franco as Head of Technology and Innovation, Juan as Intern, Sandra as first CFO Spain and myself as Branch/Regional Manager - Country Manager Italy& CEO from 1990 to 2005). Fx Bellon was also a great part of the growth race and is today present in TTC.

Miguel, Franco, Luis, Sandra and I had the honor to work at Adecco for and with him and we were always inspired by Philippe s values:

• Taste for growth thanks to commercial exemplarity from each Leader and cellular division growth model that allowed extra sales before investing into extra costs.
• Focus on quality of service for companies and high satisfaction for Talents thanks to full responsibility given to small local teams, hence no burocracy.
• Work by objectives and reward by results : thanks high investments in best-in-class education, long term incentives on value creation and internal promotion at accelerated pace, hence total alignment of interests.
• Right to make mistakes but obligation to act : With Philippe, we always felt we were entrepreneurs

Philippe´s vision, values and trust in people will be always in our heart and a model (and a soul) for The Talent Club and for us as human beings.

Let's have all together a collective thought for Philippe – a great entrepreneur and a great person - and his 4 four children.

Jerome Caille, CEO of The Talent Club

GammaUX is a Barcelona-based consulting firm specialised in user experience (UX) and interface design (UI).

The acquisition emphasizes The Talent Club commitment to grow its digital talent arm, as demand associated to digital transformation accelerates.

Founded in 2015 by David Rodríguez and Edgar Aznar, GammaUX accumulates in its two managing partners almost two decades of experience in UX-UI, placing users at the center of the creative process and facilitating the encounter between the "machine" and the person who must use it to be efficient and productive, providing the best user experience.

GammaUX has a diversified portfolio of clients in key sectors such as banking, pharmaceuticals, media & telco, sports, industry and retail, covering the entire UX/UI value chain to provide end-to-end projects thanks to the contribution of top-level talent throughout the process. 

The pandemic has favored the international development of GammaUX, with new projects in France, Germany, the United States and Singapore.

"The investment of The Talent Club as our key business partner will allow GammaUX to address an ambitious five-year strategic plan that includes its international expansion and will open up a horizon of high-value career opportunities for our teams."

Edgar Aznar, Co-founder and CEO, GammaUX

The transaction is carried out through Between Technology, the leading technology services company acquired by The Talent Club in November 2019.

“With GammaUX's entry into The Talent Club we position ourselves as experts in UX / UI as we provide more opportunities for success and professional development to our increasing number of digital talents”

Pau Guarro, CEO, Between Technology

HOPLA! Software is a specialist in the provision of services through Open Source technologies and accompanies the digital transformation of companies in the modernisation and upgrading of their applications and infrastructures, both on-premise and cloud-based.

As a leader in the adoption and implementation of innovative technologies based on container-centric management environments, HOPLA! Software currently manages more than 100 clients in Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Italy, Portugal, Bolivia and Chile.

"With The Talent Club and together with BETWEEN Technology, we increase the speed of our national and international roll-out and expand our range of services. We have as of today a growing number of important customers so as to be ambitious in this respect. We now have the best partners to accelerate on this journey."

Juan Zamora, Managing Director, HOPLA! Software

"With the addition back in March of Digital Jobs in France, a company specialized in the search of senior executives with a digital profile, and HOPLA! Software in Spain, we are taking an important step forward in our strategy to represent the best digital talent. The recent pandemic has accelerated what was already one of the major trends in the market and at The Talent Club we are expanding our capacity to respond to the needs of companies and our talents in accompanying them in their professional careers. We follow this market very closely and we are attentive to new investment opportunities."

Jérôme Caille, CEO, The Talent Club

The Talent Club adds a new member to its talent platform after completing the acquisition by Lincoln , its partner in the Leaders & Experts practice, of a majority stake in Digital Jobs, the Paris-based executive search company specialized in digital talent management.   

In a changing environment where digital transformation represents a huge opportunity for companies to remain succesful, the combination of forces between Lincoln and Digital Jobs will enable to better support companies in their growth and the development of their technological innovations, both in France and internationally, by offering Talents a real career accelerator.

This alliance opens up new perspectives for the Talents represented by Digital Jobs, both through the development of its  international presence and the diversification of their know-how with the Leadership Advisory expertise at Lincoln.

"Lincoln will allow us to develop our international presence and be closer to our clients when they are looking for local talent. By joining Lincoln and The Talent Club , we benefit from the power of their tools and highly qualified resources. Lincoln’s strong presence in Asia and Europe and its expertise in solutions complementary to executive search, notably executive coaching and assessment, will definitely accelerate our growth.  We are thus participating in the creation of an international leader in talent representation with partners who share our values."

Marie Canzano, Founder, Digital Jobs

"We are delighted to welcome Digital Jobs to the Lincoln ecosystem as well as to The Talent Club family. Today more than ever, Talents with expertise in digital and data issues are essential to ensure the growth and economic resilience of organisations. This is what digital transformation is all about for our clients. Thanks to the specialized and recognized expertise of Digital Jobs, we will be helping our Talents to thrive in the challenging professional journeys that digitalization is creating in all companies around the world."

Gwenaël Perrot, Managing Director, Lincoln

The deal creates Spain's leading talent management and content marketing group with guaranteed performance in the sports and entertainment industry.

• Allowing You First Sports to enhance its capabilities in creativity, production, distribution, measurement and data, with exclusive, direct and immediate access to more than a thousand talents in sport, esports, film, television and digital creation.

• Strengthens You First Sports position in the entertainment sector and expands its portfolio with new talent, offering strong expertise in the management, development, promotion and monetisation of its clients' careers.

• The deal contributes to the strategic objectives of the Spanish multinational - present in 12 countries and 4 continents - based on the growth of its client portfolio and commitment to provide greater added value to the talents and brands that it partners with.

You First Sports (YFS), the Spanish sports and entertainment multinational for brands and talent, has completed the acquisition of The Influencer Group (TIG).  The deal allows You First Sports to become the leading content marketing group in Spain with guaranteed performance and exclusive, direct and immediate access to more than 1,000 talents in sports, esports, film, television and digital creation.

With this acquisition, the company strengthens its position in the entertainment sector and enhances its capabilities in creativity, production, distribution, measurement and data of content, reinforcing its digital commitment and providing solutions that are both effective and measurable for brand communications.

The integration of The Influencer Group also means the incorporation into the You First talent portfolio of such outstanding profiles as Cristina Pedroche, Lorena Castell, Jorge Cremades, Susi Caramelo, Marta Riumbau, Dani Mateo and Marta Torné, with an audience of more than 50 million on social media. These talents now combine with other big names in sport, esports and/or entertainment that are represented by You First Sports and that include Ja Morant, Willy Hernangómez, Fabián Ruiz, Mariano Díaz, Julio Maldonado "Maldini", Míster Chip, Ona Carbonell, ElmiilloR and Rubik, amongst others.

This deal is in line with the strategic objectives of the Spanish multinational - present in 12 countries and 4 continents - based on the growth of its client portfolio, the professionalisation of the sector it operates in and the improvement of its capabilities to provide greater added value to talents and brands.

You First Sports, founded in 2002 and ranked 19th in the Forbes list of the ‘World’s Most Valuable Sport Agencies 2020’, brings strong expertise in the management, development, promotion and monetisation of its clients' careers, as well as an extensive international network of 21 offices in 12 countries and proven experience in the provision of legal, financial and communication services, amongst other areas. In addition to its proven effectiveness in branded content and influencer marketing, You First Sports now has the ability to provide accurate measurement and guaranteed results that deliver an assured ROI. The company already has a powerful production capacity with its own audiovisual production company and a distribution network that partners with new digital channels to provide a high level of support to clients.

"The acquisition of The Influencer Group allows us to lead the influencer and content marketing sector in the field of sports and entertainment in Spain. Our goal is to continue professionalising this sector and improve our capabilities for both brands and talent. We are adding to the Group teams with highly qualified people from different fields, and who all share the same vision of growth."

David Brabender, Managing Director, You First Marketing

"Thanks to our new partner, we will be able to focus further on content marketing, creativity and performance and subsequently enhance our unique service for advertisers. In addition, our digital talent and entertainment divisions - led by María Vega and María Acosta, under the direction of our new partner - will be able to offer our unique service to advertisers."

Javier Sabata, Managing Director, The Influencer Group

The Bozz is a brand-new start-up created in September 2020 by The Talent Club with Alexis Remacle (former General Manager – Accent Jobs) as its Chief Executive Officer. Based in Belgium, the company positions itself as a real agent for both technical and office talents. Specialized in highly skilled and experienced profiles, The Bozz aims to act as a career-booster for the talents it represents.

"The market is becoming more and more competitive and we noticed that career changes and recruitment processes are often perceived by talents as long and painful. We aim at differentiating by providing a unique level of service to them."

Alexis Remacle, CEO and Co-founder of The Bozz

To help top talents finding the best job opportunities, The Bozz offers an individual approach as an unprecedented experience to talents.

"We discuss with our talents to target their needs and expectations, proactively approach companies for them, coach them and accompany them to interviews to maximize their chances to get their dream job."

Alexis Remacle, CEO and Co-founder of The Bozz

In addition, The Bozz also commits to give immediate feedback and follow-up to make sure talents benefit from the best recruitment experience.

"The Belgian recruitment market is extremely competitive as demand exceeds supply in many industries and job categories. It is only by looking to candidates as our real customers, with all of its implications at service level, that we can create a new experience that fulfills their expectations. This is at the very heart of The Talent Club vision and purpose and we firmly believe in The Bozz to become an undisputed leader in such a challenging market…"

Jérôme Caille, CEO of The Talent Club

To know more about The Bozz, visit www.thebozz.be

Sportcarriere is a recruitment & consulting company solely focused on sports & entertainment activities . Its profound knowledge and expertise in these two markets combined with its specialised database of specialised talent make of Sportcarriere an unavoidable partner for big sports events.

The Talent Club has acquired a majority stake and will bring its financial and operational capabilities to accelerate the international deployment of the firm. Alain Ghibaudo, founder and chairman of Sportcarriere will lead the international growth of the company, while it delivers on the next big international sporting events taking place in France over the next years.

The Talent Club and Sportcarriere are focused in the sports & entertainment arena and share a common vision on the need of companies, events and talents to rely on the best partner to bring them together. Despite the growth and size of the two markets that we address , the talent community around them is still small and this makes our partnership a great opportunity to become an international reference.

Alain Ghibaudo, Chairman

With this new partnership , The Talent Club reinforces its sports & entertainment arm in which it already operates through YouFirst Sports, its first investment since its creation in April 2019.

Sportcarriere is the ideal partner for The Talent Club and its current associates. While sports and entertainment are eating the world, we feel our association will improve the possibilities for our talents to start and develop meaningful professional careers within these industries. Our role of Talent Agents will undoubtedly grow as more and more talents will put their future steps in our hands.

Jerome Caille, CEO of The Talent Club