FROM MARCH 2015'S RECRUITER MAGAZINE

Increased demand for cyber security professionals is leading executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles to elevate its cyber security practice to a similar scale and size to its more traditional chief executive (CEO) and chief financial officer (CFO) divisions, according to the regional managing partner of the firm’s financial services practice for Europe and Africa, David Boehmer.

Events such as December’s cyber hack on entertainment giant Sony ensured cyber security has grabbed the headlines. Recent research carried out by H&S and Oxford Business School found that in most regions of the world, CEOs and boards consider cyber security the number one threat or risk.

As a result, H&S has doubled the number of consultants in its cyber security division to 35 in the last three years, Boehmer told Recruiter. This continued emphasis on cyber security will see the firm’s dedicated division grow further this year, Boehmer said.

The role of the cyber security professional today requires expert knowledge about the potential threats affecting organisations and government agencies further afield and how to tackle them, as well as a commercial understanding of the damage to a company’s reputation such attacks create.

According to Boehmer, the firm’s consultants working in this area had previously recruited for chief information officers and chief technology officers, while also partnering with consultants recruiting chief risk officers. However, the firm increasingly requires consultants who dedicate all their time to recruiting cyber security professionals. “We want to ensure we have partners who have been doing quite a bit of this work already — if not full time, pretty darn close to full time who understand all the trends,” he added.

Graham Simons