HR consultancy Allen Austin opens office in Istanbul, Turkey

Organisational consultancy firm Allen Austin has opened a new office in Turkey in a move the firm hopes will spearhead its global expansion campaign. The new office is headed by Serkan Yagcioglu, a veteran of GSK, who takes on the role of Vice President of International Operations as he oversees the firm's expansion into Spain and the UAE, along with the strategy for the firm's long-term international plans.

Allen Austin is an international consulting firm focused on leadership advisory, HR consultancy and executive search. The company, which is based in Houston, Texas, has expanded its locales to 20 offices spread across international locations including the UK, Russia, Australia and the UAE. The company uses proprietary techniques to boost the fit and retention of key staff of clients across the globe – talent management has become a key concern of many companies with staff disengagement globally remaining stubbornly high. According to the firm, there is a “badly broken hiring processes, resulting in 50% failure,” among clients which it seeks to remedy.

The firm has in recent years engaged in a global expansion drive. The firm recently opened a new office in Istanbul, which will ‘serve as a base for its global business operations.’ The new office is headed by Serkan Yagcioglu who joined the firm in May from GSK, where he was Head of the Commonwealth of Independent States Cluster. His new role is that of Vice President of International Operations, tasked with further driving the firm’s global expansion and overseeing current operations at the firm’s international offices.

Aside from developing the firm’s presence across the region, including in Spain and UAE where the firm also recent opened office, Yagcioglu’s focus will be on expanding the firm’s partnership model, its recruitment method and its leadership development strategy across the globe, including Asia Pacific (mainly in China, Singapore and India), Latin America, Germany, France, Netherlands and Eastern Europe.

Remarking on his appointment by the firm to the task of spearheading its global expansion from Turkey, Yagcioglu, who said that he was “very excited” to be a part of the new growth strategy, remarked, “I think it is definitely the right time for Allen Austin to access the global markets and I strongly believe that Allen Austin’s unique approach for retained search as well as Total Performance Leadership solutions will serve the unmet needs of our clients outside the US market.”