Our History and Milestones
1985
Hightech Partners Founded
Etienne Reeners, after several years as Head of the European IT Practice at Heidrick & Struggles, decides to leave and founds Hightech Partners in Brussels.
1985
1994
Etienne Reeners places Raffaele Jacovelli
1996-1998
Expansion in France and UK
- Dominique Moracchini, with a long-lasting experience in IBM, Digital Equipments and France Telecom in leading roles, joins the firm in Paris.
- Dilip Chandra, former General Manager EMEA for RS/6000 Product Division, becomes Partner in London.
1996-1998
2000
International Engagement from Belgium
Etienne Reeners is engaged by Bert Vermeiren, then VP Group HR at L&H Speech Products, for international searches.
2005
Strenghten presence in Belgium
Bert Vermeiren, after a period as HR Director of Real Dolmen, decides to join Hightech Partners based in Belgium.
2005
2006
Strenghten presence in Italy
Raffaele Jacovelli who, after Olivetti and Merrill Lynch had joined Civi International - a spin-off of Hightech Partners - eventually joins the firm in Italy
2010
Management Buy-Out Closing
Raffaele Jacovelli and Bert Vermeiren shape a deal that sees them taking over as reference shareholders and Managing Directors of the newly formed Luxembourg-based Hightech Partners - ITP Holding SA , while Etienne Reeners indirectly remains engaged along with Dilip Chandra and Dominique Moracchini.
The holding acquires full control of IMC SA - the Belgian Operating company and establishes a subsidiary in Switzerland Hightech Partners - ITP SA to drive the international business expansion.
2010
2014
Paul Lenfant joins as Partner
Paul Lenfant, a former candidate and longtime executive of the ICT industry, joins as a Partner to further develop the French and European markets.
2016
Bruno Kraft joins as Partner
Bruno Kraft a longtime executive of the ICT industry based in Italy, former CEO of public companies - for which he has managed the IPO - joins as a Partner to further develop the Italian markets.
2016
2017
Paul Lenfant becomes Equity Partner
2017
Hightech Partners joins AESC
Hightech Partners is admitted as a full member of AESC - the global association of Executive Search and Leadership Consulting, that stands as the reference for the standards of ethics and professional code of conduct - after a thorough audit.
2017
2018
Start the HTP Digital Transformation journey
Hightech Partners begins its Digital Transformation journey.
The ARP framework is developed, with a positioning on the digital domain, which goes beyond the traditional ICT industry.
The internally developed ATS gets completely revamped, aiming to increase automation as well as introduce BI and analytics.
An innovative approach to talent development - in addition to talent acqusition - has been designed, focusing on upskilling and reskilling of both hard and soft skills.
The Birkman method has been adopted for assessment and coaching, and several consultants have been trained at once, to develop our Leadership Consulting.
2019
Appointment of Raffaele Jacovelli to AESC EMEA Council
In February 2019 Raffaele Jacovelli is appointed to AESC EMEA Council and soon thereafter he becomes a member of the Membership Committee, that is charged to approve the new members as well as decide to radiate members in cases of misconduct.
2019
2019
Incorporation of Ataya & Partners
To build the Reskilling practice Hightech Partners joins forces with Prof. Georges Ataya.
Georges has contributed to the development of the IT industry becoming a reference for the IT Governance, Cybersecurity and Privacy. He is Academic Director at Solvay Brussels School in these domains.
Ataya & Partners incorporation aims at designing reskilling programs, while coaching and training ICT executives to ensure methodology, compliance and effectiveness in their activity.
2019
3 Partners join at the same time
Elly de Vrijer, Dutch, has spent her entire career in the IT industry and since 2004 had started her company providing Executive Search services to clients in the Netherlands and in the DACH region.
Rafael Pyrich, Polish, when joining brings almost 20 years of experience in the Executive Search industry, matured in companies such as Odgers Berndson and Qualitas.
He is based in Norway and enhances group's reach in the Nordics and Dach.
Helmut Stork, German, joins bringing 20 years of experience in the IT Executive Search and Leadership Consulting domain, providing recruitment and coaching services to German well-established IT companies as well as start-ups.
2019
2020
Jean-Christophe Legrand joins as Partner
Jean-Christophe Legrand, French, joins with a long track record in the IT Consulting industry having spent almost his whole career in Accenture where he grew up to very senior Managing Director role.
He brings a wealth of Management Consulting experience, and in fact he focuses on that industry where Hightech Partners expects major growth.
2021
The most relevant Placement ever
2021 is the year of the come-back, focusing on the business after Covid and leveraging the investments made.
It pays off completing the most important placement in the firm's history in terms of seniority of the position, being the CEO of a 5,000-person organization in charge of raising the profile of the group, and leading the Consulting unit.
2021
2022
Elly de Vrijer becomes Equity Partner
2022
Arnaud Ruffat joins as Partner
Arnaud Ruffat, after over 30 years in leadership roles culminated at Group Executive Committee level of Atos Group. Thanks to his deep knowledge of the IT Services industry and his broad network, Arnaud further enhances our presence in France.
2022
2023
Roberta De Ponti joins as Partner
Roberta De Ponti based in Italy joins as a Partner, bringing over 25 years of experience as HR executive of which almost 20 as HR Director Europe for IDC.
2023
Jean-Christophe Legrand becomes Equity Partner
2023
2023
HTP, Hoffman & Associates & Ataya & Partners join forces
Hoffman & Associates, shareholders accepted the offer to become part of HTP Group reinforcing the presence of the group in Belgium to have the opportuniy to broaden the company offer portfolio in terms of services and expertise to support the clients in their transformation journey enabled by technologies such as Cloud, Data & AI, Cybersecurity, etc. in which Hightech Partners has long standing track record .
Georges Ataya, co-founder of Ataya & Partners, has decided to convert his shares becoming a shareholder of HTP group to leverage the group clients base and add value with the portfolio of the company advisory services in the domains of Digital Trust and Governance.
The group has hence more than doubled its footprint in terms of Revenue and Partners.
2023
Roberto Zangrandi joins as Partner based in Belgium
Roberto Zangrandi based in Belgium joins as a Partner, for Advanced Energy Utilities with over 20 years experience with European and Global Electricity Companies.
2023
2024
Frédérique Genton, founder of Artelatum, joins as Partner based in Germany
Frédérique Genton Founder of Artelatum ,based in Germany, joins as a Partner, focusing on the German-DACH-France market bringing 25 years of experience in executive search, leadership consulting, interim management and board advisory.
