Date: 01/27/2025

The executive search firm Waverly Partners joins Ward Howell International

Waverly Partners, founded in 2001, is a national retained executive search firm with offices in Cleveland and Kansas City. As the search firm enters its 24th year, Waverly Partners has joined the global team of Ward Howell International, a premier strategic leadership consulting firm.

Waverly Partners has led executive search assignments for CEO- and other senior-level leaders at Fortune 500 service and manufacturing corporations, chambers of commerce and economic development organizations, nonprofit entities, professional service firms and hospitals and healthcare systems nationwide. In recent years, Waverly Partners has dedicated a majority of its time and resources serving nonprofit organizations, including chambers and economic development organizations.

Established in 1951, Ward Howell International (WHI) is known as the world’s second oldest executive search firm. Over the past seventy years WHI has developed a global network of over 30 offices in 22 countries, serving multinational companies, local corporations, mid-sized companies as well as government agencies and law firms. Ward Howell’s U.S. presence includes an existing office in Cleveland, headed by Managing Partner Matt Clemens, along with New York and Palm Beach, and now will include Kansas City.

This strategic alignment significantly expands Ward Howell’s service offerings and market presence within the nonprofit, chamber of commerce and economic development industries while providing Waverly Partners’ clients with additional board advisory and management appraisal services.

With this merger, our firm will be known as Waverly Partners, a Ward Howell company. It’s a name change that represents our continued commitment to the highest level of executive search consulting services and capabilities to our client organizations with the addition of global resources synonymous with the Ward Howell name.