The Birth of Boyd & Moore Executive Search
When Tony Moore and Jon Underland first put their idea of Boyd & Moore Executive Search (BMES) on a napkin, they could not anticipate that 20 years later the company would have grown into a prominent brand across APAC nor having been acquired by Japan’s largest supplier of project engineering and talent solutions.
The Founding Vision
Continually frustrated with the inefficiencies and volume-driven approach of the recruitment industry, the two founders set out to establish a new set of parameters for Search, creating Boyd & Moore Executive Search (BMES), in February 2002. The initial focus of the business was on delivering executive search services to start up technology companies entering the Japan market from the US and Europe.
Innovating the Recruitment Industry
In order to differentiate themselves from the overcrowded and commoditized recruitment market, BMES opened their very own Intelligence Center in Pune, India, relying heavily on a new data-driven approach to inform their searches and their clients, speed up time-to-hire and provide added value across key markets. In a short time, the Intelligence Center became the largest and most adroit APAC-focused, outbound research center in the industry.
Through subsequent years, the company expanded significantly, not only by adding new verticals such as Healthcare and Professional Services, obtaining important licenses for their full range of talent solutions, and starting their RPO business to serve their clients contract and volume hiring needs. But also, by opening new Consulting hubs across the region, the first one being Singapore and then extending across all the major Asian markets.
Recognition and Success
This company growth did not go unnoticed. Boyd & Moore Executive Search was honored with multiple awards, including HR Recruitment Company of the Year (2015-2016), Best Executive Search Firm (2019), Best RPO Provider (2019, 2021) and several other industry-specific trophies.
A major milestone in BMES’s journey was its 2017 acquisition by TechnoPro Holdings Inc., a $3.5bn listed company and Japan’s leading engineering staffing firm. This partnership has driven geographic expansion (Thailand, Korea, China) and broadened services to include talent and leadership solutions across the employee lifecycle, from employer branding to coaching, training, and assessments.
Celebrating BMES’s 20th anniversary, Takeshi Yagi, CEO of TechnoPro, praised the partnership: “We are proud to have BMES as part of our group and look forward to continued collaboration with Tony Moore and the entire BMES team to deliver world-class technology and talent solutions.”
This success is thanks to our incredible clients, partners, and, most importantly, our dedicated employees. We are deeply grateful for the past 20 years of support and excited for the future ahead!
… speaking of which! If you’re curious as to what the future has in store for Boyd & Moore we invite you to get onboard. Be it as a client of one of our core businesses such as executive search or our ever-expanding 360 degree talent & leadership solutions. Or as a member of the team across APAC providing data-driven and top-quality consulting solutions to our broad customer base.
Congratulatory messages from some of our most loyal customers & partners
“Happy 20th anniversary to Tony Moore and all my friends at Boyd & Moore. You’ve done a fantastic job for me and Ivanti over the past year, executing multiple searches across every country in the Asia Pacific region. Your team has worked very hard for us and has been successful in the most competitive employment market I have ever seen. I appreciate all your counsel and advice. It’s been a true partnership and I look forward to working with you again in the years to come.” – Michael T. Spano, Senior Director Global Talent Acquisition – Ivanti
Matt Bennett, APAC Vice-President – Carbonblack:
Congratulations to Tony and the BMES team on their 20th anniversary! I’ve had the privilege of working with them for 15 of those years, relying on their expertise to build high-growth teams across various business stages—from public companies like BlueCoat, VMware, and MobileIron to startups like Zscaler and Carbonblack. Their deep industry knowledge and commitment make them my first call for sales and engineering hires. Wishing BMES continued success in the next two decades!
Daniel J West, Founder & CEO – Panalyt:
Congrats to Tony Moore and the BMES team on 20 successful years in APAC! As one of their earliest clients in 2002, I’ve trusted them to find top talent throughout my career, from Apple Japan and Uber to founding Panalyt. They have tackled complex global searches for high-stakes roles and always delivered. Wishing them another 20 years of excellence!
20 Years of Boyd & Moore Executive Search – Voices from the team
Let’s hear from our longest serving most employee on how they experienced the journey so far and what they expect from the future!
Victor Nwakanma, Executive Vice President
“I joined Boyd & Moore as an Associate in January 2011, with a very clear desire: to work hard and to earn enough money to pay for my MBA. In my interviews my then hiring manager told me that my career at BMES would be a free MBA, and if I put in the effort and work, I would have an even better career than would be provided by the MBA I was seeking. Over a decade later, I have the privilege of telling successive generations of prospective consultants who have similar dreams and ambitions, the same words I received.
Words like honour and privilege, can be thrown around easily, but for me they fully capture the journey I have had here at BMES. I have had the honour and privilege of being a part of the company’s second decade of business – helping to shape it, being shaped by it, and thriving both personally and professionally beyond the dreams and expectations I had on the day of my first interview. As we celebrate 20 years of our history, I remain grateful to the bosses, who became mentors, who became friends. To the colleagues, who became comrades, who became friends and I look forward to the next decade of my MBA studies at BMES.”