Compass Recruitment Solutions has acquired executive search boutique firm Carter Schwartz to form Compass Carter Osborne.

Compass Carter Osborne (CCO) will provide recruitment services across the social care, independent health, education and life sciences markets.

CCO will be led by its two senior partners, Carter Schwartz’s Adam Carter and Compass’s Luke Osborne, supported by Compass’s Sam Leighton-Smith.

Leighton-Smith, group managing director at CRS said: “I am delighted to welcome Adam and his team into the CRS fold and continue our investment thesis of only partnering with and investing into the industry’s best. We always aim to be a friend to the sector who adds significant value to our client partners and the people they serve. The alignment of our values, purpose and respective track records cements our proposition as the “go to” search firm within the markets we operate.”

Carter, senior partner at CCO said: “The strategic alignment of Carter Schwartz and Compass Executives brings together the two leading executive search houses within independent health and care. With a proposition greater than the sum of the parts, this solution offers our respective clients access to unparalleled market knowledge with a consultative potency unrivalled across the independent health, care, and life science niches – knowledge based advisory at its best”.

Osborne, senior partner at CCO said: “I am thrilled to welcome the Carter Schwartz team in a move that consolidates the UK’s leading search advisory facilitators of C-suite healthcare appointments. We’re excited about this growth opportunity as Compass Carter Osborne forms to offer unrivalled knowledge, backed by exhaustive research, to our SME and large cap investor clients domestically and internationally.”