Gerson Lehrman Group

Gerson Lehrman Group
Type of business Private company
Founded 1998
Headquarters New York City, United States
Area served Worldwide
Key people Mark Gerson (Co-Founder and Chairman); Alexander Saint-Amand, (CEO); Thomas D. Lehrman (Co-Founder and Director)
Industry Information Services
Services Professional Learning; Knowledge Brokerage; Expert network
Slogan(s) GLG Is Transforming The Way The World's Top Professionals Share Expertise And Learn

Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) is an American expert network that operates a membership-based platform that provides independent ad-hoc consulting services to business professionals[1] around the world. It was founded in 1998, backed by private equity firms Silver Lake Partners[2] and Bessemer Venture Partners,[3] and is headquartered in New York City.

GLG clients include institutional investors, professional services firms, corporations, and non-profit organizations.[4] GLG experts include consultants, physicians, scientists, engineers, lawyers, senior current and former c-level executives,[5] and former government members.[6][7][8]

Origins

Gerson Lehrman Group was founded by Duke University and Yale Law School graduate Thomas Lehrman and fellow Yale Law School graduate Mark Gerson, who had worked at the hedge fund Tiger Management, that led to a generation of spinoffs (known as Tiger Cubs).[9] Alexander Saint-Amand joined GLG shortly after its founding, and serves as its President and CEO.[10]

GLG, initially funded by a friends and family round,[11] was formed as a publishing house to produce industry guidebooks for institutional investors, a business they abandoned a year later when they could find no buyers for their product. The founders retooled their business model a year later to offer phone consultations and periodic roundtable discussions with experts. This business came to be called an expert network.

GLG’s first customers were investors, and most of their growth from 1999 to 2005 was within the investment community. In 2006, they began working with big strategy consultancies and with companies in life sciences, chemicals and industrials, and technology.

Non Profit

In 2006, GLG worked with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide new primary data and analysis relevant for any other recovery plans in the rebuilding of Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.[12][13] It has been on the news that it has also done some other philanthropy work with smaller charities.[14]

Partnerships

As the use of alternative research providers within the financial industry has grown, brokerages themselves have been partnering with firms such as GLG.[15]

On September 10, 2008, the company announced a deal with Credit Suisse, whereby analysts from the financial services giant would be able to tap into GLG’s Council Members as part of their research process. About 300 Credit Suisse analysts became members of the GLG expert network.[16] In 2009, Gerson Lehrman Group Managing Director Dmitri Mehlhorn announced a partnership with Frost & Sullivan's, making their over 800 market researchers available to consult with GLG clients.[17]

In July 2009, GLG announced that it has partnered with Amba Research, a leading financial services Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) firm that provides equity and credit research.[18]

On July 8, 2010, GLG and Bloomberg announced a partnership that enables clients of the Bloomberg Professional platform to access the GLG expert network through the Bloomberg platform.[19]

In October 2011, GLG partnered with and acquired a minority stake in Ushi,[20] a leading China-based business social networking provider, and the largest competitor of Linkedin in the region.[21]

Controversies

The expert network business model has drawn scrutiny for concerns relating to adherence to disclosure rules and sharing of insider information within the investment industry.[22] During 2005, for example, doctors who served as paid consultants to investment firms as a result of their role in an expert network generated a “fair share of controversy.”[23] GLG was part of a lawsuit filed by Biovail in March 2006, in which Biovail claimed that its shares had been manipulated.[24] In September 2006, GLG announced the creation of a proprietary system that helped identify and manage conflicts, leveraging its experience as a pioneer in its industry to craft risk-reducing rules for expert engagements[25][26]

In January 2007, it was reported that the company and Vista Research, then a Standard & Poor affiliate, were part of an inquiry by the New York State Attorney General’s office into the consulting practices of investment firm clients.[27] As of December 2007, the Attorney General had taken no action, and the investigation appeared to be dormant.[28]

In November 2012, Mathew Martoma, a portfolio manager who worked for an affiliate of S.A.C. Capital Advisors, now known as Point72 Asset Management, was accused in criminal and civil complaints of obtaining secret data while there from a former University of Michigan neurology professor who worked on a clinical trial for an Alzheimer's drug. The professor was named as Dr. Sid Gilman, a paid Council Member of GLG.[29]

References

  1. ↑ The Wall Street Journal - More New York Companies Experiment With Innovative Office Space
  2. ↑ Silver Lake - Portfolio Companies
  3. ↑ Bessemer Venture Partners - Portfolio Companies
  4. ↑ Holly Hall, November 11, 2011. "Eye-Care Charity Gets Free Fund-Raising Insights", The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Retrieved December 3, 2011.
  5. ↑ Quora: Are there any drawbacks or risks to participating as an "expert" in the Gerson Lehrman Group Network?"", Retrieved April 15, 2012.
  6. ↑ John Bruton"John Bruton - Professional Activities"Retrieved April 15, 2012.
  7. ↑ GLG Research Council Members""Council Member - Hans Eichel, Retrieved April 15, 2012.
  8. ↑ German-British Chamber of Industry & Commerce "‘Austerity must be softened’ - former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder", Retrieved April 15, 2012.
  9. ↑ The Wall Street Journal "Tiger sowing seeds of growth ", retrieved 21 Jul 2010.
  10. ↑ Leaders Mag "Transforming Professional Learning ", retrieved 14 May 2015
  11. ↑ Steve Bodow, December 23, 2001. "It's Not What They Know, but Whom", The New York Times. Retrieved August 13, 2008.
  12. ↑ Louisiana Recovery Authority "Disaster Recovery Initiative", U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)Retrieved December, 2011.
  13. ↑ Gerson Lehrman Group report - "[www.swtlaw.com/PDFs/articles/realestate/RebuildingAfterKatrina.pdf Rebuilding after Katrina and Rita]", Schulten Ward & Turner LLP, Retrieved December, 2011.
  14. ↑ Holly Hall, November 11, 2011. "Eye-Care Charity Gets Free Fund-Raising Insights", The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Retrieved December 3, 2011.
  15. ↑ Integrity Research, December 20, 2007. "Gerson Lehrman and Morgan Stanley Alphawise Tie Up", Integrity Research. Retrieved August 13, 2008.
  16. ↑ Greg Farrell, September 10, 2008. "Credit Suisse in alliance with consultancy firm", Financial Times. Retrieved September 17, 2008.
  17. ↑ PR News Wire, April 23, 2009 "Gerson Lehrman Group Announces Addition of Frost & Sullivan to the Council Partners Program", Retrieved December 3, 2011
  18. ↑ Amba Research, July 27, 2009 "Amba partners with Gerson Lehrman Group", Retrieved December 3, 2011
  19. ↑ Gerson Lehrman Group press release
  20. ↑ GLG Press Release, October 14, 2011 GLG and Ushi Announce Partnership", Retrieved December 3rd 2011
  21. ↑ Robin Wauters, October 13, 2011 Ushi, China’s Answer To LinkedIn, Raises $3 Million From GLG", TechCrunch, Retrieved December 3, 2011
  22. ↑ Dutton Associates Online Interview
  23. ↑ Marcy Tolkoff, April 21, 2006. Consult for Wall Street? Consulting for Wall Street may be lucrative, but some critics say such arrangements involve inherent conflicts of interest", Medical Economics. Retrieved August 13, 2008.
  24. ↑ Jenny Anderson, February 23, 2006. "", The New York Times. Retrieved August 13, 2008.
  25. ↑ GLG, November 1, 2006. "GLG Press Release Gerson Lehrman Group Launches Institutional Registry, A New Clearinghouse for Expert Consulting Restrictions and Conflicts", GLG Press Release. Retrieved August 13, 2008.
  26. ↑ GLG Web Site Compliance Framework Description. Retrieved August 13, 2008.
  27. ↑ Jenny Anderson, January 17, 2007. "Wall Street ‘Matchmakers’ Under a New York Inquiry", The New York Times. Retrieved August 13, 2008.
  28. ↑ Andrew Ross Sorkin, December 19, 2007. "Silver Lake Partners to Buy a Quarter of Research Firm", The New York Times. Retrieved August 13, 2008.
  29. ↑ Michael Rothfeld, Chad Bray, and Susan Pulliam, November 20, 2012. "", The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 24, 2015.

External links

Further reading

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