Brickendon opens office in Toronto, its third in North America
British consultancy Brickendon has opened an office in Toronto – its first in Canada. The rapidly expanding firm’s Toronto office is its third in North America; Brickendon opened locations in New York and Raleigh, NC, in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
London-based consultancy Brickendon has grown at a heady pace since being founded in 2010. The firm recently announced that it had grown 300% since 2012, despite challenging market conditions in Britain – with some reports expecting Brexit to shrink the financial services market by as much as 10%. As such, foreign markets are especially enticing in order to keep up growth in case of a harsher than expected economic fallout from Brexit.
The consultancy announced that it has opened its first office in Canada, in Toronto. The Canadian office gives the firm a total of six global locations, having opened branches in Warsaw, Krakow, New York, and Raleigh in the past two years.
Brickedon specializes in five consulting areas: strategy, risk & regulation, data, quality & testing, and digital. Its clients include global banks, hedge funds, asset managers, and FTSE 100 companies. However, with the Bank of England warning about the potential loss of 75,000 financial services jobs in the wake of Brexit, many consultancies – especially those who support financial services firms – are looking to other markets in order to maintain healthy growth in potentially turbulent times.
The consulting industry in Canada is worth an estimated US$4 billion, with further growth expected in 2018. Though a much smaller market than the US, many international consultancies are keen to expand into Canada – especially after gaining a foothold in the larger market to the south. Having already expanded its firm to Poland and the US, Brickendon’s offices have over 100 professionals serving almost 30 clients.
The management consultancy believes that it offers a unique springboard for reimagining the financial services sector – integrating digital, cloud, AI, and blockchain tech – while challenging the status quo of larger firms. The company also has a forward-looking diversity policy, having signed the UK government’s Women in Finance Charter, publicly committing itself to bolstering the role women play in the financial services industry. Indeed, Brickendon has pledged to achieve 50% female representation in senior management by December 2019.
Commenting on the consultancy’s expansion to Toronto, Brickendon CEO Christopher Burke said, “This is another positive step in our plans to expand the company and use our innovative solutions to transform our clients’ organisations around the world. We are excited about this great opportunity.”
