Post acquisition growth (1959–2002)
Mercer Consulting Group
In 1975, Marsh McLennan converted their benefits operations into a wholly owned subsidiary, William M. Mercer, Inc. In 1992, a holding company was created for Marsh McLennan's three global consulting businesses, known as Mercer Consulting Group. [9] William M. Mercer, Inc. continued to provide actuarial and employee benefits consulting within the group alongside two sister companies: Mercer Management Consulting and National Economic Research Associates, Inc, which provided corporate strategy consulting and economic consulting, respectively. [10]
Mercer Delta Consulting
In 2000, Mercer Consulting Group acquired Delta Consulting Group for its organizational development and change management expertise. [11] Founded by organizational theorist David A. Nadler in 1980, Delta Consulting Group worked to structure effective executive teams. [12] [13] The firm had an influential client list, including corporations such as 3M, Citicorp, Procter & Gamble, The New York Times , and Xerox. [14] [15]
The new entity was renamed Mercer Delta Consulting, and maintained its specialty in leadership and organizational change. [16] [17] The group grew through further acquisitions of Canadian Johnston Smith International, French Change Management Consultants, Spanish c.r.m. Concord, and American CDR International. [18] They surveyed directors of the Fortune 1000 annually and monitored developments in business governance. [19] In contrast to the traditional organizational structure where business units within an organization are clearly defined, Mercer Delta was a proponent of strategically aligned business units that were linked to a larger organization with which they could share capabilities when needed, and operate separately from when they were not. [20]
Mercer (since 2007)
In 2007, three of the five speciality consulting units – Mercer Delta Consulting, Mercer Oliver Wyman and Mercer Management Consulting – were merged into management consultancy Oliver Wyman. [24] Oliver Wyman, along with the two remaining speciality units (NERA Economic Consulting and Lippincott) became a separate subsidiary of Marsh McLennan known collectively as Oliver Wyman Group. [25]
In September, the Mercer Human Resource Consulting became simply "Mercer". [26] In December, Mercer acquired Höfer Vorsorge-Management, a German actuarial and retirement consulting firm. At the time, the acquisition reportedly gave Mercer the top market position in Germany. [27]
In 2008, Mercer's Italian human capital consulting business merged with Tesi, an Italian competitor. The combined business, Mercer Tesi was noted at the time to be the largest HR consultancy in Italy. [28]
In 2010, Mercer acquired ORC Worldwide, an expert in international work assignments. [29] Also in 2010, Mercer acquired Brecksville, Ohio–based Innovative Process Administration LLC (IPA), a health benefits and technology provider.
In 2011, Mercer acquired Fort Lauderdale, Florida–based Mahoney & Associates, a defined contribution plan provider. [30] Also in 2011, Mercer acquired Alicia Smith & Associates, a Washington DC–based Medicaid policy consulting firm. [31]
In 2013, Mercer acquired British Columbia–based Hall Consulting Limited (HCL), an HR consultant and salary surveyor focusing on the mining and energy business. [32] Also in 2013, Mercer acquired PricewaterhouseCoopers' pension windup (termination) administration business in Canada, [33] and Global Remuneration Solutions (GRS), a South African compensation and benefits survey data and rewards information provider. [34]
In 2014, Mercer acquired Norwell, Massachusetts–based Transition Assist, a private health care exchange specializing in coverage for Medicare-eligible retirees. [35] Also in 2014, Mercer acquired Jeitosa Group International, a business and technology consultancy, [36] and a 34% stake in South Africa–based employee benefits specialist Alexander Forbes. [37] Later that year, Mercer acquired Swiss private markets manager and consultant SCM, [38] and Denarius, a Santiago, Chile-based consulting firm focused on compensation and benefits survey and information products. [39]
In 2015, Mercer made two acquisitions. It acquired Hopkinton, Massachusetts–based Comptryx, a workforce metrics company offering surveying, modeling and analytics services, [40] and also acquired HRBS, a provider of career and talent consulting and information services to clients across Asia, particularly Hong Kong, Singapore and mainland China. [41] In that same year, Mercer sold its US defined contribution administration business to Transamerica. [42]
In 2016, Mercer acquired Pillar Administration, Australia from the New South Wales State Government. Pillar was Australia's fourth largest superannuation administration provider, with more than $100 billion in funds under administration across 1.1 million member accounts. [43]
In 2017, Mercer combined its investment and retirement consulting practices into a new Wealth consulting division. [44] In December 2019, Mercer's investment assets under management reached above $300 billion. [45]
After Marsh McLennan's 2018 purchase of London-based Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT), operating in employee benefits and other financial services, the JLT business was integrated into Mercer. [46] [47]
