Contemporary Leadership Advisors (CLA) is making a calculated bet on where leadership consulting is headed next—and it’s not just about coaching executives anymore.
The leadership and organizational effectiveness firm announced its acquisition of Momentum Global, a boutique advisory founded by former Chief People Officers Scott Slipy and Suni Lobo. The deal expands CLA’s capabilities from traditional leadership advisory into the increasingly critical (and often messy) territory of execution: aligning strategy, leadership, and talent systems, now augmented with AI-enabled insights.
In practical terms, CLA is signaling that leadership advice without operational follow-through is no longer enough—especially for enterprises navigating AI adoption, private equity value creation, and constant workforce disruption.
From Insight to Execution
Leadership consultancies have long excelled at diagnosing problems—culture misalignment, unclear accountability, weak executive benches. What clients increasingly demand, however, is help fixing those issues inside real operating environments.
Momentum Global was built specifically to address that gap. Founded by Slipy and Lobo after years in top HR roles, the firm focuses on strengthening execution by aligning people practices with business strategy, using data, workflow automation, and AI-powered intelligence to guide decisions.
That focus dovetails neatly with CLA’s existing strengths in leadership assessment, executive development, and organizational design. Together, the combined firm aims to offer something closer to an end-to-end system: leadership insight plus the operating muscle to make it stick.
As Steve Garcia, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of CLA, put it, clients increasingly want “both leadership insight and operational know-how.” The acquisition is a direct response to that demand.
Veteran Operators, Not Career Advisors
One of the more notable aspects of this deal is the background of Momentum Global’s founders. Slipy and Lobo aren’t career consultants—they’re operators who’ve lived through large-scale transformations from the inside.
Scott Slipy joins CLA as a Partner, bringing experience as Chief People Officer across multiple private equity- and venture-backed companies. His résumé also includes senior HR leadership roles at UnitedHealth Group, Cisco, and Microsoft. Over that arc, Slipy developed a reputation for integrating people strategy directly into business execution—helping leadership teams sharpen priorities, enforce accountability, and deliver against aggressive value creation plans.
Suni Lobo joins as a Strategic Advisor, with prior CPO roles at Gong, Marqeta, and Navis. Known for her purpose-driven leadership style, Lobo has focused on building high-performing teams while aligning culture with strategy during periods of rapid growth and enterprise transformation.
That combination—PE rigor plus high-growth tech experience—is particularly relevant in today’s market, where companies are expected to scale fast, adopt AI responsibly, and still retain talent in a volatile labor environment.
AI Moves From Buzzword to Backbone
Unlike many advisory firms that talk about AI in abstract terms, Momentum Global has built partnerships around AI, workflow automation, and talent and compensation market intelligence. Those capabilities will now become part of CLA’s core offering.
This matters because HR technology adoption is no longer optional—it’s foundational. Companies are under pressure to modernize everything from workforce planning to performance management, often while managing hybrid workforces and global compliance challenges.
By integrating AI-enabled insights into leadership and organizational advisory work, CLA positions itself closer to firms like McKinsey, Bain, and Deloitte—while maintaining the agility of a specialist consultancy. For mid-market enterprises and private equity-backed firms that can’t afford bloated consulting engagements, that blend could be especially attractive.
A Broader Trend in HR Advisory
The acquisition reflects a broader shift in the HR and leadership consulting market. Traditional boundaries between strategy consulting, HR advisory, and HR tech are eroding.
Firms like Korn Ferry have expanded deeper into digital talent platforms. Accenture continues to blur lines between strategy, technology, and operations. Boutique firms, meanwhile, are racing to add data and AI capabilities to stay relevant.
CLA’s move fits squarely within this trend—but with a sharper focus on leadership effectiveness as the connective tissue. Rather than selling technology alone or generic transformation frameworks, the firm is betting that experienced operators plus smart data will resonate with CEOs and boards looking for results, not reports.
Why This Matters for Enterprises and Investors
For enterprise leaders, the message is clear: leadership development can’t be separated from systems, incentives, and execution. The best strategy in the world fails if the organization isn’t aligned to deliver it.
For private equity firms, the implications may be even more direct. Value creation plans increasingly hinge on leadership quality, talent depth, and scalable people systems—areas where execution gaps can quickly erode returns. Having advisors who understand both boardroom strategy and operational reality is no longer a “nice to have.”
Slipy underscored that point, noting that CLA’s approach stands out for its “depth, agility, and modern approach to leadership and performance.” The combined firm, he said, aims to help clients translate strategic intent into leadership capability and people systems that actually accelerate performance.
The Competitive Landscape Ahead
While CLA remains smaller than global consulting giants, this acquisition gives it sharper differentiation in a crowded advisory market. By combining leadership psychology, organizational design, and AI-enabled HR execution, the firm is positioning itself at the intersection of strategy, talent, and technology.
Whether that model scales will depend on execution—ironically, the very capability CLA and Momentum Global aim to strengthen for clients. But the direction is clear: leadership advisory is evolving, and firms that can’t connect insight to action risk becoming irrelevant.
For HR leaders, CHROs, and CEOs watching the space, CLA’s acquisition of Momentum Global is less about consolidation and more about convergence—where leadership, technology, and execution finally meet.
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