Leadership development organisation Elite has agreed a deal to acquire performance management and training firm Lander Associates for an undisclosed sum.

Elite chairman John O’Sullivan described the deal as “the killer app” of growth enablement services for the recruitment sector.

The Lander Associates brand will be retained and its founder, Fiona Lander, will take up a key strategic role on the executive board of the merged company.

The move culminates a series of strategic appointments Lander Associates has made in recent months as executive consultants. They include former head of learning and development at Badenoch & Clark, Julian Evans; well-known recruitment industry figure Graham Palfery-Smith; and former Michael Page managing director Alan Dickinson.

O’Sullivan summed up the merger as “a real meeting of minds”.