Ilya is the President of Mercer’s Career business, a member of Mercer’s Executive Leadership team, Head of Mercer Strategy and co-author of Work Different: 10 Truths for Winning in the People Age.
Ilya’s interests have always focused on the impact of people strategy on organizational performance. In leading the Career business, he has turned this interest into the firm’s growth agenda, positioning Mercer as one of the preeminent people strategy consulting firms globally. At the heart of his growth philosophy for the business is a deep understanding of market trends and client needs. In leading a workforce of thousands of professional services consultants, Ilya practices what he preaches to turn Mercer’s leading talent capability into the driving force, influencer and market shaper that it is, with a focus on long-term value creation as well as the organizational agility to respond to dynamic market circumstances.
Ilya has over 25 years of experience in human resource consulting. He has lived an international career, working in the Pacific, Asia, Europe and the USA. He has worked with leading multinational companies, helping them navigate their most strategic people issues. Everything that Ilya writes about, he has lived and breathed — from both the perspective of trusted advisor to clients as well as running a substantial and complicated line of business within a global Fortune 500 firm that has navigated business model changes, the ups and downs of economic cycles, the pandemic, and evolving the business for the next phase with the opportunities and risks presented by technological change and generative AI. As a member of Mercer’s Executive Leadership team and Head of Strategy, Ilya works across the breadth of Mercer’s portfolio. Through M&A, global client management, thought leadership, marketing and a focus on data & analytics, Ilya ensures Mercer’s strategy continues to evolve in line with our clients’ needs and that Mercer maintains its position as a market-leading consulting firm and shaper of the industry.
