[left of center]

Figured I'd post it since I had a few minutes of free time. Sorry for stealing your thunder, Marothisu/TUP!

Chicago lands an HQ from Spain
Elements Global Services CEO Rick Hammell says he plans to more than triple headcount here after moving his company from Barcelona.

A corporate outsourcing company with an international focus is moving its headquarters back to Chicago after a stint in Barcelona, due in part to COVID-19. And this time, it’s a lot larger.

Scheduled to set up shop at 1 N. Franklin St. on May 3 is Elements Global Services, which describes itself as a “tech-enabled services company” that specializes in helping U.S. companies seeking to expand overseas cut international hiring red tape.

The company has leased 14,000 square feet in the Loop tower. Founder and CEO Rick Hammell said the firm plans to expand from its current 61 Chicago workers to up to 225 staffers in a couple of years and potentially lease an entire floor.

The company now has about 235 employees worldwide and says it’s active in more than 135 countries.

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Hammell, 34, who grew up in north suburban Evanston, said he always had an interest in HR functions and learned in a previous job how little formal support there was for companies just getting started overseas. He founded the company in 2016 and, with big international expansion in mind, moved it and himself to Barcelona. “I’ve still got my condo there,” just two blocks from the waterfront, he told me in a phone interview.

But after a business trip to America left him stuck here when COVID cut off most international air travel, “I realized how much I missed Chicago,” Hammell said. With 80 percent of the company’s clients located in the United States, “it made sense to be centrally located” in the U.S., he said.

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Barcelona will become the firm’s European regional headquarters.

Source: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/greg...lands-hq-spain