ATLANTA, Oct. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Atlanta-based Global Executive Group (GXG), a privately-held executive leadership company dedicated to making great leaders extraordinary, today appoints Craig Lemasters as CEO, elevating founder Bruce Barlag to Chairman and formalizing a partnership between the two effective immediately.

"Since the founding of GXG in 2013, the firm has grown tremendously," says Barlag. "Craig has more than two decades of success in executive leadership positions and has proven to be a dynamic leader, accomplished at transformation and strategy execution. Under his leadership GXG will be able to accelerate its growth tremendously. As a former client, Craig is ideally suited to lead GXG on the next phase of its journey."

Lemasters will take over the day-to-day operations and leadership of GXG, freeing up Barlag to delve deeper in to his passion of client work.

"Bruce is a trusted sounding board and strategic partner, exceptionally well-versed in helping senior executives navigate the unique stressors and constant pressures of both their professional and personal lives," says Lemasters. "His passion is helping companies grow and flourish.  Bruce has a reputation for steadfastly establishing trust. This, coupled with his ability to bring creativity to business and development challenges, has made him an indispensable resource for the top executives at some of the world's most respected companies."

Before joining GXG, Lemasters served more than a decade as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Assurant Solutions business of Assurant, Inc (NYSE: AIZ), serving 27 years with the company overall. During Lemasters' tenure as CEO, Assurant Solutions more than doubled in size to $4B and transformed to a dynamic, high-growth, digitally-astute global provider, expanding a service offering of protection products to new innovative, digitally-focused risk management solutions in the connected living space. Lemasters reinvigorated the culture while focusing on growth—both internationally and through new businesses, expanding from a B2B to B2C business and establishing Assurant Solutions in 25 new markets around the world.

Prior to GXG, Barlag was managing director at Alvarez & Marsal (A&M), a $1 Billion+ professional services firm. He was responsible for the formulation of go-to-market strategies for A&M's business consulting segment, expanding their service offering and significantly growing their business. Prior to A&M, Barlag was the CEO of World 50, a private organization that manages executive peer communities for the senior-most officers from global corporations. Under Mr. Barlag's leadership, the company grew at a compounded annual rate of 35%.  Barlag was also CEO and founder of New Science Associates, an emerging digital technology and strategy think tank. New Science Associates was later acquired by Gartner, Inc., where Mr. Barlag was then named executive vice president of interactive services, chief marketing officer and member of the executive leadership team.

About GXG

Now serving more than 70 senior executives and their teams, GXG helps their clients identify and achieve targeted growth goals by identifying specific knowledge gaps and building a targeted learning plan to accelerate business success and achieve long term profitable growth.  GXG clients include top executives at some of the world's most respected companies including BASF, American Express, Xerox, Cardinal Health, Jabil Circuit, CISCO, Delphi, GlaxoSmithKline, TD Ameritrade, Aon, Assurant, Kohl's, and many others.

Media Contact: Greg Nyhan
Phone: (908) 230 5777
Email: greg@strat-igence.com

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SOURCE Global Executive Group (GXG)