GLG (Gerson Lehrman Group)
GLG positions itself as the pioneer of the expert network category and one of the largest global platforms for first-hand professional insight. The firm says it works with approximately 1.2 million professionals across industries, roles, and geographies, serving investors, consulting firms, corporates, law firms, and other institutions through a broader stack that includes Calls, Surveys, Events, Library, Placements, Qualitative work, and Integrated Insights. Recent product evolution has pushed GLG further into AI-assisted workflow and research synthesis through myGLG and interactive transcript tooling.
- Network breadth
- Compliance strength
- Content library depth
- Multi-format research
- Professionals / Network Members
- ~1.2MPositioning confidence
- Employees (LinkedIn band)
- 1,001–5,000Verified confidence
- Per-call / project / subscription
- MixedInference confidence
Services
- GLG Calls
- GLG Surveys
- GLG Events
- GLG Library
- GLG Integrated Insights
- GLG Qualitative
- GLG Placements
- GLG Institute
- GLG Frontier (AI labs practice)
Buyer fit
Best for
- Hedge funds & asset managers
- Private equity / private credit
- Consulting & market-research firms
- Law firms
- Large enterprises needing primary research or diligence
- Teams needing bespoke calls and reusable content workflows
When not ideal
- Not the cheapest option
- Overbuilt for small one-off needs
- No transparent public pricing
Key strengths
- Category pioneer with 25+ years of operating history
- Very large network scale (~1.2M professionals)
- Strong compliance positioning and auditable infrastructure
- Multi-format product stack well beyond basic expert calls
- Increasingly capable AI-assisted research workflow via myGLG
- Growing reusable content library (20,000+ items as of Oct 2023, ~500 new/month)
- Content distributed via Bloomberg Terminal and FactSet — broadest distribution reach of any expert network
- Global office footprint with dedicated teams in NYC, London, Dubai, Austin, Bengaluru, and multiple Asian cities
- Serves 2,700+ client organizations across hedge funds, PE, consulting, law firms, and corporates — the broadest client base in the industry
Watch-outs
- Public pricing is not transparent — no listed rates
- 'Largest' and 'best-in-class' are partly market-positioning claims, not independently benchmarked
- Some workflow sophistication is evident, but the public site leaves important operational details abstract
- Employee count is not pinned down precisely in official public materials
- May be overbuilt for very small one-off research needs
Deep dive
1OverviewVerified confidence
GLG is one of the foundational companies in the expert-network / insight-network category. It connects clients with professionals who provide first-hand industry knowledge through calls, surveys, events, qualitative sessions, transcript content, and broader managed research formats. GLG's current positioning is no longer just 'find an expert for a call' — it is closer to a broader insight workflow spanning sourcing, live interaction, content reuse, and AI-assisted synthesis.
2HistoryVerified confidence
GLG was founded in 1998 by Mark Gerson and Thomas Lehrman. According to GLG's official history, it began as a publishing company focused on sector-specific reports for investors and evolved into a business model centered on access to professionals with direct domain experience. GLG expanded internationally early, opening its first office outside the U.S. in London, and later built additional practice areas and increasingly sophisticated compliance systems as the expert-network industry matured. GLG's own language and former IPO filings both support the claim that it pioneered the category.
- 1998Founded in New York as Gerson Lehrman Group
- Early 2000sExpands from report publishing into direct expert access workflows
- 2004Opens London office and broadens practice areas internationally
- Mid-2000sBuilds major compliance systems as the category professionalizes
- 2010sSurvives industry scrutiny during insider-trading enforcement wave; compliance posture strengthens brand
- 2023GLG Library reaches 20,000+ transcripts and content items (including 15,000+ transcripts specifically), with ~500 new pieces per month; Library content made available via FactSet and Bloomberg
- 2025Launches redesigned myGLG with AI-assisted features and GLG for Experts mobile app
- 2025Expands NYC HQ to 96K SF across two floors at One Grand Central Place; opens expanded Dubai DIFC office
- 2026Relaunches myGLG client platform with agentic AI tools (May 2026); Expert Content Library reaches Bloomberg Terminal clients via the ASKB conversational AI interface in beta
- Mar 2026Opens San Francisco office at 595 Market Street with dedicated teams for technology, consulting, and finance clients
- Jul–Aug 2026Launches GLG MCP connector for expert research inside client AI tools (July 22); releases enhanced AI-Moderated Calls running autonomous expert interviews in 10 languages (August 6)
- Oct 2026Launches GLG Frontier, a dedicated practice supplying verified expertise to AI labs for model evaluation, fine-tuning, and benchmarking; names Grady Gardner General Manager
3Services in detailVerified confidence
- GLG Calls
- The core format: one-on-one, translated, or multiparty conversations with professionals selected for a specific business question. GLG matches experts from its network to client needs with structured compliance workflows.
- GLG Surveys
- B2B research delivered through first-hand expertise and broader respondent sourcing workflows. Surveys can be paired with calls for deeper follow-up or used standalone for quantitative market sizing and sentiment analysis.
- GLG Events
- Roundtables, teleconferences, webcasts, and interactive sessions tied to industry themes and breaking developments. Events bring together multiple experts and client participants for broader perspective gathering.
- GLG Library
- One of GLG's most important differentiators. In 2023, GLG said the Library included 20,000+ transcripts and content assets, with nearly 500 new items per month. GLG also made Library content available through FactSet. Library provides reusable, searchable content that reduces repeat engagement costs.
- GLG Integrated Insights
- Combines multiple offerings into broader managed projects — due diligence, market assessments, competitive landscape work, and multi-method research programs that span calls, surveys, events, and content.
- GLG Qualitative
- Focus groups, workshops, discussion panels, moderated calls, and other live insight-gathering formats. Designed for clients needing richer, more interactive engagement beyond standard one-on-one calls.
- GLG Placements
- Supports expert witness matching and board / advisor / nonexecutive director-style matching. GLG explicitly markets board placement and executive advisory use cases.
- GLG Institute
- Educational programming and practitioner-led sessions designed for professional development and sector deep-dives. Supplements GLG's core research services with structured learning.
- GLG Frontier
- Practice announced in October 2026 that provides AI labs and model developers with verified expertise and structured data for evaluating, fine-tuning, stress-testing, and benchmarking models. GLG says experts can help design evaluations, build benchmarks, and red-team systems, through targeted projects or sustained multi-month programs. Led by General Manager Grady Gardner.
4AI & platformPositioning confidence
GLG's public AI/workflow story is strongest around myGLG and transcript tooling. The company publicly markets a redesigned myGLG portal that lets users search the network directly, launch projects, synthesize across transcripts, and manage projects more efficiently. It also markets 'Ask AI,' external-file upload for synthesis, and transcript interactions that let users extract insights, switch views, and surface sentiment or Q&A structure. On the expert side, GLG launched the GLG for Experts app in 2025, with AI-suggested responses and task-management features.
- Ask AI in myGLG for research synthesis
- Cross-transcript synthesis and comparison
- Upload and merge external files with GLG research for combined analysis
- Interactive transcript views with Q&A, insight extraction, and sentiment surfacing
- Advanced matching systems for expert identification
- GLG for Experts mobile app with AI-suggested responses and push notifications
- GLG MCP connector: query project call history and Expert Content Library inside client AI tools, with compliance-officer control over what enters those tools (July 2026)
- AI-Moderated Calls: AI Moderator conducts structured expert interviews in 10 languages with quantitative question types and one-click synthesis (August 2026)
5ComplianceVerified confidence
GLG publicly emphasizes that it has helped establish compliance norms for the expert-network category and describes its model as structured, auditable, and transparent. Its public materials refer to proprietary compliance systems and technologies, annual expert training, and controls designed to reduce conflict and confidential-information risk.
- Strong compliance reputation and industry-leading positioning
- Structured, auditable, and transparent interaction framework
- Annual expert compliance training
- Conflict-management controls
- Confidential-information safeguards
- Proprietary compliance systems and technologies
6Client fitInference confidence
GLG is especially well suited for users who need both custom primary research and reusable content infrastructure. Its multi-format product stack and large network make it a strong choice across buy-side, consulting, legal, and enterprise use cases.
- Hedge funds and asset managers doing thematic or company diligence
- Private equity and private credit teams across origination, diligence, and portfolio work
- Consulting firms under time pressure on niche projects
- Legal teams needing sector specialists or expert witness pathways
- Enterprise strategy, product, and market-intelligence teams
- Teams that value reusable transcript libraries alongside bespoke calls
7Notable facts
- Founded in 1998 — one of the oldest expert networks in operation
- Approximately 1.2 million professionals in the network
- LinkedIn company size band: 1,001–5,000 employees
- GLG Library had 20,000+ transcripts and content items as of October 2023 relaunch (15,000+ transcripts specifically, per the September 2023 FactSet announcement, with ~500 new items per month)
- Library content distributed through FactSet partnership; expert transcripts also available via Bloomberg Terminal (announced July 2023)
- 2008 strategic alliance with Credit Suisse gave CS analysts direct GLG network access (documented in Harvard Business School case study)
- No individual clients publicly named despite disclosing 2,700+ client count in filings — all case studies are anonymized
- Redesigned myGLG launched in 2025 with AI-assisted features; relaunched in May 2026 with agentic AI tools
- GLG for Experts mobile app launched in September 2025 with AI-suggested responses (rated 4.6 on Google Play)
- Expanded NYC HQ to 96K SF at One Grand Central Place (2025)
- Opened expanded Dubai DIFC office in January 2025
8Source notes & methodology
- Official GLG website (glginsights.com) used as primary source for product, history, and compliance claims
- LinkedIn used for company-size band and headquarters confirmation
- External legal and industry sources used for sector-context language on compliance and regulatory history
- Unsupported operational specifics removed or softened from previous version
- FactSet partnership and Library stats sourced from GLG press releases and public announcements
- Employee count changed from '2,500+' to LinkedIn band '1,001–5,000' due to insufficient primary-source documentation for the previous figure
- November 2026 refresh: San Francisco office, MCP connector, AI-Moderated Calls, and GLG Frontier sourced from GLG press releases on glg.com/news (March 25, July 22, August 6, and October 15, 2026). GLG's homepage did not state expert, employee, or office counts when checked, so those fields are unchanged.
9Data confidence ratings
Each data point in this profile is graded for source confidence. Here's what each badge means:
- Verified confidence
- Confirmed by official company disclosures, regulatory filings, or multiple independent sources.
- Positioning confidence
- Based on company marketing claims or self-reported data that could not be independently verified.
- Inference confidence
- Estimated or inferred from indirect evidence, third-party aggregators, or industry context.
- Partially unverifiable confidence
- Some aspects verified but full claim cannot be independently confirmed (e.g., private company financials from third-party estimates).
This profile's ratings
| Founded | Verified confidence |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Verified confidence |
| Expert count | Positioning confidence |
| Employee count | Verified confidence |
| Pricing model | Inference confidence |
| Services | Verified confidence |
| Compliance | Positioning confidence |
| Overview | Verified confidence |
| History | Verified confidence |
| Services in detail | Verified confidence |
| AI & platform | Positioning confidence |
| Compliance (detailed) | Verified confidence |
| Client fit | Inference confidence |
10How we researched this
This profile was researched and written by the ExpertNetworks.net editorial team using a multi-source methodology:
- Primary sources: Company website, press releases, SEC/regulatory filings, and official announcements
- Third-party verification: Industry reports (Integrity Research, Inex One), news coverage (TechCrunch, Bloomberg, FT), and data aggregators (PitchBook, Tracxn, Crunchbase)
- Cross-referencing: Claims were checked against multiple independent sources where possible; single-source claims are flagged
- Confidence grading: Each data point is rated as Verified, Positioning (company-claimed), or Inference (estimated from indirect evidence)
We do not accept payment from any expert network for inclusion or favorable coverage. If you spot an error, contact us with the correction and source.
Last fact-checked:
Industries served
- Financial Services
- Private Equity / Private Credit
- Healthcare / Life Sciences
- Technology / TMT
- Consumer
- Industrials
- Energy
- Legal / Regulatory
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