It was almost a year ago, the great uncertainty filled the world, and I predicted that we would see more change in sealing two years than in the past 10.
In the last two quarters, we've brought on about 70 senior commercial colleagues to strengthen our bench of talent across the globe.
At the end of the third quarter we hold rewards data for over 20 million people, over 70 million assessments have been taken.
We've got organizational benchmark data on 12,000 entities.
We have 3,900 individual success profiles covering almost 30,000 job titles.
Our proprietary recruiting AI tool has compiled more than 550 million profiles of potential candidates across the globe.
Every year we train and develop nearly 1 million professionals.
Revenue was up 9% sequentially to $475 million and our earnings and profitability reached record highs with about $97 million of adjusted EBITDA and a little over a 20% adjusted EBITDA margin.
Back then, our fee revenue in the quarter immediately following the peak quarter was down approximately 43%, two quarters out it was still down 32%.
Now if we fast forward a few years and look at the COVID-19 recession, the decline in fee revenue from the peak quarter was only 16%, in two quarters out, we're only down 8%, that's a substantial improvement from the great recession.
Year-to-date subscription base fee revenue grew 27% while our third quarter new business that was subscription based was up a 123% year-over-year and almost 48% sequentially.
And we're also, as we've talked about, we're continuing to see success in capturing larger consulting engagements, we would classify those that have a value of $500,000 or more and these engagements are absolutely driven by our integrated solution strategy that provide us with more enduring client relationships of scale.
Year-to-date large new business consulting engagements were up 23%.
And these large engagements are also driving a growing backlog of 24% year-over-year which obviously enhances revenue visibility and durability.
In the third quarter, our marquee and regional account fee revenue declined only 2% year-over-year, while the rest of the portfolio was down about 11% and on a year-to-date basis, our marquee and regional accounts, they've have been relatively aggressive.
It's up 1% year-over-year, while the rest of the portfolio declined 13%.
it is about three years ago, our cross referrals were about 15% of our portfolio.
Today that number stands at 26%.
Our long-term goal is to take our expertise in IP and develop 1 million new leaders from diverse backgrounds using our Korn Ferry Advance and Leadership U platforms.
As Gary mentioned, fee revenue in the third quarter was $475 million.
Additionally, fee revenue growth in the third quarter, this is measured year-over-year, was up 7% for RPO.
We also saw a substantial improvement in Consulting and that was only down 3% year-over-year, and in Professional Search, that was only down 2% year-over-year.
Our adjusted EBITDA grew $31 million or 46% sequentially to $97 million and our adjusted EBITDA margin improved 510 basis points to 20.3%.
Adjusted fully diluted earnings per share also reached a record level in the third quarter, improving to $0.95, now that was up $0.41 or 76% sequentially and up $0.20 or 27% year-over-year.
Now, it's important to note that full employee salaries have been reinstated effective January 1, 2021.
So similar to the second quarter, our cost structure in the third quarter reflects 100% of all employees compensation costs.
On a consolidated basis, our new business awards excluding RPO were down only 1% year-over-year.
Consulting was up 8%, digital was up 14%, executive search was up 8% and professional search was up 31%.
At the end of the third quarter, our cash and marketable securities totaled $897 million.
Now, if you exclude amounts reserved for deferred comp and accrued bonuses, our investable cash balance at the end of the third quarter was approximately $534 million, which is up $73 million sequentially and up $112 million year-over-year.
Now to date, obviously, we have successfully managed in the depth at our business to the changing environment and we are now investing back into the recovery, as Gary mentioned by hiring 70 senior commercial colleagues over the past two quarters.
Global fee revenue for KF Digital was $76 million in the third quarter.
Consistent with the second quarter, the subscription and licensing component of KF Digital fee revenue in the third quarter was $23 million.
Global new business in the third quarter for the Digital segment grew 14% sequentially to $100 million, the best quarter of new business since the beginning of the COVID recession.
Additionally, 43% of new business in the third quarter was subscriptions and licenses, which is the highest portion of any quarter to date.
Adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter for KF Digital was up $4 million sequentially to $27.1 million with a 35.8% adjusted EBITDA margin.
In the third quarter, Consulting generated $136.3 million of fee revenue, which is up approximately $9.5 million or 8% sequentially and down only 3% measured year-over-year.
Sequentially global new business was up 8% with growth in every region.
Adjusted EBITDA for Consulting in the third quarter was up $7.3 million sequentially to $27.5 million with adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.2%.
RPO and Professional Search global fee revenue improved to $95.2 million in the third quarter, which is up 11% sequentially and up 4% year-over-year.
RPO fee revenue was up approximately 4% sequentially and professional search fee revenue was up approximately 24% sequentially.
As previously mentioned, measured year-over-year, RPO fee revenue was up 7% in the third quarter.
With regards to new business, in the third quarter, professional search was up 31% sequentially and RPO was awarded another $44 million of new contracts, consisting of $12 million of renewals and extensions and $32 million of new logo work.
Adjusted EBITDA for RPO and Professional Search in the third quarter was up approximately $5.8 million sequentially to $19.6 million with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.6%.
Finally for executive search, global fee revenue in the third quarter was $168 million, up $20 million or 14% sequentially with growth in every region.
Sequentially, North America was up approximately 16%, while EMEA and APAC were up approximately 14% and 4% respectively.
The total number of dedicated executive search consultants worldwide at the end of the third quarter was 522 which was up 10 sequentially.
Annualized fee revenue production per consultant in the third quarter improved to $1.3 million and the number of new search assignments opened worldwide in the third quarter was 1,300.
In the third quarter adjusted EBITDA grew approximately $13.4 million sequentially to $41.7 million with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 24.8%.
Considering this and assuming no new major pandemic related lockdowns, changes in worldwide economic conditions financial markets and foreign exchange rates, we expect our consolidated fee revenue in the fourth quarter of fiscal '21 to range from $475 million to $500 million, and our consolidated diluted earnings per share to range from $0.95 to $1.05.
If you go back prior to the pandemic, we were essentially a $2 billion business within adjusted EBITDA margin of around 15% to 16%.
As we return to the pre-pandemic levels of fee revenue, our business will benefit from previously mentioned structural changes and we're going to add around 200 basis points to our adjusted EBITDA margin, and as a result, we expect near-term consolidated margins beyond the fourth quarter to range from 17% to 18%.

Summary:
Adjusted fully diluted earnings per share also reached a record level in the third quarter, improving to $0.95, now that was up $0.41 or 76% sequentially and up $0.20 or 27% year-over-year.
Now, it's important to note that full employee salaries have been reinstated effective January 1, 2021.
Considering this and assuming no new major pandemic related lockdowns, changes in worldwide economic conditions financial markets and foreign exchange rates, we expect our consolidated fee revenue in the fourth quarter of fiscal '21 to range from $475 million to $500 million, and our consolidated diluted earnings per share to range from $0.95 to $1.05.