Our strategy and efforts are clearly yielding results as we delivered a 70% increase in fee revenue with really strong profitability, earnings per share of $1.37 and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.7%, and these results are the continuation of our momentum over recent quarters and our performance speaks to our agility and importantly to the purpose for decisions and deliberate actions we've taken not only over the last few quarters but over the last several years, and now they've come together in a critical mass of opportunity.
We're going to continue to drive an integrated go-to-market strategy through our marquee and regional accounts, which represent about 35% of our portfolio.
In the quarter, about 30% of our revenue was driven by cross referrals, an all-time high, which I think demonstrates the effectiveness of our go-to-market strategy.
As Gary mentioned, fee revenue in the first quarter was up $241 million or 70% year-over-year and $30 million or 5% sequentially, and that's reaching an all-time high of $585 million.
Consolidated fee revenue growth in the first quarter measured year-over-year was up 81% in the Exe Search, 103% in RPO and Pro Search, 50% in Consulting and 44% in Digital.
In the first quarter, revenue from our marquee and regional accounts was up 70% year-over-year and 4% sequentially.
And as Gary mentioned, in the first quarter, over 35% of our consolidated fee revenue was generated from these accounts.
In the first quarter, about 30% of fee revenue was generated from cross line of business referrals, which is up from 25.5% and 28.5% in the first and fourth quarters of fiscal '21, respectively.
Adjusted EBITDA grew $111 million year-over-year and $8.5 million or 7.5% sequentially to $121 million, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.7%.
Now, that's our third consecutive quarter with an adjusted EBITDA margin over 20%.
Fully diluted earnings per share also reached a record level in the first quarter, improving to $1.37, which was up from $1.56 compared to adjusted fully diluted earnings per share in the first quarter of fiscal '21 and up $0.16 or 13% sequentially.
I would like to point out that in the first quarter our fully diluted earnings per share benefited by $0.07 to $0.08 from a lower tax rate of 23.8%.
Now, currently we don't believe that this rate is sustainable, and for all of fiscal '22 we're projecting an effective tax rate in the range of 26% to 27%.
We're pleased to share that our new business generation in each of the last six months is in our top 10 ever with three of the months occupying spots, one, two and three.
Now more specifically on a consolidated basis, new business awards, excluding RPO were up 59% year-over-year and up approximately 2% sequentially.
New business growth was strongest for Professional Search, which was up 14% from the fourth quarter of fiscal '21.
RPO new business had another strong quarter in the first quarter with $113 million of total contract awards.
At the end of the first quarter, cash and marketable securities totaled $904 million.
Now when you exclude amounts reserved for deferred comp arrangements and for accrued bonuses, the global investable cash balance at the end of the first quarter was approximately $614 million, which is up $103 million or 20% year-over-year.
Now of that amount, approximately $220 million was in the United States.
Over the last quarter, total new fee earner consultants grew by 127, which includes both new hires in recent promotions.
Additionally, consistent with our balanced approach to capital allocation, we repurchased approximately $3 million of stock in the first quarter and paid a quarterly cash dividend of approximately $6.9 million.
Global fee revenue for KF Digital was $81 million in the first quarter, which was up nearly 44% year-over-year and flat sequentially.
In the first quarter, subscription and license fee revenue was $24 million, which was up approximately 14% year-over-year.
More importantly, global new business for KF Digital in the first quarter was $108 million, with 36% of this new business related to subscription and license services, up 69% year-over-year -- on a year-over-year basis.
Earnings and profitability remained strong for KF Digital in the first quarter with adjusted EBITDA of $25.6 million and a 31.8% adjusted EBITDA margin.
In the first quarter, Consulting generated $148.5 million of fee revenue, which was up approximately $49 million or 50% year-over-year.
Fee revenue growth was broad-based across all solution areas and strongest regionally in North America, which was up over 70% year-over-year.
Consulting new business was also very strong in the first quarter, growing approximately 36% year-over-year and 2% sequentially to a new all-time high.
Additionally, while the volume of engagements over $500,000 has remained strong, in the first quarter the volume of smaller assignments, those under $500,000 in value grew sequentially, potentially signaling a rebound in demand and spending by our smaller regional clients who tend to buy focus point solutions.
Adjusted EBITDA for Consulting in the first quarter was $26.8 million with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.1%.
Globally, fee revenue was $139.3 million, which was up 103% year-over-year and approximately $19 million or 16% sequentially.
RPO fee revenue grew approximately 98% year-over-year and 11% sequentially, while Professional Search fee revenue was up approximately 112% year-over-year and up 24% sequentially.
Professional Search new business was up 14% sequentially and RPO was awarded $113 million of new contracts consisting of $45 million of renewals and extensions and $68 million of new logo work.
Adjusted EBITDA for RPO and Professional Search continue to scale in the first quarter, improving to $34 million with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 24.4%.
Finally in the first quarter, global fee revenue for Executive Search reached a new all-time high of $217 million, which was up 81% year-over-year and 8% sequentially.
Growth was also broad based and led by North America, which grew 100% year-over-year and over 6% sequentially.
Fee revenue in EMEA and APAC were up approximately 4% and 22%, respectively.
The total number of dedicated Executive Search consultants worldwide at the end of the first quarter was 565, up 55 year-over-year and up 41 sequentially, including 22 colleagues who were recently promoted.
Annualized fee revenue production per consultant in the first quarter improved to a record $1.59 million and the number of new search assignments opened worldwide in the first quarter was up 57% year-over-year and 2% sequentially to 1,745.
In the first quarter, global Executive Search adjusted EBITDA grew to approximately $61.6 million, which was up $53.5 million year-over-year and up $11.7 million or 23.5% sequentially.
Adjusted EBITDA margin in the first quarter was 28.4%.
Now August is historically a seasonal month influenced by summer vacations, but new business for August was up approximately 41% year-over-year and was in line with our expectations.
Now assuming no major Delta variant related lockdowns or changes in worldwide economic conditions, financial markets or foreign exchange rates, we expect our consolidated fee revenue in the second quarter of fiscal '22 to range from $585 million to $615 million and our consolidated diluted earnings per share to range from $1.30 to $1.44.

Summary:
Our strategy and efforts are clearly yielding results as we delivered a 70% increase in fee revenue with really strong profitability, earnings per share of $1.37 and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.7%, and these results are the continuation of our momentum over recent quarters and our performance speaks to our agility and importantly to the purpose for decisions and deliberate actions we've taken not only over the last few quarters but over the last several years, and now they've come together in a critical mass of opportunity.
Fully diluted earnings per share also reached a record level in the first quarter, improving to $1.37, which was up from $1.56 compared to adjusted fully diluted earnings per share in the first quarter of fiscal '21 and up $0.16 or 13% sequentially.
Now assuming no major Delta variant related lockdowns or changes in worldwide economic conditions, financial markets or foreign exchange rates, we expect our consolidated fee revenue in the second quarter of fiscal '22 to range from $585 million to $615 million and our consolidated diluted earnings per share to range from $1.30 to $1.44.