The Philadelphia Inquirer – Philly-based Diversified Search Increases Revenues by the Millions, and Plans to Keep Expanding

When Judith von Seldeneck moved to Philadelphia in 1974, she had a vision to revolutionize the job search and hiring process for women.

As the country’s unemployment rate approaches record lows at about 3.8% and Americans place an ever greater value on their job security, corporations are finding it more challenging to fill their executive vacancies with a qualified, diverse set of individuals willing to switch jobs. And yet the difficulties associated with matching competent candidates with high-level corporate positions are a chronic test spanning decades; difficulties that Judith von Seldeneck knows all too well. Judith experienced these issues first hand when she first moved to Philadelphia in 1974, and had a vision to revolutionize the job search and hiring process for women, who still remain an underserved and underrepresented minority in corporate America.

This vision ultimately culminated in Diversified Search, a C-suite placement company with 150 employees, offices in 30 countries and 60 cities, sporting an impressive array of clients including Amazon, Lockheed and Yale University. Diversified Search is now the largest female-founded firm in the country. “Every exec search firm must be able to demonstrate they value diversity within their organization and the candidate pools that we introduce to our clients,” said Cynthia Soledad, Egon Zehnder’s co-lead of the Diversity and Inclusion practice based out of Chicago. “We feel like [executive search firms] are arbiters of what great leadership looks like in the future.” Frms that fail to demonstrate that they value diversity will be at a major disadvantage, said Soledad.

Full story: Ellie Rishing: Philly-based Diversified Search Increases Revenues by the Millions, and Plans to Keep Expanding The Philadelphia Inquirer (19 August 2019