Female Executive Search Appoints New Leader

September 23, 2019 – Despite the evidence that equality at the senior level improves the bottom line, a disparity remains in representation at the C-suite level, across all sectors. Female Executive Search, a recruitment platform that matches the world’s top female leadership talent with progressive businesses and organizations that value gender diversity, recently named France Dequilbec as its new managing director.

Executive recruitment firm CEO Worldwide launched Female Executive Search last year to help women find their next executive leadership role and to help advance the issues that matter to women leaders, such as flexible working for parents, mentorship and a commitment to challenging the perceptions of women in leadership roles.

Previously head of international talent acquisition for Female Executive Search, Ms. Dequilbec said that the past 12 months have offered valuable insight into the job market for senior women. “We have multiple goals at Female Executive Search,” she said. “First, to provide a platform for candidates to demonstrate their capabilities; secondly, to offer organizations access to a wealth of senior talent, and thirdly, to encourage connections and the sharing of ideas and experience between our community.”

“Over the past year I have interviewed hundreds of very senior women and nearly all of them have told me how difficult it is for them to access top executive roles,” Ms. Dequilbec said. “The path to gender equality is opening up, but the struggle clearly continues—and that’s why services like Female Executive Search are so necessary.”

The CEO of Female Executive Search and its parent company, CEO Worldwide, Patrick Mataix, said it is important the business is itself led by a woman: “At CEO Worldwide we’ve long believed in the value of diversity—our own board has a 2:1 female to male ratio—and we felt it was particularly important that Female Executive Search has strong female leadership at the helm,” he said. “France is the natural choice. She has been instrumental in structuring and managing CEO Worldwide’s international talent sourcing team, but also holds a post-master’s degree in information and communication technologies as well as a Ph.D. from the Sorbonne, and has spent time in very senior roles in some of the world’s largest companies, as well as running her own communications business for 13 years.”

Benefitting from Gender Diversity

“We want the candidates who join us to work with a team that truly understands the challenges they’re facing, and businesses to see us as an example of an organization benefitting from gender diversity,” said Mr. Mataix.

Advancing Women to the C-Suite


A stubborn paradox exists within boardrooms across America. Companies are appointing more women to board seats than ever before, yet the overall share of women directors is barely budging. While business leaders have gotten the clear message that diversity matters in the workplace, it is equally clear that current methods of sourcing and selecting candidates is falling short.

Peggy Alford, a senior executive with PayPal who was just elected as the first African American woman to join the nine-member board of social media giant Facebook, joins Hunt Scanlon Media in New York on November 6 to examine the disconnect between the business community’s intent to achieve greater equality on their boards and the realization of attaining that goal. She will explore why every company needs to cultivate a culture of inclusiveness and she will outline steps for companies and recruiters to take to boost diversification at a faster rate.

Join Peggy at Next-Gen Leaders: Advancing Women to the C-Suite! Women business leaders are looking for fresh pathways to the top . . . to help them get there we will draw on her expertise as well as top HR, talent, recruitment, and C-suite leaders from other blue-chip brands, including IBM, The New York Times, Littlejohn, LinkedIn, Avaya, WarnerMedia Entertainment, Pfizer, PepsiCo, The Philadelphia Flyers, PayPal, and a host of others. 

Sponsor or sign up to attend today!


CEO Worldwide was founded in 2001. Its focus is on challenging the lengthy and expensive process of recruiting international executives. The firm is committed to: fixed recruitment fees, payable on successful placement; flexible contract terms– contract, interim or permanent—to suit each client; a selection of suitable candidates supplied to clients within 10 days; and a 100 percent 12-month replacement guarantee.

CEO Worldwide has won a reputation for its ability to match candidates to urgent requirements, alongside its cross-border placement expertise. Its Investors on Demand service can also connect businesses with investment, when it is needed most. Earlier this year, the firm was included on Forbes’ list of the best 250 U.S. executive recruitment firms. The firm has more than 17,000 certified executives on its global iCEO database, including hundreds of female leader roles.

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor; and Andrew W. Mitchell, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media

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