Profile: Six New Managing Directors at Diversified Search

AltoPartners, the international alliance of independent executive search and leadership consulting firms, is proud to welcome six new Managing Directors/Partners to the Diversified Search team across their US offices. Neysa Dillon-Brown has joined the firm’s Atlanta office as Managing Director in the Healthcare Practice; Leslie (Les) Stern has joined as Managing Director in the Chicago office; Charles H. King has joined as Managing Director in the Board of Directors Practice based in the New York office; Guy A. Sava has joined the firm’s Philadelphia office as a Managing Partner and Natural Resources Practice Leader; John J. Keller has joined as a Managing Director and Technology and Telecommunications Practice Leader, dividing his time between New York and San Francisco; and Michel Deschapelles has joined as a Managing Director in the Technology and Telecommunications Practice based in the Miami office.

Neysa Dillon-Brown has joined the firm’s Atlanta office as Managing Director in the Healthcare Practice. An experienced and highly respected search consultant with broad and deep national relationships with senior executives and emerging leaders in healthcare systems around the country; she has an impressive portfolio of clients in the academic, healthcare delivery, association and community hospital sectors. Dillon-Brown has a track record of identifying, cultivating and matching leaders in dynamic and complex environments while also providing top notch service to her clients which have been instrumental in securing new and repeat business. As a Managing Director in the Healthcare Practice she plans on building on her ten years in executive search by partnering with academic medical centres, health care systems and national health networks to place talented and diverse leaders. For the past ten years Dillon-Brown has been with the Desir Group LLC, a national search firm, most recently serving as the President, Executive Search Practice. Previously she spent five years with the Institute for Diversity in Health Management, an AHA affiliate, and SUNY Health Science Center of Brooklyn.

Leslie (Les) Stern, formerly a Partner with CTPartners, has joined as Managing Director. Stern has over 40 years of experience in executive search, both as an entrepreneur running a successful firm and as a partner with global firms. Stern was primarily responsible for strategically building the professional ranks of CTPartners. He was charged with broadening the geographic reach of the firm and identifying and staffing practice areas to support efforts throughout the world. Stern’s search career began when he established Stern Associates, a firm he led for 25 years. He merged his firm with Ward Howell, where he was head of the Financial Services Practice. Later he joined Sullivan & Company, which was eventually acquired by Heidrick & Struggles. During his career with Heidrick and Struggles, Stern specialized in conducting senior-level searches in the financial services industry. Recognized as a leading professional in Who’s Who and Who’s Who in Finance and Industry, Stern is one of Crain’s “100 Most Influential Business Leaders in New York.”

Charles H. King, formerly of CTPartners, has joined the New York office as Managing Director in the Board of Directors Practice. King is a recognized expert in the field of corporate governance and has successfully recruited hundreds of directors for many of the top companies in the world. While at CTPartners, King was responsible for board of director assignments and corporate governance consulting. He also led CEO recruiting assignments, primarily for large public companies. Previously, he served as Managing Director of the CEO & Board Services Practice at Korn/Ferry International. He has led director training programs throughout the U.S., and his remarks have appeared in all of the major business media. A frequent speaker on the governance circuit, he has addressed audiences in the U.S. and globally, and was named to the Directorship 100 list of the Most Influential Individuals in Corporate Governance.

Guy A. Sava has joined as a Managing Partner and Natural Resources Practice Leader in the Philadelphia office. Previously, Sava was a Senior Partner with Heidrick & Struggles International, where he was a member of both the Industrial and CEO & Board Practices. He worked with global manufacturing, chemical, materials, energy and other industrial sector clients in searches for their Corporate Boards and managed recruiting assignments for Executive, General Management, and Functional leadership positions within the sector. His broad search experience is global including both private equity firms and public companies. Prior to Heidrick & Struggles International, Sava was President of the Industrial, Chemical, Energy & Materials Practice at another global search firm and a member of their Board Service Practice. He has also held senior executive positions at prominent manufacturing companies including The Rohm and Haas Company and PQ Corporation.

John J. Keller has joined as a Managing Director and Technology and Telecommunications Practice Leader. He will divide his time between offices in New York and San Francisco. Keller brings a unique perspective to his work as a seasoned executive recruiter and advisor and former veteran business journalist. He previously served as a Vice Chairman at CTPartners, Global Head of the firm’s Technology, Media and Telecommunication Practice, and a senior member of the firm’s Board and CEO Practice. Prior to joining CTPartners, he spent more than a dozen years in executive search, most notably as a Senior Partner at Spencer Stuart, where he conducted hundreds of critical leadership assignments. Keller helped build the firm’s Technology and Communications Practices as well as Spencer Stuart’s CEO, Board, Assessment and Intelligence units. He specializes in providing strategic consultation to CEOs, CHROs and Board leaders seeking transformation, growth and diversity for their businesses and boards. Keller’s clients range from pioneering businesses to major multinational corporations and private equity and venture-backed businesses.

Michel Deschapelles has joined as a Managing Director in the Technology and Telecommunications Practice based in the Miami office. Deschapelles comes to Diversified from CTPartners, where he was a Partner in the Miami office. He offers clients a distinctive combination of deep executive search expertise with extensive business experience, having led enterprises in both growth and turn around environments. As a search consultant for the past eight years, most notably at Egon Zehnder, he pioneered several initiatives that included helping clients across sectors and functions specially focused on their transformation and diversity efforts. Earlier, Deschapelles had a distinguished ten year career at Lucent Technologies (now Alcatel-Lucent) where he held several leadership positions including President of Lucent Central America, Venezuela, and Caribbean. Before joining Lucent, he served as Systems Officer for the Republic National Bank of New York in Miami (now HSBC). He began his professional career on Wall Street as a Financial Analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston Limited. A Swiss-born American citizen, Deschapelles is fluent in English, Spanish, and French, and Portuguese.

---

Note to Editors:

About AltoPartners

Established in 2006 as an alliance between three well-established groups, namely; Accord Group, Leaders Trust International and Oxygen Executive Search, today the alliance covers 52 offices in 31 countries. The AltoPartners alliance has created a distinctive force in executive search worldwide, giving global coverage across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. For more information about the work we do and the regions we cover, please visit www.altopartners.com Follow AltoPartners on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/companies/altopartners

About Diversified Search

With more than 40 years in executive search, Diversified is the largest US woman-founded and owned firm in the industry. Diversified is recognized for delivering high quality corporate Board and senior-level executive searches across all industry sectors nationally and internationally. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Diversified Search also has US offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., and worldwide in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and the Americas. Diversified is the exclusive U.S. partner of AltoPartners, the international alliance of independent search firms with offices in 31 countries worldwide. For more information, go to http://www.diversifiedsearch.com

AltoPartners Media Queries

Julia Scheffer
AltoPartners Communications & Brand Manager
Email: j.scheffer@altopartners.com
Telephone: +27 (0) 11 728 0105