Leading national education executive search firm becomes the third to join new “Diversified Search Group” in the last year; parent firm is now one of the nation’s largest search firms, with revenues exceeding $100 million

PHILADELPHIA - Judith M. von Seldeneck, Founder and Chair of Diversified Search and AltoPartners Global Operating Committee Member, one of the top 10 executive search firms in the U.S., announced today that the firm has acquired Storbeck Search & Associates, one of the nation’s leading and most highly respected education executive search firms. Founded by Shelly Storbeck in 2007, Storbeck has its headquarters in Media, PA, with 50 employees across six other states and the District of Columbia.

Storbeck is one of the most recognized and respected search firms in higher education, and has conducted searches for some of the country’s finest colleges and universities, private schools, and nonprofit institutions. Its roster of university clients includes such names as Brown, Columbia, Haverford, Johns Hopkins, Lawrenceville, Michigan State, Northwestern, Pomona, Princeton, Swarthmore, and the University of Wisconsin, among many others.

Storbeck will join Diversified Search and its previously combined firms of BioQuest, Koya Leadership Partners, and Grant Cooper as a member of The Diversified Search Group, a newly formed entity that, in the words of von Seldeneck, “is building a new model for the executive search industry.”

“We are happy to welcome Storbeck into The Diversified Search Group, where along with Diversified’s strong higher education practice and the team from Koya, we now bring a combined deep and proven track record of success in the higher education search sector in the industry today.”

“We are proud to join a firm as dynamic as Diversified for many reasons, but above all because we share a fundamental commitment to doing our very best to identify the ideal leader for each client,” said Shelly Storbeck. “Leadership in education and the nonprofit sector is more important than ever, and the competition for exceptional leaders is intense. It is going to be exciting to work together across this extraordinary Diversified network that shares our focus on delivering leaders who excel for every institution.”

Founded by von Seldeneck in 1974, Diversified Search is today the largest woman-founded executive search firm in the world. In addition to its 11 U.S. offices, the firm also has representation in 53 offices in 31 countries worldwide through its partnership with AltoPartners, the international alliance of independent executive search firms that spans across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific.

Diversified Search established The Diversified Search Group to both build upon its expertise in its key practice areas and deepen its understanding of the industry-specific talent challenges facing organizations today. This combination of firms, a new model in the executive search industry, has created stronger synergies among the Group’s largest practice areas, including Education and Nonprofit, Healthcare Services, and Life Sciences. Providing its practices with deeper industry and functional focus, stronger research teams, and highly diverse and expansive candidate networks, The Diversified Search Group today offers the best search experience in the industry. And, united by shared values of respect, impact, integrity, commitment, and diversity and belonging, The Diversified Search Group is dedicated to recruiting and placing dynamic leaders who build culture, foster innovation, and deliver both social impact and financial performance.

“When you think about the five core values that define The Diversified Search Group — respect, impact, integrity, commitment, and diversity and belonging — you can understand why Storbeck is such a natural fit in the Diversified family,” said Dale E. Jones, the CEO of Diversified Search and member of AltoPartners Global Operating Committee. “We couldn’t be happier to be having Shelly and her outstanding team helping us find the country’s most outstanding leaders.”