Enterprising Women Names Judith von Seldeneck, Founder and Chair of Diversified Search Group, to its Advisory Board

RALEIGH, N.C., February 4 – Monica Smiley, CEO and publisher of Enterprising Women magazine, has appointed Judith von Seldeneck, Founder and Chair of the Diversified Search Group, to the Enterprising Women Advisory Board.

“Enterprising Women is honored to welcome Judee von Seldeneck to our Advisory Board,” Smiley said in making the announcement. “Few women have done more to support the advancement of businesswomen and talent than she has throughout her career. A respected leader in the search industry, von Seldeneck has been identifying and placing senior-level executive talent around the country for more than four decades. As a pioneer in accessing capital to grow her company, today she is paying it forward by endowing a new fund for women entrepreneurs. And in founding one of the first regional forums for executive women, she has been at the forefront of building business alliances and mentoring women and girls in STEM. Finally, as a longtime advocate for diversity, she leads her company in concert with Dale E. Jones, the only African-American CEO of a major U.S. executive search firm. In so many respects, Judee embodies the leadership values of Enterprising Women and its network of successful women business owners across North America and globally.”

“The Enterprising Women Advisory Board is an inspirational forum of women entrepreneurs whose generosity and talent make each other stronger and create a powerful force for the future of young women and girls. I am proud to be a part of this vital organization,” said von Seldeneck.

Enterprising Women, the nation’s only women-owned magazine published exclusively for women business owners, chronicles the growing political, economic, and social influence and power of entrepreneurial women in 185 countries.

In a cover story in Enterprising Women’s Winter 2021 issue that focused on access to capital, von Seldeneck announced her plans for the formation of a fund to help women entrepreneurs, initially based in Philadelphia, to help those with proven potential get funding for their next phase of growth. She also discussed her work in supporting and funding the startup of STEM Connector and the Women Business Collaborative (WBC), both spearheaded by Edie Fraser, an advisor at the Diversified Search Group.

Von Seldeneck and Diversified Search Group provided critical backing to launch WBC as a powerful alliance of the top women’s business organizations, with nine business initiatives designed to promote equal position, pay and power for all businesswomen. WBC honored her in October 2020 with its WBC Trailblazer Award, citing her decades working for the advancement of businesswomen and talent.

At the same time, von Seldeneck was one of the earliest supporters of STEMconnector and its “Million Women Mentor” program. The program brings together corporations, universities, government leaders, girl-serving organizations, and others to provide mentorship and support for girls and young women to enter the STEM fields and pursue STEM-related entrepreneurship.

Such passion has been a constant in von Seldeneck’s career. For example, she had the foresight to know the importance of entrepreneurial sisterhood, founding the Forum of Executive Women, the largest association of women business leaders in Philadelphia.

Her roots in the democratization of economic opportunity were laid early, when she had the exemplary mentorship of Walter F. Mondale, in her role of executive assistant to the then-senator.

In the early 1970s she engaged with a small Philadelphia firm founded to find temp jobs for women at a time when career paths for women were limited. She bought out her partners in 1974, and over the next several decades, built the company into the leading firm it is in its field today, recognized by Forbes as number five in the U.S. and the only woman-founded firm with an African-American CEO.

She currently serves on the Comcast and NBC Universal Joint Diversity Council and is Chairperson on the Women’s Advisory Board. Over the years, she has been active on numerous public, private and nonprofit boards, including Citizens Financial Group, Tasty Baking Company, Teleflex, CoreStates Financial Group, Meridian Bancorp and AAA Mid Atlantic. She is a Global Board Member of AltoPartners, an international alliance of executive search firms.

She was one of the first women chairs of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and received the Chamber’s highest award, the William Penn Award for Business Leadership. She has also received the Association of Executive Search Consultants’ Eleanor H. Raynolds Award for Excellence in Executive Search; was designated as one of BusinessWeek’s Top 50 Most Influential Executive Recruiters in the World; and was inducted into the Philadelphia Business Hall of Fame. diversifiedsearch.com


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Enterprising Women, with headquarters in Cary, North Carolina, is the nation’s only women-owned magazine published exclusively for women business owners that chronicles the growing political, economic and social influence and power of entrepreneurial women. The magazine provides a friendly meeting place, a public forum and a national stage for the critical issues confronting women’s businesses and daily lives from the unique perspectives and experiences of entrepreneurial women. Published in both print and digital editions, the online edition of the magazine reaches one million readers in 185 countries. For more information, please visit http://enterprisingwomen.com or call (919) 362-1551.