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Canada's First Search Firm Focused on Recruiting Women for Board Seats Opens in Toronto
[September 18, 2014]

Canada's First Search Firm Focused on Recruiting Women for Board Seats Opens in Toronto


(Marketwire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TORONTO, ON -- (Marketwired) -- 09/18/14 -- Pamela Jeffery, Founder of the Women's Executive Network (WXN) and Canada's Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Awards announced today the launch of Canada's first female corporate director search firm. Pamela Jeffery Search will offer clients unparalleled knowledge of highly-qualified women across Canada and the U.S. for corporate boards.



"I began doing board searches last year because CEOs asked me to help find new female directors. I feel that the small number of women on corporate boards is not a supply issue -- there are many qualified women available -- but a demand issue. My experience doing director searches confirms this," Ms. Jeffery said.

Pamela Jeffery Search brings a fresh, uncomplicated approach to clients seeking female directors. The firm's philosophy is that pay for performance should extend to director search. As such, rather than a standard retainer arrangement, the firm customizes the search depending on the client's needs and budget. The fee is structured in a way that links a significant portion of the fee paid to results.


"WXN inspires smart women to lead. With 17,500 women who are members, it's time we connect this untapped talent pool of women who are unknown or overlooked or both with board seats. Governments, regulators and other stakeholders are now seeking greater gender diversity on corporate boards so here we are with a solution," Ms. Jeffery added.

The firm also announced that Board Advisor will be the U.S. affiliate of Pamela Jeffery Search. Headed by Canadian-born Beverly Behan in New York City, Board Advisor has spent the last 18 years advising boards on corporate governance on both sides of the border. Board Advisor has developed a proprietary database of outstanding U.S. female corporate executives, former executives and directors who have expressed interest in board opportunities in Canada which is available to Pamela Jeffery Search clients.

About Pamela JefferyDuring her 30 year career, Pamela has served as a Special Assistant to an Ontario Cabinet Minister; President and CEO of a mid-sized public affairs firm; Founder of the Women's Executive Network and the Canadian Board Diversity Council; and, Communications Advisor to a Canadian Prime Minister.

Between 1988 and 2006, she developed and executed public affairs strategies and performed executive searches for 200+ financial services, real estate, mining, government, telecom, health care and manufacturing clients. In 1997, she founded WXN and, in 2008, launched WXN in Europe. Under her leadership, WXN works with 80+ public and private company clients to support the advancement of women into senior management and executive roles. In 2009, she founded the Canadian Board Diversity Council.

She is well-versed in corporate governance. Pamela has served on 12 boards across a variety of sectors including Trent University, Canadian Opera Company and Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab Foundation. She has chaired one board and chaired three nominating and governance committees. She has also served on 12 advisory boards and governance committees (as a non-board member) including the Institute of Corporate Directors and the Toronto Board of Trade. She currently sits on the board of the Hincks-Dellcrest Foundation, is a member of the Richard Ivey School of Business Entrepreneurship Council and an ex-officio member of the federal government's Advisory Council on Women on Boards.

She holds an MBA and an HBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business. She taught in the MBA and EMBA programs at the Rotman School of Management from 1993-2001. She is a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors, Women Corporate Directors, International Women's Forum (IWF), The Toronto Club and The National Club (Past President). In 2012, she was honoured (together with Hillary Clinton and Melinda Gates) as one of 60 women from around the world in (magazine) Fast Company's League of Extraordinary Women.

About Beverly BehanBeverly Behan has worked with more than 135 boards in the United States, Canada and internationally over the past 18 years on a range of governance issues. Her focus is on creating truly great boards -- boards that are a genuine asset to the companies they govern and to those who own and invest in those companies. While she supports the advancement of women on boards, her over-arching goal is to optimize board performance, regardless of director gender. However, she believes that there are significant opportunities for Canadian and U.S. companies to enhance their overall effectiveness by finding outstanding new women directors -- hence her affiliation with Pamela Jeffery Search.

Beverly is the author of Great Companies Deserve Great Boards (Palgrave McMillan 2011) which was ranked #1 on the Globe & Mail business best-sellers list for 4 weeks and named 'Governance Book of the Year' in the United States by Directors and Boards magazine. She is regularly quoted as an expert in corporate governance by the Wall Street Journal, Globe and Mail, National Post, BusinessWeek (for whom she wrote a regular column, The Boardroom, for 3 1/2 years), Fast Company, Business 2.0 and TheStreet.com.

Beverly holds an HBA from the Ivey School of Business at Western University, an LL.B. (cum laude) from Western University and an MBA from the Haskayne Business School at the University of Calgary. She has been a faculty member of both the Institute of Corporate Directors' Director Training program at McGill and the Directors' College for nearly a decade and is a regular columnist for LISTED (the TSX magazine) on boardroom issues. She has been a keynote speaker at governance conferences around the world including the Caribbean Corporate Governance Forum, the Malaysian Directors Academy, the Warsaw Stock Exchange, the American/Colombia Forum on Governance, the National Association of Corporate Directors and the Institute of Corporate Directors.

Learn more at: www.pamelajefferysearch.com.

For more information, please contact: Pamela Jeffery Pamela Jeffery Search Email Contact 416-361-1480 Beverly Behan Board Advisor Email Contact 646-239-9179 Source: Pamela Jeffery Search

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