Hilary Sears
Hilary Sears has both private and public sector experience in recruitment and retention. She is now a career coach and mentor, having previously worked in Executive Search, and in talent management in the Cabinet Office where she headed the Brokerage Unit, inputting into the succession planning and talent management programmes. She also ran the Senior Women’s Network, which analysed the diversity challenges within the Civil Service, looking also at Private Sector recruitment and retention strategies and Board needs.Following a first career in advertising, an economics degree and an MBA, Hilary moved into Executive Search, working for international firms (including Korn Ferry Carre Orban, and A T Kearney Executive Search). She has more than 20 years of executive search and Board/Leadership Assessment experience, and sat on the European Board of the Association of Executive Search Consultants (the professional body). She is widely networked in the business world, has spoken at a number of conferences, and was the first woman to appear on the front cover of BusinessWeek international. She is Chairman of the Association of MBA’s, and of the UK charity for disabled children, KIDS.
She has been active in trying to promote women onto boards, and as a former Board member of ForumUK (part of the International Women’s Forum), recently chaired their Board Initiative in the UK.