- Press Release
Sonya Olds Som Joins Diversified Search Group as Global Managing Partner
Will lead newly created Legal, Risk, Compliance, and Government Affairs practice
PHILADELPHIA, PA – Diversified Search Group, one of the fastest-growing and most highly regarded companies in the executive search industry, has announced that Sonya Olds Som, Esq., has joined the company as a Global Managing Partner, and will lead the firm’s newly created Legal, Risk, Compliance, and Government Affairs practice. Som is a recognized leader in the legal industry and brings over a decade of experience in executive recruiting, in addition to over a decade as a practicing attorney.
Som will lead search and consulting projects and advise clients in an area that is becoming increasingly important in the corporate sector; recruiting Chief Legal Officers, General Counsels, Deputy General Counsels, other C-Suite and Board members with strong business acumen across industries and locations who are attuned to a myriad of evolving legal, risk and compliance issues. She will work in partnership with the firm’s Chief Legal Officer and Managing Director, Denielle Pemberton-Heard, and other leaders across the firm.
“With a proliferation of new and intensified risks, challenges, and opportunities today, companies are seeking deeper levels of legal and compliance expertise and strategy from their executives and board members,” said Aileen K. Alexander, CEO of Diversified Search Group. “Sonya Som brings extensive industry experience and search expertise, a wide and diverse national network aligned with a strong brand and reputation, combined with a mission and values-driven approach that will bring unique value to our clients and candidates as well as to our firm.”
Som joins Diversified Search Group from a leading global executive search firm, where she was a Partner, specializing in recruiting General Counsels, Deputy General Counsels, Chief Diversity Officers, Board Directors and other C-Suite executives. Prior to that, she was a Partner at legal search firm Major, Lindsey & Africa, where she managed the sourcing of attorney search opportunities with global corporate legal departments, and led activities firmwide designed to help advance the cause of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in the legal industry. Prior to embarking upon her career in executive search over a decade ago, Som practiced in the areas of labor & employment and immigration law at the associate and partner levels at large law firms nationwide for over a decade.
“Diversified Search Group is an industry leader in being a purpose-driven, diversity-
dedicated, full-service executive search firm that has always been focused on cultivating new leaders across sectors and geographies,” said Som. “I look forward to working with the team to bring this focus to clients with growing needs for executives and board directors with legal, risk, compliance, and/or government affairs expertise who understand the complex and changing dynamics in these areas.”
Som has affiliations with several professional organizations, including the National Bar Association, Hispanic National Bar Association, Metropolitan Black Bar Association (of New York City), and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, many of which have honored her for her work in helping diversify the legal profession. She serves as an advisor to several organizations, including as a member of the Cornell Law School Alumni Executive Board of Directors, and as the Midwest Chapter Chair of the Cornell Black Lawyers Alumni Network. She earned her undergraduate degree at Kalamazoo College, and her Juris Doctor degree with specialization in International Legal Affairs and concentration in Business Law at Cornell Law School.
ABOUT DIVERSIFIED SEARCH GROUP
Purpose. Progress. Performance.
Diversified Search Group is the largest woman-founded and woman-led executive search firm in the world, and for nearly five decades, has been driven by purpose, progress and performance. Consistently recognized by Forbes as one of the nation’s top retained executive search firms, Diversified Search Group is an industry leader in recruiting diverse, inclusive and transformational leadership for clients. The firm is deliberately different in its approach and is comprised of a combination of specialty practices with deep industry expertise, that together harness their collective resources to identify new leaders to meet the needs of our changing world: Diversified Search, Alta Associates, BioQuest, Koya Partners, Grant Cooper, and Storbeck Search.
Headquartered in Philadelphia, PA, the Diversified Search Group operates in over a dozen offices nationwide and offers global services as the exclusive U.S. partner of AltoPartners, the international alliance of independent executive search firms. For more information, visit diversifiedsearchgroup.com.
ABOUT ALTOPARTNERS
Established in 2006, AltoPartners is a leading international alliance of retained executive search and leadership consulting firms that combines the reach of a global network with the local knowledge and entrepreneurial spirit of independent partners working together to find the client’s perfect candidate fit. Today the alliance covers 64 offices in 37 countries and is ranked in the Top 10 Global Search Firms.
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 countries we cover, please visit altopartners.com.
For media inquiries please contact:
Heather Campion, Managing Director
Heather.Campion@divsearch.com | 617.279.8593