AESC Honors Award Recipients Trina Gordon and Jaimee Eddington at Executive Search Industry Conference

Today at their Thriving in the Next Normal conference for leaders in the executive search profession and their clients, the global Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants (AESC) honored recipients of its Lifetime Achievement Award and Future of the Profession Award.  

Bestowed since 1982, the AESC Lifetime Achievement Award is the capstone award for the executive search and leadership consulting profession, honoring significant, career-long achievement while recognizing the highest standards of work. Considered icons in the profession, recipients have a long and distinguished career and outstanding reputations. This year’s AESC Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to Trina Gordon, President & CEO, Boyden.

At Boyden, including a decade as CEO, Trina is a recognized global leader in talent advisory and leadership solutions. She is highly regarded for her commitment to client service and adhering to the highest levels of professional quality and integrity. Guiding the global organization, she works closely with Boyden's board, practices and partners to execute the firm's strategy, growth and client performance standards in alignment with long-term objectives.

A member of Boyden’s Board of Directors and the Global Consumer & Retail, Board Services and Human Resources Practices, Trina brings extensive experience in executive search and leadership consulting for global and emerging public corporations, privately held and private equity-owned businesses. Trina has conducted engagements for C-level executives, including CEOs, COOs and business unit leadership as well as Board Directors and Chairs. She has been named to BusinessWeek’s "Top 50 World’s Most Influential Headhunters” and “The Career Makers: America’s Top 100 Executive Recruiters" (Harper business publication). She is a frequent contributor on executive search and corporate governance: featured in Nightly Business Report and a range of business media including FORTUNE, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Huffington Post and The Wall Street Journal.

Trina currently serves as a board member, Friends of Prentice of the Prentice Women's Hospital of Northwestern Memorial Hospital and is a member of the Executive Committee of Northwestern Memorial Foundation’s Board of Directors. She is a member of the Chicago Zoological Society and The Chicago Network, and formally served on the advisory Council for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Auburn University. She is also a former member of The Economic Club of Chicago.

Awarded since 2015, the AESC Future of the Profession Award is designed to recognize the next generation of leaders in executive search and leadership consulting. It honors innovation and forward-thinking leadership and recipients are viewed as trailblazers in the profession. This year’s AESC Future of the Profession Award is presented to Jaimee Eddington, Regional Leader of the Americas, Heidrick & Struggles.

A highly sought-after talent advisory consultant given her prior Wall Street and corporate finance operating experience, Jaimee is a partner in Heidrick & Struggles' Dallas office and regional leader of the Americas. She is a member of the global Financial Officers and CEO & Board of Directors practices specializing in board and senior-level financial officer assignments across the consumer, healthcare, technology (enterprise and consumer), and financial services industries. Jaimee leads searches for a wide range of clients, including Fortune 500, small- and medium-sized public and private companies, as well as private equity and venture-backed companies. She has been instrumental in incorporating Heidrick & Struggles’ innovations into the work she leads, bringing clients improved digital tools and accelerated time-to-placement.

Jaimee has also been a strong advocate for advancing diversity and inclusion in the profession both for her clients and internally at Heidrick & Struggles. Every day she has worked to apply the firm’s goals, such as its Board Diversity Pledge, to elevate the best practices of inclusion with the teams she leads. Previously, she also served as a co-lead for the firm’s Professionals of Color ERG, helping to advance conversations and awareness around various diversity and inclusion topics. Jaimee’s vision for the executive search profession is to find, attract and retain the types of diverse leaders that will set a new bar with the inclusive cultures they build.

She is a frequent speaker and panelist on board and CFO preparedness forums regarding board composition, talent management, and the changing role of the CFO. Prior to joining Heidrick & Struggles, Jaimee was an investment banker at a middle market and bulge bracket bank focusing primarily on mergers and acquisitions, and equity and debt offerings. She advised clients in various industries, including business services, branded consumer products and retail, telecommunications, media, and technology. Jaimee spent several years at a large luxury retailer where she led strategic planning for various merchant divisions. 

Karen Greenbaum, AESC President & CEO, said: “We honor the exceptional achievements of these AESC Members. Through their commitment to excellence in the profession, our award recipients embody AESC’s purpose—dedicated to strengthening leadership worldwide.”

About the Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants 

Since 1959, AESC has set the quality standard for the executive search and leadership advisory profession. AESC Members represent 16,000+ trusted professionals in 1,200+ offices, spanning 70+ countries. AESC Members are recognized leaders of global executive search and leadership advisory solutions. They leverage their access and expertise to place more than 100,000 executives each year in board of directors and C-level positions for the world’s leading organizations of all types and sizes. Dedicated to strengthening leadership worldwide, AESC and its members share a deep commitment to the highest quality standards in executive search and leadership consulting—for the benefit of clients and the profession. We Shape. Connect. Educate. Learn more about us at aesc.org. For AESC’s career service for executive-level candidates, visit bluesteps.com.