The French Godfather of Executive Search

Jean-Michel Beigbeder, the father of the famous French novelist Frédéric Beigbeder also fathered the whole executive search industry in Europe.

This summer, I've been reading his thrilling biography written by his novelist son (Un homme seul published by Grasset, 2025). Never thought our job can look so sexy!

Jean-Michel Beigbeder not only pioneered executive search in France in the 1960s, running the local office of Spencer Stuart, one of the top American firms (currently ranking #2 globally). He ended up becoming its global CEO because the founder – Spencer Stuart himself – saw him as a natural successor. A huge win for a European, long before such international careers became mainstream.

Jean-Michel later realized a management buyout of the firm’s shares and exited triumphantly after reselling his part to new managing partners. That dramatic move brings Mad Men to mind: in the TV show Don Draper and the partners also reclaimed their agency from the owners.

Then Jean-Michel got hired by the key competitor – Korn Ferry (now ranking #1 globally) – where he became the Chairman of the International Executive Committee.

And when he was finally done with American firms, in 1986 he established a boutique executive search firm branded with his own name – Beigbeder, Caude & Partners. By founding a boutique firm in the ’80s, Beigbeder anticipated the rise of this type of agency. Today, big corporations hedge their bets by turning to both giants like Korn Ferry and smaller firms (this milieu is especially familiar to us at Kennedy Executive).

To me, Beigbeder's success isn't limited to these business achievements—he also knew how to live big, bold, and beautifully. A role model we can show to junior consultants when they are bored and lack inspiration.

His life is a disproof of a few myths that surround our job:

• Headhunting is a mere craft for college dropouts? Well, Jean-Michel went to the Sorbonne, got an MBA at Harvard, and graduated from Sciences Po Paris cum laude.
• Our job lacks style? Beigbeder spiced it up with Donald Draper–styled whisky gatherings in luxurious Parisian offices with the most intelligent and influential people on the planet.
• Recruitment is too local a matter? He travelled across four continents, and the candidates he placed affected transatlantic relations and the international order during the Cold War.

As if all this weren’t fun enough, he also happened to work for American intelligence: after Jean-Michel’s death in 2023, Frédéric found two US passports issued under a false name and a certificate of completion of a US special ops training.

In the absence of LinkedIn, sourcing high-level candidates was a far more complicated job, and it makes sense that US government agencies were naturally interested in Beigbeder’s databases and notebooks covering up to 100,000 people.

Jean-Michel Beigbeder’s story reminds us that executive search isn’t just about filling roles — it’s about navigating power, influence, and global complexity. His life reads like a thriller, but it’s also a blueprint: of how intellect and ambition can turn a niche profession into a stage for bold moves and big ideas.