New president Veerle Van De Vijver and vice-president György Kobelrausch will lead Kennedy into a new legal entity

The partners of Kennedy Executive Search have elected Veerle Van De Vijver as their new President and György Kobelrausch as Vice President. Former President Pablo Perella-Berdun will remain active as Vice President of Special Projects. The new presidency is effective as of January 1st. In 2023, Kennedy's legal entity will also transition from an EIG to an LLC, allowing the network more flexibility to grow and act as a trading partner.

Veerle Van De Vijver is the managing partner of Tavernier & Van De Vijver, Kennedy's Belgian partner with offices in Ghent and Antwerp. She joined the Kennedy network in 2021 with her business partner Luc Tavernier, with whom she founded Tavernier & Van De Vijver in 2014. György Kobelrausch is the managing partner of Ikelosz, Kennedy's partner office in Budapest, Hungary, that he founded in 2010. In 2017 Ikelosz was one of the first partners to join the Kennedy network

New Entity Structure to support Kennedy and Partners’ growth
In 2023, one of the key projects is the evolution from an Economic Interest Growth Group, a type of Consortium, to a BV, a business limited liability corporation in Belgium. The restructuring creates a superior platform to incorporate new partners and benefits our clients by greatly simplifying contractual engagements, reinforcing their preferred lead partner’ role as the steward of the quality of project delivery wherever they have executive talent selection and development needs.

Diversity and Inclusion
Furthermore, Veerle Van De Vijver wants to strengthen the focus on Diversity and Inclusion. Veerle: "Within the network, many initiatives have already been set up for this by our Practice Team led by partner Caroline Frisenberg, and our partners have made great strides in this area. I want to make sure these best client success stories help all partners and their customers elevate their organizations to be truly inclusive and diverse in all geographies they operate."

Building on trust
György Kobelrausch will focus on Kennedy's marketing efforts, to take the Kennedy brand to the next level and further build on the image of trust Kennedy proudly represents. One of the marketing efforts aims is to attract new partners in markets Kennedy is not active in yet. György: "For me and the other Central European partners, a network partner in Poland would be very welcome. But we also hope to attract new partners in the United Kingdom, India, and China."

Parting president Pablo Perella-Berdun is pleased with his and parting vice president Frank Knudsen's successors. "With Veerle and György at the helm, we leave Kennedy in trusted and capable hands. We look forward to the future for Kennedy with great confidence and enthusiasm!

About Veerle and György
Veerle Van de Vijver started her career in sales and marketing and was Business Development Manager for a manufacturer of original equipment for the automotive industry. She set foot in the world of executive search in 2011, as Executive Partner of a Corporate Governance consultancy firm. She and Luc Tavernier founded Tavernier & Van De Vijver in 2014.

György Kobelrausch worked in various marketing and sales roles in FMCG and was a board member of Unilever Hungary. In 2005, he changed career paths and started in Executive Search. He successfully managed search and recruitment projects for Hungarian companies and multinationals as well. In 2010 he founded Ikelosz and, in 2017 was one of the first partners to join the Kennedy network