Partner and Practice Leader, Egon Zehnder
Portola Valley, CA
Martha Josephson, a Partner at Egon Zehnder, founded the first internet/digital practice in the executive search field in 1996. For many years, since 2003, she worked to help Google build their first executive leadership team over 300 assignments in 24 countries. In their book about Google, early leaders Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg wrote about her as “while not technically a Googler, as true a partner as can be found.” This makes Martha smile with joy.
Martha has also become known for placing women and under-represented people on public and private Boards of Directors…many years before it was required. This began a larger conversation about who and what contributes to corporate governance, which she continues today. (“You can’t cast a play with 10 Hamlets (white male CEOs) and expect it to work…”). She has also been an advisor and public speaker for the Boardlist which helps prepare women and under-represented people for board service. She is the author of the white paper, “Path to the Boardroom,” a primer for seeking out one’s first board role and which has been downloaded more times than any other document in her firm’s history.
Martha is married to Jon Carter and lives in Portola Valley, CA with their French Bulldog, Macron. (So named because he is handsome, brilliant and loves older women). She has two grown millennial children who support every stereotype about their generation. She is a voracious reader in her spare time and had served on her community’s Landscape Committee until she fired herself for proving unable to distinguish the local native plants apart.
Martha graduated with an AB in English from Princeton University and an MBA from Columbia Business School. She is a certified Leadership Coach via Columbia Teacher’s College.
DCI Fellow: Jon Carter
