JC Townend

JC (Jeanne Carroll) Townend is Country President of The Adecco Group UK and Ireland, and CEO of subsidiary LHH UK & Ireland. 

The Adecco Group is the world’s leading talent advisory and solutions company, providing services covering temporary staffing, permanent placement, career transition, talent development and training as well as business process outsourcing and consulting. Its services include upskilling and reskilling, enhancing employability and accelerating careers. The Adecco Group operates three core Business Units: Adecco, Akkodis, and LHH.

JC also serves as CEO for the UK and Ireland of LHH Career Transition and Mobility, an Adecco Group subsidiary and the UK’s leading integrated talent development and career outplacement provider. She oversees projects with more than 1000 of the world’s largest companies annually, helping them secure and transform their workforces to deliver today and to be ready for the future.

JC is a highly experienced CEO and Board member with more than 25 years of experience leading very large (up to £1.5 billion) professional services businesses in a wide range of sectors, including workforce and education, social/economic policy, energy, engineering, environment, and health. An American who grew up in New York, she has worked in the US, the UK and Europe, and led projects and teams in North and South America, in all 27 countries of the EU, in the UK and Ireland, and in China, India, Thailand and the Philippines.

JC is Deputy Chair of the CBI's Economic Growth Board, a Senior Leadership Fellow at St. George’s House, Windsor Castle, and has been a board member in international subsidiaries (US, UK, India, and Belgium) of NASDAQ- and LSE-listed companies. She has significant experience in successful M&A, and large-scale commercial and government business development. 

JC is passionate about transforming the world of work by helping every individual reach his/her full potential, both individually and by transforming the companies in which they work – creating a win-win by making employees more fulfilled and businesses more profitable.  Throughout her career, she has focused on both generating high performing workforces and supporting challenged groups, including over-50’s, women, apprentices, veterans, exiting prisoners, and people with disabilities.  She spent 9 years on the board of FedCap, a US-headquartered charity that helps people with barriers to employment find jobs and gain financial independence.

JC holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from Brown University in the US, and her education includes studies on the institutions of the European Union at the Institute for European Studies at the University of Freiburg in Germany and studies on Mergers & Acquisitions at the Kellogg School of Business in the US.

JC is available for comment on the following topics:

• Workforce transformation (e.g. managing redundancy, large scale change, workforce training and development)
• Workforce trends (globally and in the UK)
• Strategy and management
• Women in leadership
• M&A
• Corporate and employer brand