The Association of Executive Search Consultants is the professional body representing retained executive search consulting firms around the world.

Founded in New York in 1959, the AESC was established to help guide the development and standards of a professional service which was then still relatively new. An offshoot of management consulting, retained executive search has, over the past 50 years, played a major role in the identification and recruitment of senior executive talent for many different organizations in a wide variety of industries and countries. The success of executive search is such that the profession has grown to become a global industry with revenues in excess of $10 billion.

Since its inception the AESC has itself grown to become a worldwide organization, with an international board of directors representing three regional councils of member firms from The Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia/Pacific. Its global headquarters is in New York but it also has a regional office in Brussels. To-day the AESC brand name is recognized as the standard bearer for retained executive search and represents member firms in 74 countries around the world, between them employing more than 8,000 search professionals. It is estimated that AESC member firms handle some 70,000 senior executive searches every year.

The AESC has always striven to represent the highest quality in executive search and thus its membership criteria are rigorous and only the most professional firms are admitted into membership.