Cheshire businesswoman Joëlle Warren has been awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List for her services to business.

In 1999 she founded executive search firm Warren Partners, which has offices at Gadbrook Park in Northwich, based on the principle of delivering ‘leadership consulting with heart because people matter’.

A firm believer in the importance of family life and giving back to the local community, Joëlle has shown you can stay true to your values and still succeed in business.

She divides her time between London and the company’s Cheshire office, where she is hugely committed to supporting business and the wider community.

She also serves as Her Majesty’s Vice Lord-Lieutenant for Cheshire and also founded and chairs the Cheshire Community Foundation.

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Motivated and sustained by her faith, Joëlle is a Bishop’s selection adviser for the Church of England and serves on the leadership team of her parish church, Christ Church, Alsager, where she is involved in children’s and community work.

Joëlle was one of the early champions of diversity in the workplace and was involved in establishing the north west and other regional branches of the Two Percent Club, a network of women leaders from across the country, which drives forward the issue of the under-representation of women at the top of corporate UK.

She is a regular speaker on ethics in business and a founding member of Cheshire Business Leaders, a group of owners and senior people in local businesses who want to see real, sustainable growth not just for their own business, but for Cheshire and the North West as a whole.

Joëlle’s drive and passion for life is evident both at work and play. She is a qualified ski instructor, has climbed Kilimanjaro, walked the Machu Picchu Trail with her husband and sons and cycled 500 kilometres alongside the Great Wall of China for charity.

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She has been married for 30 years to Andrew, who has been a headteacher in Cheshire and Stoke-on-Trent for 20 years, and is vice-chair of the teaching schools council.

They have two sons, Jonty and Ben.

Joëlle said: “I am deeply honoured to receive such an endorsement for the power of living your values in business. In particular, I am thrilled that the work we are doing in the region is being recognised at a national level.

“I believe as a leader that you have to set the tone from the top as far as culture and values are concerned and at Warren Partners we recruit to those values as well.

“We don’t just see recruitment as a process. We put our hearts and souls into it as we want to make a difference in the lives of the people and organisations we work with.”