As a Senior Partner at Heidrick & Struggles, an international executive consulting firm, J. Veronica Biggins specializes in the recruitment and placement of upper level management in the financial services industry. Biggins is Managing Partner of the company’s Diversity Services Practice and an active member on the Board of Directors and the Global Financial Services Industry Practice. She holds a B.S. degree from Spelman College and a M.A. degree from Georgia State University (GSU). Born to Jacqueline McDonald and university professor Andrew Williams in Belmont, North Carolina on October 19, 1946, Biggins and her two brothers attended Catholic schools during their formative years. They also spent two years of elementary school in Indonesia. Her father, also a tennis professional, and a family friend funded several of the early tennis ventures of tennis legend, Arthur Ashe.
Biggins entered the business world as a management trainee at NationsBank, formerly The Citizens Southern Bank and now Bank of America. She received several promotions and was one of the highest-ranking females in banking in the country when she left the industry as Executive Vice President for Corporate Community Relations. In 1994, Biggins became Director of Presidential Personnel for President Bill Clinton. Her responsibilities included the placement of agency heads, ambassadors and members of the presidential boards and commissions. During the fourth world conference on women of the United Nations in 1995, Biggins served as Vice Chairman of the United States Delegation in Beijing, China.
In 1999, Biggins was named to the GSU Business Hall of Fame for her achievement in business. She is Chairman of the Czech Slovak American Enterprise Fund; a member of the International Business Fellows and serves on the board of AirTran Airways, Avnet, and NDC Health and as serving on the boards for Georgia Research Alliance, the Woodruff Arts Center, the Downtown Atlanta Rotary and the International Aids Fund. Biggins is also a board member of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company and the Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation Authority.
Biggins is married to attorney Franklin Biggins and is the mother of two daughters.
