Rich Swiss singles employ head-hunter to find love

By Laura MacInnis

GENEVA (Reuters Life!) - Some of Switzerland's single professionals, too busy to find themselves a spouse, have employed a former corporate head-hunter to find love for them.

Trea Tijmens launched her company, SuccessMatch, in 2005 after realising that many of the high-achievers she was trying to recruit for new jobs were working so much that they had little time to date.

"I knew that a lot of international professional types were single," she told Reuters over a hot chocolate in Geneva's banking district.

"It is a vicious circle in the sense that if you don't have a personal life on the side, you tend to work even more. That makes it more difficult to find a partner," she said.

The married, 43-year-old mother of three now uses her business acumen to connect hundreds of English-speaking bankers, lawyers, doctors and diplomats whom she described as dissatisfied with the haphazard approach to romance.

"They want to make it a little bit more efficient," she said. "If you are looking for a job, you can send spontaneous applications to all kinds of companies and you can be lucky. But you can also go to an agency or a head-hunter who knows what companies are looking for."

Tijmens' clients pay 4,000 Swiss francs ($3,846) up-front for an 18-month personalised membership, which includes an in-depth interview, a personality test and a professional photograph for their portfolios, which are shared on a confidential basis with potential matches.

Each encounter the company arranges costs another 250 Swiss francs per person. Dinner is not included.