This month in our HR Advisory practice we are recruiting for the following Advisory job roles:

• Senior Human Resources Advisor
• Senior Talent Acquisition Advisor
• Human Resources Business Partner
• Director of Human Resources
• Vice President of Total Rewards
• Senior Compensation Advisor

Interested? Please contact us to learn more at candidate@fredericksonpartners.com.

We worked with the Iterable team to place Sejal Patel Daswani as Chief People Officer. In her new role, Sejal will join the Iterable Executive team and partner closely with the CEO, Executive Team and People Team to help the company scale and grow to achieve their next business milestone.

Sejal brings broad management consulting, business and human capital experience from past employers including Sunrun, Visa, Pfizer and Katzenbach Partners (Booz & Co / PWC). She holds an MPA/MBA from Harvard University and MIT and a MIA/BA from Columbia University.

Sejal, congratulations on joining Iterable as Chief People Officer!

We worked with Shutterfly to place Mandy Clark as Vice President (VP), Head of Human Resources (HR). In her new role Mandy will develop an intentional and strategic employee experience that is employee-centric, user friendly, fun and driven, and modern, and that helps drive business impact and amplifies an organizational culture consistent with Shutterfly’s mission and values. Mandy will report to the Chief Strategic Development, Legal and People Officer, Sharon Segev.

Clark joins Shutterfly from CentralSquare Technologies where she served as the Chief Human Resources Officer. There she implemented a strong plan to build the employee value proposition to support the more than 1,600 employees and leaders across the organization. Previously, Mandy worked at Sierra Nevada Corporation where she led the overall people strategy and execution for this growing organization of approximately 5,000 employees. She also brings impressive HR leadership experience from CoreLogic, PepsiCo, Cargill and GE. Clark holds a Master of Science (MBA), HR Management from Purdue University Krannert School of Management. She also has a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Business from University of Nevada

Mandy, congratulations on joining Shutterfly as Vice President, Head of Human Resources!

• Amedisys, Inc. announced Adam Holton as Chief People Officer. Holton brings over 20 years of HR experience, having most recently served as CHRO at Numotion. Throughout his career he’s held various HR leadership roles at companies including General Electric, USAA and Bank One. (Announcement)
• SpartanNash appointed Nicole Zube as Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer. Zube joins after a 10-year tenure with The Kellogg Company where she held HR leadership roles, most recently as Head of HR – US Commercial. She also held HR roles at Procter and Gamble during an eight-year period. Zube is a member of Chief, a private network connecting and supporting women executive leaders. (Announcement)
• Nokia announced the appointment of Amy Hanlon-Rodemich as the new Chief People Officer. Amy joins Nokia from GlobalLogic where she served as CPO. Throughout her more than 20 years of experience, she has helped grow and scale companies such as VMware, Yahoo and Synopsys. (Announcement)
• Menlo Security has hired Kate Terrell as the company’s new Chief Human Resources Officer. Terrell most recently served as CPO at Aktana. Prior to Aktana, she served as CHRO for Driscoll’s and held several HR leadership roles at Whirlpool. (Announcement)
• Covetrus welcomed Michelle Bonfilio as the company’s Chief People Officer. Bonfilio brings a wealth of HR experience to Covetrus, having most recently served as EVP, CHRO at Petco. Other companies where she’s held HR leadership roles include Gap Inc., Delta Dental and The Wine Group. (Announcement)
• Sierra Space has announced Heidi Hendrix as the new Chief People Officer. Hendrix brings over 20 years of experience as an HR leader, consultant and strategic advisor. During her career she has served as HR Executive for Bank of America, VP of HR for Northrop Grumman and HR Consultant for Spencer Stuart. (Announcement)
• Huron welcomed Kristen Bruner as the company’s new Chief Human Resources Officer. Bruner joined from W.L Gore & Associates where she served as Chief HR & Communications Officer. Previously, she spent 18 years at Boeing serving in several HR leadership roles. (Announcement)
• Provention Bio appointed Sarah O’Brien as Chief People Officer. O’Brien joins Provention Bio from Ardelyx where she served as CPO. She has held HR executive roles at Ohana Biosciences and Relay Therapeutics, and leadership roles at Novartis and BNY Mellon. (Announcement)

I was honored to participate in a panel, “Identifying and Developing Non-C-Suite Roles That Have an Outsized Impact on Value Creation.” Featuring talent and search executive speakers who all work closely with VC and PE firms or their portfolio companies, the panel focused in on those non-C-suite roles that are critical to high-growth companies. It also highlighted the rising importance of the People function in the current market.

Some of my own top takeaways and key points from the session included:

• Human capital is one of the top requirements for companies now, with roles beyond the C-suite growing in importance. Sean Mooney, Founder and CEO of BluWave LP, shared his firm’s recent data showing human capital activity within private equity has risen from 17 % to 42% of all their search projects.
• Smaller firms may need a Head of HR who isn’t C-level. Companies often need a leader who can be hands-on now, while also being able to grow and transition later into a strategic role. Or the CEO and executive team may plan to “layer in” additional HR roles later, such as a more senior-level leader or other key People/HR positions.
• Non-C-suite HR roles such as Head of Talent Acquisition, Head of Compensation, Benefits and Analytics or Head of Training or DEI can have enormous impact. Some growing organizations may not actually need a Head or HR in the short term as much as they may benefit exponentially by hiring a Head of Recruiting/Talent Acquisition to build a world-class team. Similarly, hiring a Head of Total Rewards (Compensation & Benefits) will empower you to create a compensation strategy at the beginning that supports competitive hiring and retention as the company grows. Determining upfront your initial compensation philosophy and programs, and also timelines for layering in new features such as cash bonuses is much easier early than later, when you may want to do aggressive hiring but it takes months to get cash bonuses approved by a board of directors
• Assess what you need now in an HR leader, and in the future. What do you need to get done in the next two to three years? Our team’s executive search approach is to take a company’s unique business plan and translate that into an HR plan. Whatever level of HR leader you hire, make sure they have that critical ability to look ahead.
• Heads of HR can grow with a company into a senior executive or C-level role. I shared an example of Chief People Officer Zoë Harte, who was recruited by our firm to Upwork in its early stages, leading it through an IPO in multiple HR executive roles. She now serves as Chief People Officer and in 2021 was recognized in the SIA Global Power 150 Women in Staffing.
• Make sure the executive team buys into the general timeframe for “layering in” strategic HR, and understands what foundations to set early. For example, it’s much easier to build gender, racial and ethnic diversity into a startup of 50 employees than one of 500 or 2,000. Embracing best practices for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) executive hiring from the beginning makes sense. Focusing on diversity and doing it right from the outset is not only the right thing to do but the smart one. Studies show it will drive attraction and retention.

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