How I Hire

Carola Frisch is the Founder of Frisch Search , an executive search firm based in London that works with iconic lifestyle and consumer brands in high growth and transformation. Their clients have included Nike, Vans, The North Face, Starbucks, and many more. Carola has been championing a concept she calls Modern Leadership ; leaders inspire purpose and culture as much as they drive performance and...

Jan Singer is an influential and incredibly accomplished executive leader with over 25 years of experience in footwear, apparel, and cosmetics. She’s served as CEO at Victoria’s Secret, Spanx, and J. Crew. Earlier on, she held key roles at footwear giants like Nike and Reebok. In this episode, Jan shares how these experiences have shaped her successful leadership style, how she evaluates leadershi...

Monica Williams is the Senior Vice President of Digital Products and Operations at NBCUniversal Content Distribution. In her 16 years at NBCUniversal, Monica has held a variety of roles and led innovative growth in the digital product space. Monica is also the founding member of the private network Chief ’s Los Angeles location. Highlights from our conversation include: Monica’s transition from GE...

Harvey Kanter is the CEO of Destination XL Group, a specialty retailer of men's big and tall apparel. He’s brought his unique and thoughtful approach to CEO, President, and Executive Vice President roles at companies like Blue Nile, Michaels, and Eddie Bauer. His book, Choosing to Lead: Being Comfortable Being Uncomfortable , details experiences that have shaped his leadership style and forged his...

Kara Goldin is the Founder and CEO of Hint, Inc., the healthy lifestyle brand known for award-winning, unsweetened, flavored water. Kara successfully broke into the beverage industry after leaving her role at America Online, determined to create a satisfying drink free from sweeteners. Her podcast, The Kara Goldin Show , features insightful conversations with fellow changemakers. She’s also the au...

As CEO and Co-Founder of Swift, a Portland-based, client-founded creative agency, Liz Valentine leads her team in making brilliant digital work for notable brands like Google, Gatorade, PayPal, Venmo, and many others. Liz began her career at Nike and brings over twenty years of experience in digital marketing to her current role. In 2014, Swift was acquired by the global data, tech, and creative p...

Originally released June, 2020. Before starting Workplace Change, Serilda was the Chief Human Resources Officer for the City of Portland, and has worked with clients like Wieden + Kennedy, the Portland Trail Blazers, Kaiser Permanente, the Oregon Department of Education, and many others. She believes in fostering cultures that accept people for who they are and empower them to thrive. Her book, Ch...

Before joining Nuun, Kevin spent his early career as a Senior Brand Manager at SC Johnson and Miller Brewing Company before serving as Marketing Director at Kashi Company and eventually CEO at Caldrea Company. Kevin shares his people-first approach to hiring and evaluating teams. We also discuss how he leverages purpose and vision to build thriving cultures. Highlights from our conversation includ...

Highlights from our conversation include: Taking Starbucks from relative obscurity to global ubiquity (2:31) Hiring with the customer in mind (5:33) Putting a purposeful philosophy into practice (7:47) The importance of servant leadership (9:08) Lessons from Howard Schultz and other influential leaders at Starbucks (10:16) One key quality Wendy values in leadership (13:07) How she and the Starbuck...

Dr. Charles Handler is an industrial-organizational psychologist and talent assessment specialist. Fun fact: Charles also has a love of classic cars and was featured on the History Channel’s Big Easy Motors . Highlights from our conversation include: How organizational psychology can inform every step of the hiring process (5:02) Job fit versus organization fit (7:37) Why humans are inherently fla...

Dr. Stacey Philpot (Executive Development Consulting) discusses the ways companies are shifting how they think about leadership (0:52) Lisa Bougie shares how Stitch Fix assessed for people, values, and leadership (2:56) Jodi Bricker’s approach to shaping culture at Quay Australia (5:09) Serilda Summers-McGee on building healthy, inclusive workplace cultures (6:30) Kristi McFarland explores the val...

Highlights from our conversation include: How Nike’s EKIN program fed the brand’s leadership talent (5:35) How leading footwear brands approach hiring (7:18) The key difference between a company and a brand (10:15) The two questions Gene asks to understand team capabilities (11:52) How one hire can stimulate an entire organization (12:51) Why Gene looked outside of the industry for talent (14:58)...

Aimée Lapic is the Chief Digital and Marketing Officer at GoPro. Before joining GoPro, she served as CMO at Pandora. She spent over 14 years with Gap, Inc. in various roles, including CMO of Banana Republic and SVP and GM of International Gap Outlet. Aimée was featured in the top 50 on Forbes’ Most Influential CMOs list in 2018. She has built world-class teams and driven results through her leader...

Trip Randall is the former VP of Running at Nike and has held a number of positions with the brand over the last 20 years. In this episode, he shares how he navigated the iconic company’s scale, complexity, and reputation to make great hires.  Most recently, Trip led merchandising, marketing, sales, and operational efforts in the U.S. and Canada for Nike Running. His past roles at Nike includ...

Fred Miller and Judith Katz of The Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group are dedicated to helping companies recruit, support, and retain diverse workforces. For the last 50 years, KJCG has assisted organizations in creating inclusive, collaborative workplaces that leverage differences to achieve higher performance and engagement. As CEO and Lead Client Strategist, Fred Miller develops workforce utilizat...

Dr. Stacey Philpot is a Managing Partner at Executive Development Consulting. She has spent over 20 years as an organizational consultant and has advised Fortune 500 companies and CEOs on how to use leadership development to accelerate growth and increase their competitive advantage. Stacey’s clients have included Apple, General Mills, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase, Nike, and PayPal. Previ...

Jodi Bricker is the CEO of Quay Australia, a buzzworthy brand aiming to disrupt the monopolized eyewear industry through bold style, affordability, and self-expression. She and her team have cemented Quay’s status as the fastest growing eyewear brand on Instagram and launched a series of celebrity collaborations with some of the most notable names in Hollywood, including Lizzo, Jennifer Lopez, Ale...

Virtual hiring became a necessity when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the hiring process. Pacific Cycle was in the middle of hiring their VP of Brand and Creative when they were forced to close their offices. They moved forward with the process remotely, making a key hire without the traditional in-person interview. The entire hiring party joins us via Zoom to share the challenges and successes t...

Serilda Summers-McGee is a workforce development and human resources expert. She is the Founder of Workplace Change, where she works with clients as Chief Human Resources Officer to assess culture, resolve workplace challenges, and recruit and retain underrepresented executives and staff in inclusive, positive, and high functioning work environments. Before starting Workplace Change, Serilda was t...

Kristi McFarland is the Chief Strategy Officer at New Seasons Market, a Pacific Northwest, sustainably-focused, organic grocer with 18 community-oriented stores. Before joining New Seasons, Kristi led organizational innovation, culture, and brand strategy at Peet’s Coffee & Tea and held HR leadership roles at Gap, Williams-Sonoma, and Banana Republic. In her time at New Seasons, Kristi has ove...

Dr. Ted Freeman joins me on this special episode to discuss Psychological Capital, a framework we can use to maintain performance and wellbeing in difficult times. We get into evidence-based practices we can follow to improve our (and our teams’) ability to manage stressors and pressures now and in the future. Ted has extensive experience as an organization development consultant and executive. He...

This episode was recorded prior to the COVID 19 pandemic. In the months ahead, How I Hire will serve as a platform for hiring leaders to exchange ideas as they both adapt to the current situation and look towards the future. Chris McDonough is the Chief Sales and Brand Officer for L.L.Bean where he leads a team of over 2,000 people. He’s led commercial, marketing, eCommerce, and international divi...

Dina Keenan is a marketing leader with deep experience in CPG, retail, fashion, and beauty. She recently served as CMO of New Seasons Market, where she led a high-performing team in a period of rapid growth for the company. Dina emphasizes connection and purpose in her work and has a passion for building effective teams. We get into the details of CMO hiring and more. Highlights from our conversat...

Scott Allan is the Global General Manager of Hydro Flask, where he served as CEO and President until their acquisition by Helen of Troy in 2016. Before discovering the outdoor industry, Scott was a tech executive in Silicon Valley. He successfully scaled Hydro Flask’s business and built the brand from the inside out, understanding that the right talent could make or break the company’s essential c...

Katrina Hahn is a Visionary General Management Leader with a history of driving dramatic growth and leading exceptional teams across the food, health and beauty, household cleaning, and durable goods industries. As the Senior Vice President of Bare Snacks, Katrina and her team doubled the company’s size before their acquisition by Frito-Lay in 2018.  Before joining Bare Snacks, Katrina was th...