Talent All-Stars

At 84 Lumber, talent acquisition is more than filling jobs. It’s about creating long-term careers. With 96% of store leaders starting as management trainees, the company has built one of the strongest internal mobility pipelines in the industry. In this episode, you’ll hear how 84 Lumber attracts candidates with no industry experience, develops them through structured training, and promotes from w...

Jennifer Christie has built a career at the intersection of leadership, service, and transformation. From her time running presidential personnel in the White House to senior posts at American Express and Twitter, she’s now Chief People Officer at Docusign. In this episode, Jennifer explains: Why government and corporate leadership share more in common than most think How AI is transforming HR and...

Ana Moran’s story is proof that leadership can start anywhere. After immigrating from Colombia as a child, she began her career on the frontlines as a call center agent. Today, she is Chief People Officer for the U.S. Market at Foundever, leading a workforce of more than 150,000 employees. In this episode, Ana shares how her immigrant experience and frontline beginnings shaped her leadership philo...

At Salesforce, technology and humanity are designed to evolve together. AI isn’t seen as a threat but as a tool that frees employees to focus on empathy, creativity, and leadership. In this episode, Molly Ford, VP of Talent Connection and Engagement, shares how Salesforce integrates core values like equality and volunteerism into every business plan while adopting AI in ways that enhance, not repl...

At Concentrix, a global leader in customer experience solutions, talent acquisition is closely integrated with business operations rather than functioning as a standalone department. In this episode, Jillene Jensen, Senior Director of Talent Acquisition, shares how her operations background led to a new kind of talent acquisition strategy: prioritizing alignment, performance, and long-term impact....

At Marsden Services, a national provider of cleaning, security, and maintenance services, talent acquisition starts with clear and honest role-selling. In this episode, Vice President of Talent Acquisition Ashley Lynch shares how visiting worksites, understanding the day-to-day realities of each role, and setting clear expectations have helped her team improve both speed-to-hire and retention. You...

At Legacy Health, talent acquisition is shaped by data, experimentation, and a deep understanding of people. In this episode, Travis Trautman, Director of Sourcing and Talent Acquisition, shares how his team uses mini-experiments to improve hiring speed, candidate fit, and decision-making across a highly regulated healthcare environment. With a career spanning banking, education, and healthcare, T...

Johnson Controls is known for making buildings smarter, safer, and more sustainable. But inside the company, there’s a different kind of transformation happening—in how they attract, hire, and prepare talent for the future of work. In this episode of Talent All-Stars, Mike Aronson— Senior Director of Global Talent Acquisition Operations—shares how he’s applying over 15 years of hands-on recruiting...

Ace Hardware’s hiring strategy is grounded in one core principle: a consistent, transparent experience for every candidate—regardless of outcome. In this episode, Stef Nikitas, Director of Talent Acquisition at Ace Hardware, outlines how her team developed “The Ace Way of Hiring”—a structured, brand-aligned approach that sets clear expectations for candidates, hiring managers, and recruiters. She...

Verizon is one of the biggest brands on the planet—but behind the scenes, it’s the people who keep it moving. In this episode, Steve West—VP and HR Business Partner for Consumer Sales—reflects on his own journey from recruiter to executive and shares his approach to building teams, developing talent, and leading with trust. Steve also shares: How Verizon’s “Culture OS” connects values to decision-...

At Delaware North, recruiting 20,000 employees annually across 200+ unique locations requires more than operational scale—it demands strategic clarity, brand cohesion, and relentless focus on candidate experience. In this episode of Talent All-Stars , Amy Duncan-Menendez, Vice President of Talent Acquisition and Global Innovation Center, and Laura Murray, Director of Employee Branding and Strategy...

When you're hiring cleaners, commercial real estate brokers, and everyone in between—in dozens of countries—your recruiting strategy has to be both scalable and local. Danielle Kensinger, VP of Global Talent Acquisition at Cushman & Wakefield, shares how her team customizes talent acquisition strategies by region, role, and urgency—without losing speed or consistency. She also shares: Why passive...

What happens when you drop a former agency recruiter into a hypergrowth environment with no budget, no ATS—and 15,000 hires to make? Joe Leno, Senior Director of Recruiting at Leaf Home, shares the inside story of how he scaled a grassroots recruiting operation into a full-fledged TA engine that powers one of the largest home improvement companies in North America. In this episode, Joe reveals how...

How do you recruit top-tier dentists and hygienists for 1700+ practices—when demand far outweighs supply? Tyler Micenheimer, SVP of Talent Acquisition & Workforce Planning at Heartland Dental, breaks down how his team tackles competitive hiring—matching top talent to the practices where they’ll thrive. Tyler shares: Why Heartland built its own school to solve a talent shortage How their in-house s...

What if your talent team was the key to unlocking tens of millions in revenue? At Lockheed Martin, that’s not a hypothetical. John Heyliger, VP of Talent Acquisition & Workforce Transformation, shares how his team recruits high-stakes technical talent at scale—while avoiding costly hiring mistakes and proving their value in terms business leaders appreciate. John also shares: The tactics John’s te...

How is IKEA keeping voluntary turnover under 23%—in an industry where 40-60% is the norm? In this episode, Neena Potenza, Chief People Officer at IKEA US, reveals the values-first approach that drives co-worker loyalty, leadership development, and cultural consistency across thousands of frontline and corporate team members. Neena shares: How IKEA turns its values into a felt experience from day o...

Southwest Airlines has a team of 200 people whose sole responsibility is to source the company’s “secret sauce”: its people. That team’s leader? Greg Muccio, who started his career as a struggling salesman—before pivoting to agency recruiting and eventually joining Southwest in 2001.   It took him seven tries to land his first leadership role, but that journey shaped who he is today: humble, focus...

Most HR leaders want a seat at the table. But what does it take to get there? As the Chief People Officer at Skillsoft—and a former consultant for brands like Comcast, Johnson & Johnson, and Coca-Cola—Ciara Harrington believes the best CPOs think like business executives first, and HR leaders second. In this episode, she explains what true transformation looks like, how to overcome resistance when...

What happens when your frontline workforce spans 20,000 locations—and your clients control the environment? Raúl Valentín, EVP & CHRO of ABM Industries – one of the world’s largest providers of facility, engineering, and infrastructure solutions – explains how he keeps people-first leadership at the heart of a massive, distributed workforce.  From leading HR with business fluency to fighting for t...

Most CEOs say people are their most important asset. Marcus Lemonis lives it. The Camping World CEO, Beyond Executive Chairman, and host of “The Fixer” on Fox shares why HR and Talent Acquisition leaders play such critical decision-making roles at his companies – and what up-and-coming HR and TA pros must do to earn their CEO’s trust. He also opens up about the biggest blind spots leaders have whe...

Have you ever seen a leader enthusiastically roll out a “best practice”–without asking whether those practices actually fit the organization? In this episode of Talent All-Stars , Beverly Propst, SVP - Human Resources at Fortune 500 electrical and tech distributor Graybar , shares why even the most widely accepted strategies can fail if they don’t align with your company’s culture. With 20+ years...

What does it take to build a high-performing organization that lives its values—not just plasters them on a poster? Brian Riley, VP of Global Talent Acquisition and HR Shared Services at Riot Games, shares how the gaming company refreshes, embeds, and operationalizes its values across the entire hiring lifecycle. From behavioral interview kits to identifying internal “bar raisers”, this is how eli...

What does it look like to evolve your talent strategy while sitting at the center of the AI revolution? Just ask Sarah Tilley. As SVP of Global Talent Management and Acquisition at ServiceNow , Sarah oversees a large-scale but agile operation that processed 1.7 million applications last year alone.   In this episode, she shares how her team uses AI not just to streamline recruiting—but to deeply e...

What if the best way to lead isn’t by having all the answers—but by asking better questions? Brian Glaser, Google’s Vice President and Chief Talent and Learning Officer, shares a leadership philosophy grounded in humility, agility, and experimentation.   From his early days at JetBlue Airways to shaping Google’s leadership school, Brian explains how the best talent leaders balance clarity with cur...

Jason Pistulka didn’t wait for permission—he just started solving the real problem. As AVP of Talent Acquisition at HCA Healthcare, Jason helped scale a recruiting organization that hired hundreds of people per day and turned a fragmented HR operation into a well-oiled, data-driven machine. In this episode, Jason talks about the bold moves he made to overhaul recruiting from the inside out—why he...