By Zee Johnson
For organizations to truly excel, they must be led by executives who aren’t afraid to tackle the biggest of challenges with unshakeable focus, innovative strategies, and profound determination. The 2022 CHRO of the Year Individual Award Winners and Leaders of Distinction are trailblazers who have driven meaningful transformations and initiatives, some of which include acquiring talent amid a historic worker shortage, creating an equitable workplace for all employees, and keeping abreast on the latest technologies to elevate the practice of HR. The 2022 CHRO of the Year Individual Award Winners and Leaders of Distinction are driving progression and carefully crafting the workforce of the future. Learn more about their efforts here.
CHRO of the Year Award Winner: Small Market
Ray Khuo
CHRO
BlueHalo LLC
When it comes to spearheading acquisition and integration, Ray Khuo is beyond experienced, having guided the integration of 11 companies into one while retaining 98% of the workforce. To keep employees invested, Khuo implemented a heavy people focus by mentoring integrated workers, creating a new health benefits platform, launching a company-wide bonus structure, and crafting the “BlueHalo Fitness” program that encourages physical, mental, and financial well-being.
CHRO of the Year Award Winner: Mid-Market
Deb LaMere
CHRO
Datasite
As CHRO for Datasite, Deb LaMere’s role is to build a culture that attracted, retained, and developed top talent— especially during the pandemic. Not only was LaMere able to increase acquisition by 37% at the company’s Minneapolis headquarters, but the company hired more than 900 employees globally. She also built an employee experience team and created a director of global leadership development position to continuously upskill her workforce.
CHRO of the Year Award Winner: Large Market
Mai Lan Nguyen
SVP Human Resources
Schneider Electric
Mai Lan Nguyen has been the mastermind behind driving an encompassing people strategy at Schneider Electric. With this focus in mind, Nguyen put her efforts into ensuring that minority talent, women, and early career employees were represented and had access to ample opportunities. She prioritized pay equity for these groups, drastically increased hiring, and implemented numerous diversity projects. According to a recent survey, 78% of Schneider Electric’s employees said they are treated fairly, regardless of their individual differences.
CHRO of the Year Award Winner: Sustainable Workforce
Kathleen Pai
Chief People Officer
N-able
As Chief People Officer at N-able, Kathleen Pai was very purposeful in creating an employee-first culture. Pai did this in many ways, including but not limited to, issuing full employer-paid health benefits to all employees, giving two fully paid volunteer days to all global employees for community service, and launching an internal email address for employees to submit improvement suggestions. These initiatives led to lower attrition rates and higher engagement rates.
CHRO of the Year Award Winner: Lifetime Achievement
Cecilia McKenney
SVP and CHRO
Quest Diagnostics
Cecilia McKenney is a true leader whose focus on equitable practices has played a major role in making Quest Diagnostics a company of choice. She implemented mentorship programs that prepared women and people of color for leadership roles and launched a new company holiday—"Diversity Day”—in celebration of Quest’s inclusivity, and initiated a program that helped to vaccinate 43,000 people in underserved communities. Her efforts have produced tremendous results: the Quest Diagnostics U.S. workforce is composed of 51% people of color and 72% women.
CHRO of the Year: Non-Profit Winner
Carmen Canales
SVP and Chief People Officer
Novant Health
Carmen Canales invested heavily in the well-being of her team at Novant Health. From ensuring no job or title was eliminated during COVID-19, to instituting market pay increases, raising the organization’s minimum wage, and surprising team members with their choice of an extra week of paid time-off (or the cash award equivalent), Canales made Novant Health’s 35,000 employees feel heard and personally cared for.
Gunjan Aggarwal
Former EVP & Chief People Officer
RingCentral
Upon joining RingCentral, Gunjan Aggarwal had a clear goal in mind—to grow the company and make influential changes. Under Aggarwal’s leadership, the company has added more than 4,000 employees, a remarkable growth of 40%. She also successfully moved the workforce to remote operations, setting organizational records. Since then, retention, productivity, and employee engagement rates have increased and the company made Comparably’s 2021 lists for happiness and company culture, securing the number two spot on both.
Jennifer Blue
Chief People and Experience Officer
Chrysalis Health
As Chief People and Executive Officer at Chrysalis Health, Jennifer Blue worked hard to save the company close to one million dollars by focusing on improving retention rates. She did this by narrowing in on employee engagement and ensuring company communications were direct and connective. Blue also provided staff with bonuses and a number of training and development opportunities.
Lindsay Caulder
SVP, Human Resources
World Acceptance
Lindsay Caulder was instrumental in updating World Acceptance Corporation’s decades-old mission and values to set the company up for long-term success. Caulder took feedback from leaders and employees to craft a message that fit the company perfectly. Their mission, “We care, we adapt, we are better together, we make it happen,” exemplifies the culture of trust and honesty that Caulder helped foster.
Michelle Eisner
SVP and CHRO
SBA Communications Corp
Upon joining SBA Communications Corp, Michelle Eisner understood that one of the keys to a productive and successful company was an engaged workforce. She prioritized employee feedback by holding global focus groups to pinpoint areas of improvement, which included new DEI initiatives.
Jeannie Fissinger
SVP Policy and Training Development
Healthcare Services Group, Inc.
As the senior vice president of policy and training development, Jeannie Fissinger played a large role in upskilling the employees at Healthcare Services Group and growing the HR team as a whole. She trained staff to become more agile and well-informed, including taking a team of former internal field operations leaders and developing them into divisional HR managers who then trained and developed other employees. Last year, Fissinger worked to have the company granted national program standards from the U.S. Department of Labor for registered apprenticeships in management development for both environmental services and dining services.
Andrea Giraldo
Head of People, Americas
Monstarlab
Andrea Giraldo’s objective as the head of people, Americas for Monstarlab was to completely transform the company’s employer brand. She accomplished this by improving talent acquisition, compensation planning, and total benefits while also targeting development. Under her leadership, the company grew by a staggering 350% and saved 60% more during the selection process.
Sara Hill
CHRO
Intricon
Sara Hill was appointed as the very first CHRO of Intricon and set her sights on scaling the business. Having been a successful leader at other companies, Hill knew that to reach business goals and grow quickly, she had to restructure the organization to focus on team development. The primary focus of this initiative was communication. She increased employee communications through effective action items like quarterly meetings and recurring leadership summits.
Ann Jackson
Chief People and Culture Officer
Oak View Group
Ann Jackson is what innovation looks like. Not only was she the first person hired in Oak View Group’s HR department, but she was responsible for constructing it from the ground up. Soon after taking on this feat, Oak View Group acquired a company five times its size in which Jackson then seamlessly led the integration.
Roxanne Lagano
EVP and CHRO, Global Operations
Zoetis
Roxanne Lagano played a large part in numerous initiatives at Zoetis, one of the most significant being the establishment of the company’s “Talent, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” department. This new department spearheaded the uptick in company representation of Black and Latinx employees and women director-level employees. Lagano also created eight colleague resource groups for employees of similar backgrounds to exchange experiences and feel welcomed and understood in the workplace.
Erika Lance
CHRO
KnowBe4
Erika Lance has been an ambassador for diversity and inclusion at KnowBe4 to ensure all employees feel supported. She did this by establishing a range of resource groups that catered to specific employees, like women, Black and Latin workers, and others. She also initiated programs that helped military workers find their way through the workforce. Under her leadership, KnowBe4’s workforce is now made up of 40% women, a number that’s more than double the industry average.
Sallie Larsen
Managing Director and CHRO
LPL Financial
Upon joining LPL Financial, Sallie Larsen was tasked with transforming the company’s approach to having the capabilities of a product organization. She overhauled the existing mission statement and values, which helped her workforce grow by 25%. Larsen also expanded HR operations from traditional to employing more modern management techniques, which helped her set records, including assets secured.
Michelle Leighton
Chief Talent Officer
Lifebanc
Michelle Leighton helped craft a dynamic workforce at Lifebanc by creating and updating many company processes and procedures. Some of the many changes that she made include improving the candidate experience with applicant tracking functionality, providing benefits and compensation for top performers, giving extra support for employee well-being, and implementing leadership development and recognition programs. Lifebanc was recognized as one of the best workplaces in Ohio for three years in a row.
Ane McNeil
SVP Human Resources
Trinity Health
Being the Senior Vice President of Human Resources during a global pandemic was not an easy feat, but Ane McNeil’s determination and trailblazing leadership made it appear effortless. She was responsible for filling more than 10,000 positions during a healthcare worker shortage, protecting the benefits of furloughed employees, implementing compensation programs to display employee appreciation, and other initiatives that greatly supported and strengthened the workforce.
Zaina Orbai
Chief People Officer
The RealReal
Instilling trust was front of mind for Zaina Orbai when taking on the role as chief people officer for The RealReal. She worked hard to create a solid foundation for employees that was rooted in confidence, safety, and diversity, and this theme appeared in her innovative programs. Orbai implemented bias training for the company’s hiring team to ensure a fair acquisition process, offered an internship program with 67% diverse participants, and introduced a two-way feedback method for improved communications.
Randy Ross
CHRO
Minnetronix Medical
Randy Ross was just weeks into his role as CHRO at Minnetronix Medical when the pandemic and talent shortage hit. His three-part strategy first launched an internship program to pipeline talent, then turned current employees into brand ambassadors, and lastly intertwined culture with the total HR experience. His approach also helped to increase intern and employee hiring altogether.
Amy Roy
Chief People Officer
Namely
With over 20 years of experience, Amy Roy knew that the key to a dynamic workforce was one that has an established, high-level of engagement. To drive employee interactions, Roy implemented an anonymous Q&A platform for stressed employees to personally ask questions; created new well-being resources that supported mental health; and crafted mentorship programs that connected employees with senior leaders. In 2021, engagement reached a company high, increasing by 40% under Roy’s direction.
Donna Szarwark
VP, Human Resources
Cincinnati Incorporated
After a gap analysis of Cincinnati Incorporated’s HR resources, Donna Szarwark was able to scope what was needed to be done to elevate business practices and processes. She guided a culture renovation that made the company more accountable, agile, and innovative; developed and implemented standard operating procedures (47 to be exact); renovated the HR space; and hired more than 100 new employees. In 2020, under Szarwark’s leadership, the company was able to decrease turnover from 18.68% to 8.56% and was recognized with a best workplace award for Ohio.
Molly Thiel
CHRO
Cielo
As the CHRO of Cielo, Molly Thiel made it her mission to enhance the employee experience. She did this by quickly and seamlessly transitioning the entire workforce to remote operations, advocating for employee mental and physical well-being, providing financial assistance to employees facing hardships, greatly improving employee communications, and increasing employee access to learning and development tools. So far this year, Cielo’s global workforce expanded by 71% thanks to Thiel and her efforts.