Dive Brief:
- Wayfair’s chief people officer will become its CFO and chief administrative officer in November, the online retailer announced May 5.
- Kate Gulliver will lead Wayfair’s finance, legal, talent, real estate and corporate affairs teams, the company said. She holds a master’s degree in business administration and previously worked at Bain Capital as an investor and at McKinsey as a consultant.
- Gulliver built up Wayfair’s talent organization, the employer said, overseeing global human capital management including recruiting, organizational design, talent management, talent analytics, compensation and learning and development.
Dive Insight:
Employers are increasingly prioritizing talent strategy, research shows. In fact, attracting and retaining talent was among the top concerns of business leaders predicting their 2022 challenges in a global survey of 1,453 C-suite executives and board members by Protiviti and NC State University.
With this ongoing shift, those in high-level HR roles may be in a unique position to demonstrate their value by helping set business strategy, experts previously told HR Dive; they can show how people programs affect business success and the bottom line.
By embracing this increasingly strategic role, CPOs, CHROs and those in similar positions may be strong candidates for other C-suite roles, including CEO. CHROs, for example, drive innovation and have a strong understanding of the business, the CEO of an executive recruiting firm previously said, explaining that candidates with strong leadership skills and high emotional intelligence are model CEO candidates.
Notable examples include General Motors’ Mary Barra who moved up through the company's ranks to positions that included VP of global HR and eventually CEO, and Leena Nair, former Unilever CHRO who recently became CEO of Chanel.
