Recent job moves in HR see appointments in chief people officer roles at two expanding international firms, a strategic leadership position at one of the UK’s most prominent charities and a major internal move at a global banking giant.
Passion for culture
Finance giant Santander UK has announced the appointment of Juan Ignacio Echeverria as chief people officer, subject to regulatory approval. Reporting to CEO Mike Regnier, Ignacio Echeverria will join the UK executive committee and be responsible for building on the bank’s people strategy. He has nearly 30 years’ experience in financial services and joins from Santander Group Mexico, where he has been chief human resources officer since 2016. Prior to this, Ignacio Echeverria was head of compensations and administrations HR at Santander Group. He started his career in corporate banking before moving into HR 14 years ago and has worked and studied in the US, Latin America, Spain and China. Regnier said: “Juan has had an outstanding career in financial services and has an incredibly broad HR skillset and strong commercial mindset. With a passion for creating workplace cultures where people can thrive, learn and develop their skills, Juan will be a great asset to our team as we continue both to deliver our transformation programme and build on our status as a leading employer where all our people feel they belong and are able to succeed.”
Blooming career
International flower delivery firm Bloom & Wild has just appointed its first chief people officer as part of its plans to extend its European online flower delivery market: Fiona Mullan, formerly of Facebook and Microsoft. The appointment builds on the firm’s two international acquisitions in 2021 (bloomon in the Netherlands and Bergamotte in France), which are being integrated rapidly. Bloom & Wild aims to increase the size of its team by 100 people in 2022, a 23% increase in staffing. Mullan has led people functions in high-growth, global technology companies like Facebook, where she was VP for International HR until 2020, and Microsoft, where she was GM of HR for Asia Pacific. She said: “Being part of the Bloom & Wild growth journey is a natural next step, bringing together my experience of building culture-led, agile organisations internationally, with the opportunity to join a company with a compelling purpose, at a key growth stage. Modelling the company’s transformation to remote and hybrid working, Fiona herself will be working remotely, enabling her to support the teams across all 10 European locations. Aron Gelbard, CEO and co-founder of Bloom & Wild said: “Fiona’s expertise and experience with global tech giants will guide us as we progress our ambitious growth plans. Our culture and our people define Bloom & Wild and as we continue to grow, it is essential that we nurture them and invest in what we cherish most.”
Freight master
Managing change
Unilever announces new HR lead as part of restructure
Forto, a provider of digitised freight forwarding and supply chain solutions has appointed Anne-Marie Andric to the company’s executive leadership team as chief people officer. Andric will lead the company’s human resources functions as it continues its international expansion. Her responsibilities will include direction of talent acquisition, leadership and team development, employee experience and engagement, and employee relations. She will also further drive the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Forto CEO and co-founder Michael Wax said: “In an environment where the ways in which we work are significantly evolving, we need the right focus and right programmes to empower our teams. Anne-Marie’s experience in guiding early-stage companies during pivotal growth periods and delivering first-class HR programs at international scale for large enterprises, gives her the right toolset for this challenge.” Andric added: “Working with the passionate and engaged team at Forto offers the opportunity to drive change and make an impact in an industry that affects people around the world.” She brings more than 25 years of HR experience with a wide range of companies and industries to Forto. Most recently, she served as vice president people and organisation/internal communications for the Husqvarna Division at Husqvarna Group where she held overall responsibility for the people agenda and human resources function for a division supporting 7,000 employees in 33 countries. In this role, she spearheaded strategic people projects, such as re-structuring the people and operations function and designing foundations for the people and culture journey to enable the division’s business transformation. She has previously worked at Microsoft, Bisnode (today Dun & Bradstreet), and iZettle (today PayPal). She is also one of the co-founders of HR the Real Deal, a non-profit HR organisation promoting and sharing learnings from real HR practitioners and has served as a senior HR adviser to start-ups/scale-ups.
The right values
Health and first aid charity St John Ambulance has appointed Vicki Sellick as its new chief experience officer, who took up the post on 20 April. Awarded an MBE in 2020 for services to social action, Vicki joins from Nesta, a charitable foundation that supports innovation for social good, where she was chief partnership officer overseeing programmes and commercial ventures. St John Ambulance’s chief executive, Martin Houghton-Brown, said Sellick would provide senior strategic leadership across St John’s engagement and experience network and deliver a shared experience for all of colleagues, supporters and customers and inspire a deeper connection to St John’s mission and values. Sellick is a long-time advocate for community empowerment and new forms of volunteering in and alongside public services and is a keen volunteer, giving her time as a youth worker and sailing instructor. Before joining Nesta nearly 10 years ago, she worked in local government and for charities and think tanks in a range of social policy fields. She said: “Having worked in health improvement and community empowerment for many years as a supporter of other organisations, I’m really looking forward to bringing my experience to a charity with delivery at its heart and can’t wait to get out and about to meet as many St John people as possible.”
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