Colleen McCreary on Layoffs, M&A, and Recruiting the Best Talent

Colleen McCreary, a seasoned Chief People Officer (Zynga, Credit Karma, EA, Twilio) -turned-venture capitalist at Ribbit Capital, sits down with Kelli Dragovich and Nolan Church. This insider conversation covers tactical advice for navigating Mergers and Acquisitions (she’s been through multiple), layoffs, recruiting top talent, and transitioning from an HR leader into the world of the board room. Before the interview, Nolan and Kelli also discuss the recent negative press for Carta's CEO Henry Ward, and offer listeners a behind the scenes understanding of executive departures and settlement packages. If you’re looking for HR software that drives performance, check out Lattice https://www.lattice.com/hrheretics

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KEEP UP WITH COLLEEN, NOLAN, + KELLI ON LINKEDIN

Colleen:https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleenmccrearychiefpplofficer/

Nolan:https://www.linkedin.com/in/nolan-church/

Kelli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellidragovich/

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LINKS:

- Ribbit Capital: https://ribbitcap.com/

- Henry Ward’s blog post about negative press: https://henrysward.medium.com/what-i-tell-employees-about-negative-press-7c134e7a601c 

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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Episode Preview

(01:43) The Carta story: executive terminations and lawsuits

(05:15) Rolling Layoffs

(13:45) Setting expectations after a layoff event

(17:49) Sponsors: Lattice | Continuum

(19:23) Employee accountability and RTO debate

(21:00) CHRO/CPO’s responsibility to be the voice for the company

(26:20) Moral challenges and breaking up with a CEO - infamous Zynga story

(31:28) Colleen’s experience being an advisor for Silicon Valley, the HBO series

(34:25) Recruiting lessons from Silicon Valley

(36:20) Colleen’s tactical lessons from multiple M&As

(43:30) Most important ‘gotchas’ to watch out for in M&A process

(47:08) Transitioning from HR to VC

(50:40) Being a long date in the interview process to create opportunities

(53:15) Navigating the choice between CPO at a big company, COO, and VC 

(55:40) Colleen’s best hire(s): Mike Vernal and his crew

(58:28) Colleen’s best interview question

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HR Heretics is brought to you by Turpentine www.turpentine.co

Producer: Natalie Toren

Production: Graham Bessellieu, Michelle Poreh

For inquiries about guests or sponsoring the podcast, email Natalie@turpentine.co