Frederickson Partners Recruits HR Leader for PE-Backed Klaviyo

February 17, 2021 – With the coronavirus crisis disrupting the world economy, HR leaders are stepping up at businesses across the country, playing a vital role in helping organizations navigate what is looking to be an even greater challenge than the Great Recession. As a recent article in The Economist put it, chief people officers “keep employees healthy, maintain their morale and oversee a vast remote-working experiment.” As companies retrench, these leaders are also considering whether, when and how to lay workers off. Executive recruiters across the business landscape report that searches for these C-suite executives will only continue to rise.

Global HR search firm Frederickson Partners recently recruited Ed Meskey as director, human resources at Klaviyo, an e-mail marketing and e-commerce start-up company. “We’re very pleased to place Ed Meskey as director of human resources at Klaviyo,” said Valerie Frederickson, founder and CEO. “Ed has a wealth of experience in driving strong HR operational processes and improvements within a tech-heavy workforce, and the deep expertise to help build strong internal partnerships and an excellent employee experience as Klaviyo grows.”

 

Mr. Meskey joins Klaviyo from Bird, an eco-transportation start-up where he was head of tech HR business partners and senior HR business partner (HRBP). Prior to Bird, he was senior HR manager in Azure Cloud Storage at Microsoft, held HRBP roles at Facebook, Dropbox and Microsoft, and was an HR generalist at GE. Mr. Meskey started his career in the U.S. Air Force. He holds an master’s degree in HR and employment relations and a bachelor’s degree in labor studies and employment relations from Penn State University.

In his new position with Klaviyo, Mr. Meskey will be based in the company’s Boston headquarters and will help lead the strategy and design of Klaviyo’s HR programs in its next phase of growth and expansion, particularly working with research and development teams to drive performance and talent management initiatives.

Founded in 2012, Klaviyo recently announced $200 million in series C funding, led by Accel with participation from existing investor Summit Partners. As a customer data and marketing platform for online businesses. Klaviyo believes that “growth-focused companies must leverage email, website and mobile channels — the channels they own – to help accelerate sales and build stronger relationships with customers.” Today, Klaviyo serves more than 32,000 brands, including E-Commerce leaders such as Bonobos, Chubbies, CustomInk, Huckberry, Steve Madden and Untuckit.

Veteran HR Consultants

Founded in 1995, Frederickson Partners has completed over 2,500 HR executive searches and HR consulting engagements, maintaining relationships with more than 10,000 rising and established HR executives worldwide. Specializing in the placement of chief human resources officers/ chief people officers and their teams for high-growth employers, the firm also provides HR strategy, consulting and thought leadership.

Based in Menlo Park, CA, the firm is deeply rooted in the technology sector, with experience in biotech, clean energy, cloud and data storage, E-Commerce, fintech, gaming, hardware, IoT, media, semiconductors and telecommunications.

During the summer, Frederickson Partners formed an expanded diversity and inclusion (D&I) recruiting practice. The service is led by chief of staff Ben Taylor, a five-year veteran of the firm, and CEO Valerie Frederickson. The firm reports that in June it saw a threefold increase in companies requesting D&I searches. Fueled by Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S., many businesses are committing to creating a more equitable and diverse workplace and now plan to hire their first D&I leader, the firm said.

“With the Black Lives Matter movement, CEOs and boards now aim to improve diversity and inclusion in the workplace, to make right long-standing disparities in opportunity,” said Ms. Frederickson. “The movement has highlighted the critical importance of equal pay and promotion irrespective of race, gender and age. Experienced leaders who can fill a chief diversity office position are a small, highly sought-after pool of executives who have proven they can drive change within an organization and deliver results. We help leading employers find those in-demand leaders.”

To help manage and fuel its growth, Frederickson Partners began the year with naming Brian Brinkley as chief growth officer. Mr. Brinkley is a nationally recognized thought leader in human capital management with a track record that includes years of management consulting at PwC and progressive to executive leadership roles at Aon Hewitt, West Monroe Partners, Premise Health and Evive.

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media

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