Frederickson Partners Selected by GRAIL to Lead Chief People Officer Search

February 7, 2022 – Talent acquisition strategies at many large companies have become as complex as their balance sheets. And while CHROs play a vital role in overseeing an organization’s broad-based workforce, it is the chief people officer who typically goes beyond overseeing its people policies. The focus instead is on building talent as a key competitive advantage, with more emphasis put on culture, which includes values, ethics, and mission.

Today, the chief people officer position is still a relatively new title within the HR function. It first appeared a decade ago. But now, as companies look to build internal brand awareness and set their sights more on establishing and driving their own unique cultures, CPOs are coming more into vogue. Global HR search firm Frederickson Partners was recently selected to find a new CPO for GRAIL, a healthcare company focused on saving lives and improving health by pioneering new technologies for early cancer detection. The company’s human resources executive will be based in Menlo Park, CA, and will report to the company’s CEO. The new HR leader will be responsible for developing, guiding and growing a forward-thinking function that impacts GRAIL through their next phase of rapid growth and expansion.

GRAIL is a healthcare company whose mission is to detect cancer early, when it can be cured. GRAIL is focused on alleviating the global burden of cancer by developing pioneering technology to detect and identify multiple deadly cancer types early. The company is using the power of next-generation sequencing, population-scale clinical studies, and state-of-the-art computer science and data science to enhance the scientific understanding of cancer biology, and to develop its multi-cancer early detection blood test.

Veteran HR Consultants

Founded in 1995, Frederickson Partners has completed over 2,500 HR executive searches and HR consulting engagements, according to the firm, 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.

Related: Frederickson Partners Recruits Equity, Inclusion and Diversity Leader for Western Digital

Based in Menlo Park, the search 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.


Frederickson Partners Places Chief People Officer at Mitratech

Frederickson Partners has placed Rene Barreda as chief people officer of Mitratech, a provider of legal, compliance and HR software. Mr. Barreda brings over 25 years of human resources leadership experience to Mitratech. He was most recently chief people and legal officer at Corel Corp., where he led both people and legal practices globally. 


Valerie Frederickson, the search firm’s founder and CEO, has helped hundreds of companies during the past 20-plus years build and improve their human resources organizations. HR executives and C-level executives often seek her guidance and counsel when reorganizing their HR functions. Ms. Frederickson has conducted confidential, replacement and upgrade searches of HR executives, and placed heads of HR at companies such as C3 IoT, GE, Genentech, Mozilla, Qualtrics and hundreds more.

New Service to Help Mission-Based Organizations

Frederickson Partners launched a new service to help mission-based organizations better gain access to top HR executive talent. Mission-based firms, which include philanthropic foundations, hospitals, schools, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other not-for-profit organizations, will benefit from Frederickson’s HR advisory services and its ability to recruit human resource executives who have the expertise to develop competitive strategies for recruiting and retaining talent, the firm noted.

“What’s unique about mission-based organizations is the passion and purpose that drive their employees,” said Tom Wilson, managing partner and director of mission-based services at Frederickson Partners. “The COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn made clearer than ever the vital role these organizations play in the community to solve critical issues such as hunger, racism and global warming. Like any organization, they need superior HR leadership to attract skilled talent and to retain and motivate people. We’re seeing more tech and consumer services human resource executives taking roles at these organizations as an opportunity to find meaning in their own lives and to give back.”

“Our new service matches mission-based organizations requiring leadership and guidance with the right experienced HR executives,” said Ms. Frederickson. “We aim to help organizations fulfill their missions by elevating their HR function, and therefore their people.”

Related: Frederickson Partners Recruits Chief People Officer for Cupertino Electric 

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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