Frederickson Partners Strengthens HR Recruiting Staff
March 23, 2020 – Frederickson Partners, an executive search firm that recruits high impact human resources and people leaders for innovative, high-growth and transformational companies, has added recruiting veteran Katie Traines as an HR and people executive search partner to be based in Chicago.
“We are beyond excited for Katie to join the Frederickson team,” said Brian Brinkley, chief growth officer of Frederickson Partners. “Katie is a strategic Chicago hire for us as we expand our national reach. There are very few partners in executive search that exemplify the unique approach we take with our clients. Katie’s experience partnering and advising clients through all phases of growth make her highly coveted and we are lucky to have her on the Frederickson team.”
“With her extensive network and experience in HR recruiting from her years in the industry, Ms. Traines is an invaluable addition to the Frederickson Partners executive search team as it continues to grow and expand its global and national mark,” the firm said.
Ms. Traines brings to the firm deep expertise in HR executive search and advisory. As a partner, she will be leading some of Frederickson’s most exciting and strategic high-level HR searches, building and growing relationships with new and long-time clients, and participating in the expansion of the firm’s U.S. footprint, said Frederickson Partners.
Previously, Ms. Traines ran her own firm, Katie Traines, Executive Search. Before that, she was a partner at Hanold Associates, a Chicago-based human resources executive search firm. In this role, she worked with over 60 clients across various industries and geographies including Nike, Kellogg, Patagonia, NFL, LiveNation and European Wax Centers. Before her search experience, she spent time in sales and marketing for a high growth technology company.
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, eCommerce, fintech, gaming, hardware, IoT, media, semiconductors and telecommunications.
To help fuel its growth, Frederickson Partners recently named Mr. 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.
Changing the World, One HR Leader at a Time
Since civil rights activist Cezar Chavez came to speak to her second-grade class about the plight of the farm workers, Valerie Frederickson has worked to help others improve their lives and in the process make for a better world.
As the teenage daughter of parents devoted to desegregation and diversity, she spent her summers volunteering at an orphanage in Mexico. As a college student, she organized a series of career seminars for liberal arts majors, cajoling executives from leading companies to come and speak and share their wisdom with students who did not have degrees that translated directly into business. And as founder and chief executive officer of Frederickson Partners, she has forged a reputation for not only finding great talent but for her commitment to diversity and inclusion, both in the slates of candidates she presents and within her own Menlo Park, CA-based firm.
“With the increasing utilization of artificial intelligence in strategic HR and the focus on building companies based on culture and values, the need for experienced, modern HR and people executives continues to climb,” said founder and CEO Valerie Frederickson. “Across every part of our industry segmentation from health tech to enterprise software, biotech and not-for-profits, we anticipate increased demand for experienced HR and people leaders who utilize culture to create engagement.” As such, the need has risen internally for a professional C-suite leader to help manage that demand and the inherent growth expected to come with it.
Frederickson’s 2020 trajectory includes growth in the firm’s U.S. and global HR search practices. In 2019, Frederickson’s international reach continued by completing HR searches for global tech unicorns and other high growth enterprises in the U.S., Asia, Europe and Latin America including the U.K., Seoul, Brazil and Mexico. Nationally, the company has added to its footprint by conducting HR searches in Chicago, Indiana, Washington, D.C., Florida, Seattle, New York, Texas, Ohio, Connecticut, Washington, Arizona and all major cities in California including Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose.
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
