Hanold Associates Recruits CHRO for Domino’s Pizza

HR recruiting specialist Hanold Associates has tapped a new top HR exec for the largest pizza seller in the world. Let’s go inside the search and hear from Jason Hanold on what made the winning candidate stand out.

August 6, 2019 – Executive recruiters continue to be in hot pursuit of chief human resource officers and other senior-level HR leaders across the nation. Recently, Hanold Associates placed Lisa V. Price as the executive vice president and CHRO of Domino’s Pizza. Jason Hanold, CEO and co-managing partner of the search firm, led the assignment. He was joined by partners Keri Gavin, Ashley Schiele and Sonia Nagra.

“Lisa possesses the perfect blend of authenticity and approachability with a distinctive leadership capability through driven through an innovative lens to have an enduring positive impact throughout the organization and on the executive team,” said Mr. Hanold. “Lisa represents the ideal profile of the contemporary HR leader: trusted relationship builder, who has unflinchingly candid conversations and insightful perspectives of the business beyond people and talent implications.”


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“Lisa brings extensive experience in both retail and restaurants to Domino’s,” said Ritch Allison, CEO of the pizza chain. “She began her career in the stores at Starbucks and eventually worked her way up to be vice president of human resources. Her experience as senior vice president at Nordstrom – another incredible brand – makes her a terrific addition to the Domino’s team.”

At Nordstrom, Ms. Price most recently served as senior vice president of human resources. From 2000 to 2015, she had progressively more responsible roles in human resources at Starbucks Coffee Co., most recently as vice president of partner resources. With the exception of a short stint at Nordstrom in 2000, Ms. Price spent most of her career at Starbucks, joining the brand in 1994.

Domino’s Pizza, based in Ann Arbor, MI, aspires to become a $25 billion global business by 2025, almost doubling where it ended 2018 ($13.5 billion). This follows a decade of industry leading growth where U.S. store volumes have doubled and its international business just completed 100 consecutive quarters of same-store sales growth. Like any fast-growing company, its current people practices must be re-examined to ensure they support such aggressive enterprise goals.

Domino’s Pizza is the largest pizza seller in the world and the seventh largest global fast food chain, with more 15,900 locations in 85 different international markets. Its stores are mostly franchises (93 percent in the U.S., owned by more than 800 franchise owners), with Domino’s owning and operating about 400 stores.

Evolving CHRO Role

The CHRO role is important to not just Domino’s but all organizations. “A distinctive chief HR officer sets the tone, tempo and behaviors that define the culture, and then the strategies, methodologies and practices to attract, retain and develop the organization’s talent,” Mr. Hanold said. “This, in turn, either elevates or erodes the company’s results, community, brand and profitability. Besides the CEO, no other C-suite position has more opportunity and potential to broadly impact the entire organization.”

The CHRO role has evolved tremendously in recent years, which has caused companies to seek new qualities in their incoming HR leaders. “The expectations continue to heighten as boards and CEOs become more sophisticated in their appreciation and understanding of what ‘great HR’ looks like and can accomplish,” said Mr. Hanold. “Today’s contemporary HR officer must possess ever deeper business acumen, and credibly voice substantial perspectives on the business beyond just people practices.”

Unfortunately, he said, too many CEOs report that they simply want one who is “proactive” in their approach. “That is a pretty basic operational characteristic – it’s fundamental – and some still occupy that top role yet do not drive and own their results,” said Mr. Hanold.

Related: Here’s Why Game Changing CHRO Talent Is In Big Demand

Today, more companies see the CHRO as a potential successor C-suite executive role, including to that of the CEO, said Mr. Hanold. “More are being recruited to public company boards. It’s more common to recruit CHROs who have had rotation into other areas of the business, and then coming back into HR.”

“Fundamentally, we hear less about ‘new’ traits, and more about the lack of effective execution or a credible voice among other executive committee leaders,” said Mr. Hanold. “So the demand heightens for stronger leadership traits over different experiences.”

Veteran HR Recruiters

Hanold Associates, based in Evanston, IL, is a boutique search firm specializing in HR officer assignments. Mr. Hanold founded the firm in 2010. Its clients include Patagonia, Nike, the NFL, eBay, Cummins, Kohler, REI, Google, Riddell, Fossil, Carnival Corp., the UFCBlue Apron, Amazon, Under ArmourLas Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, Vail Resorts, Abbott, Biogen, Great Place to Work, Electronic Arts, Godiva, Fiat-Chrysler, Bridgestone, Northwestern University, Heinz, Warburg Pincus, Medtronic, Zurich, Wikipedia, T. Rowe Price and SC Johnson, to name a few. A majority of the firm’s work is conducted on behalf of private equity concerns.


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Ms. Gavin focuses on recruiting HR leaders in talent acquisition, organizational development, talent management, operations and total rewards. Her signature strength is said to be her relationship-building skills. She was previously director of host relations and customized training for Ragan Communications. There, she fostered relationships with communications leaders at Fortune 500 companies to secure event partnerships.

Related: An Up-Close Look at the Transformational Role of the CHRO

With an advanced degree in organizational psychology, Ms. Schiele leverages both organizational dynamics and skill assessment to help identify and recruit key talent. Before joining Hanold Associates, she worked as an account manager/recruiter for Kappa Search, a small technical recruiting firm based in Chicago’s West Loop. In this role, she was a full life-cycle recruiter, developing and maintaining long-term relationships with candidates and clients. Ms. Schiele has recruited candidates across industries and functions including, but not limited to, manufacturing, supply chain, engineering, IT, sales and marketing.

Ms. Nagra focuses on recruiting HR talent across various functions and industries. She brings years of diverse experience leveraging her organizational and relationship building skills to help recruit premier HR leaders. Before joining Hanold Associates last year, Ms. Nagra was a senior HR and operations administrator for Axxiome Group, a financial services IT consulting firm based in Europe.

Related: Key Factors in Selecting Your Next CHRO

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

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