Hiring for Good is a podcast exploring the transformative power of leadership and what happens when the right person takes the job. Thank you for tuning in to this episode with Krishna Walker- Chief Legal and Corporate Affairs Officer at CareVet.
Hiring For Good Website: https://www.hiringforgood.net/
About Krishna A. Walker, JD, MA, CCRP: Krishna A. Walker, JD, MA, CCRP is a C-Level operating executive and corporate generalist crediting a track record of success to a background in banking/financial services, M&A, corporate finance, agriculture, and private equity. Krishna Walker is the Chief Legal and Corporate Affairs Officer at CareVet
Krishna has facilitated transactions exceeding $10 billion in aggregate value over the course of two decades. She blends the agility of growing successful PE-backed startup organizations (CareVet) with global/Fortune 50 process and procedure (Bank of America & Rabobank) and AmLaw 100 law firm distinction. Experience building teams and organizations from scratch while building cultures of integrity and accountability.
JD from Notre Dame, and MA in Higher Education Administration from Columbia. Honored recipient of the Zhi-Xing China Eisenhower Fellowship, Law.com’s Women, Influence, & Power in Law Award and selected as part of the “Super Lawyers Rising Star” list in 2016, 2017, and 2018.
Krishna (Thomas) Walker’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishnawalker/
About CareVet: CareVet is a network of veterinary hospitals anchored by a deep commitment to the teams that serve their clients and patients. As a CareVet Team Member, you’ll receive the same quality of care and support you deliver to patients every single day through our Whole Person Approach. Their Whole Person Approach concentrates on better supporting each Team Member’s personal and professional needs for health, support, fulfillment and advancement. CareVet’s Website: https://www.carevethealth.com/
Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/288s2urueV7xjlsFoYW8QN
Podcast on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hiring-for-good-podcast/id1725208602
Tanis Morris: Director of Business Development at Acumen Executive Search Email: tanis@acumenexecutivesearch.com
Suzanne Hanifin: President at Acumen Executive Search Email: suzanne@acumenexecutivesearch.com
Acumen Executive Search Website: https://www.acumenexecutivesearch.com/
Acumen Executive Search is the leading certified woman-owned Executive Search and advisory Firm on the West Coast.
Acumen sources, attracts, and qualifies world-class executive and management talent for organizations to support them in achieving their organizational goals. Due to their focus and local network, which is both broad and deep, we are able to leverage best practices across a broad range of industries. We employ an equity lens throughout the recruitment process.
Hiring for Good Transcript:
0:00 well hello this is hiring for good
0:02 podcast I’m Tanis Morris and with me is
0:05 my lovely host Suzanne Hannifin we are
0:08 with Acumen Executive Search and we have
0:11 this podcast to discuss leadership
0:14 lessons learned and how the teams that
0:17 we build at work can influence um not
0:19 only the companies that we work with but
0:22 uh the world at large and today we have
0:25 a lovely guest um Krishna Walker is here
0:27 with us Krishna I’m going to refer to my
0:30 notes so Krishna is an experienced
0:32 corporate executive well-versed in
0:34 strategic leadership operations and
0:36 executive management and general
0:38 management she’s currently Chief Legal
0:41 and Corporate Affairs Officer at
0:43 CareVet and she credits her corporate
0:45 success to her strong background in
0:48 Banking and Financial Services, M&A and
0:50 Corporate Finance, Agriculture and
0:52 Private Equity um and I’m sure she’ll be
0:55 discussing some of these things as we
0:57 talk about her journey Krishna believes
0:59 in building teams distinguished by
1:01 integrity and accountability and she’s
1:03 also an active community leader serving
1:05 on both national and local nonprofit
1:07 boards Krishna thank you for joining us
1:10 today welcome thanks so our first
1:13 question is always to just kind of have
1:15 you tell us a little bit about your
1:18 journey um if and you can go back as far
1:21 as you want I think we we’re chatting a
1:24 little before we got started this is a
1:26 conversation between friends and um you
1:29 know we’re glad to that you’re here and
1:31 we want a friendly conversation with you
1:33 kind of telling us all about your life
1:35 awesome so I would start with I was born
1:38 in South Bend, Indiana that’s where I’ve
1:40 probably lived more years collectively
1:42 than anywhere else I’ve ever lived um
1:44 born and raised there stayed in state
1:46 for college and then um moved to New
1:49 York City for graduate school um lived
1:53 there for six years and moved to
1:56 Charlotte, North Carolina I was working
1:58 for Bank of America at the time
2:00 um in HR moved to Charlotte one month
2:02 before my now 21-year-old daughter was
2:05 born oh wow um and transferred there to
2:07 corporate headquarters and that was um a
2:12 time that I really had to re-evaluate
2:14 like everything like what am I doing
2:16 what do I want to do going forward um
2:18 and I was fortunate to work at Bank of
2:20 America for five years um and to see
2:24 several different parts of the bank I
2:26 knew I loved transactions from talking
2:28 to my internal clients
2:30 um and so I spent the couple years that
2:32 I lived in Charlotte figuring out how
2:33 can I become part of transactions
2:36 without having to do spreadsheets and
2:38 the answer to that is to become a lawyer
2:41 okay um so I applied to law school um
2:44 went back to my hometown of South Bend
2:46 for law school at Notre Dame um and
2:48 after that um went to work for a large
2:50 law firm in St Louis Missouri um and I
2:54 was there for eight years um that
2:56 experience was amazing because my
2:58 Practice Center on Commercial Finance
3:02 transactions primarily on the debt side
3:05 um but I also got to be outside general
3:07 counsel for a few um pretty large
3:09 nonprofit clients um which gave me a
3:12 breadth of experience so I had depth in
3:14 in sort of the um debt transaction side
3:17 but also a breadth of experience and so
3:19 from there um went actually into an
3:22 operations role for a bank um commercial
3:24 lending operations and then back into
3:26 legal so um that brings me to today
3:32 where um I went to work for CareVet in
3:34 2020 thick of the
3:37 pandemic wow and um I was brought in
3:40 there to um really help bring in house
3:44 the M&A activity that had been going on
3:47 at that time there were 26 so CareVet
3:49 is a um a portfolio company of the
3:53 Compus Group Equity partners and um we
3:56 acquire and operate veterinary hospitals
3:58 throughout the US
4:00 so when I joined in June of 2020 we had
4:02 26 hospitals and as of last week we have
4:07 200 we’ve acquired oh my goodness and I
4:09 didn’t realize that you’ve done all of
4:11 that in four
4:13 years years in four years and primarily
4:15 all in-house wow so the fun of that was
4:19 I was able to blend um The Lending
4:22 operations experience I had um inside
4:24 the bank Rabobank um with my legal
4:29 experience
4:30 and build a platform where we could
4:32 really do transactions internally pretty
4:35 seamlessly um it’s heavily dependent on
4:37 technology and with bringing in like the
4:40 best legal team in the world
4:43 so so it’s been a lot of fun yeah and
4:46 and it was interesting hearing about
4:48 your background and this formative
4:50 period of your life and I think as women
4:53 and as moms we’ve all faced that what
4:56 other like experiences that you could
4:59 talk about to where you’ve had to pause
5:03 and really make conscientious decisions
5:05 on you know what’s next what does this
5:09 look like and how did you learn from
5:11 them that’s a really that’s an
5:13 interesting question um one thing that
5:16 I’ve had a practice of doing for a very
5:17 long time is at various points in my
5:20 life usually it’s January or my birthday
5:22 month which is July yay oh happy
5:26 birthday um I try to pause and just take
5:28 a look at what have I been doing is it
5:30 what I want to still do what do I want
5:33 next in my life um and so I try to build
5:36 that in so it’s routine so that as
5:39 opportunities come up it’s pretty easy
5:41 to weed out whether it’s a good
5:42 opportunity or not so as to answer your
5:45 question that’s something that is kind
5:46 of an ongoing thing um and and probably
5:50 four maybe five years ago I started
5:54 doing that with my husband mmhm which
5:57 is why I’m here in Oregon to be honest
5:59 because we um we’ kind of listed out all
6:01 the things we wanted in our career what
6:03 did we want from a professional
6:05 development standpoint job Etc. and um my
6:08 husband got a call from a Headhunter
6:11 and um as he went through the process we
6:13 were like talking about it I’m like see
6:15 this list I’m like this is it’s hitting
6:18 every single thing that you wanted on
6:19 your list um so we moved from St Louis
6:23 to Oregon for my husband’s job and I’m
6:26 thankful that I’ve been able to work
6:27 remotely um I go back to Louis every
6:30 four to 6 weeks but um I try to be
6:33 really thoughtful about um take
6:36 inventory about what I like and don’t
6:38 like with whatever it is I’m doing
6:40 currently and what I want to see going
6:42 forward um just so that I can be ready
6:46 when the time comes yeah that’s really
6:48 interesting and it leads beautifully
6:50 into our next question because um I
6:54 think doing that kind of assessment
6:55 probably helps you really solidify what
6:58 you’re personally held values are as a
7:01 leader at your organization how do you
7:05 transfer those personally held values
7:07 and if you don’t mind sharing them we’d
7:08 be interested but how do you kind of
7:10 instill those into the workplace that’s
7:13 great so um it is important to me no
7:17 matter where I work I have to feel like
7:19 um I am contributing to society and my
7:22 workplace also feels like they’re
7:24 contributing to society it allows you to
7:26 create and to attract a team that has
7:29 those same values um and it all builds
7:31 on itself um so I would use as an
7:34 example at CareVet um one of the
7:36 reasons why I left um a really great job
7:39 that I loved to come to CareVet um is
7:43 because the premise that our Founders
7:46 had when starting CareVet was that
7:48 veterinarians could have a better
7:50 quality of life if we just tweaked a few
7:53 things that were standard in the
7:55 industry so for example um the average
8:00 salary of a veterinarian has probably
8:02 increased from you know below six
8:05 figures to above like you know above the
8:08 six figure mark now um and we were
8:11 leaders in that also um making sure that
8:14 there was a living wage at the
8:15 veterinary hospital was something that
8:17 when we implemented it was not being
8:19 widely done so being able to do those
8:22 things that act make the quality of life
8:25 better for people is something that
8:26 resonates with me and is an important
8:28 value the has to be fun and challenging
8:31 um but there also has to be something
8:33 more than just having challenging work
8:36 yeah absolutely and so when you talk
8:38 about building teams and building out
8:40 teams taking those core values what’s
8:44 your methodology or thought process and
8:47 how do you manage teams because you’re
8:50 remote yes so we have a pretty regular
8:54 meeting cadence as a team I’m not a big
8:57 one-on-one person some people are really
8:59 into that for me my preference
9:02 is talk to people as needed when needed
9:05 give feedback in real time so that
9:07 you’re not kind of saving it all up for
9:10 and I don’t for me it builds up angst so
9:12 I don’t want to do that to anyone else
9:14 um but so I try to do a lot of um real
9:16 time conversations as needed and then as
9:19 a group we meet once a week and we try
9:22 to share I try to um create an
9:25 environment where we all feel
9:26 comfortable sharing personal stuff as
9:28 well as work stuff that we’re
9:30 brainstorming if we have problems what
9:32 can we do to help each other kind of
9:34 work through those problems that sort of
9:35 thing um so that’s how I try to keep us
9:40 together as a team it is about time for
9:43 me to set up our annual offsite so I’ve
9:45 tried to do an offsite every year as
9:47 well especially with me being not there
9:48 for us to just have some time away from
9:50 work um where we’re spending you know
9:53 half a day or a day um some of it’s
9:56 continuing legal education some of it is
9:59 fun and some of it is just like again
10:01 talking through what can we do to make
10:03 our department even stronger and is most
10:05 of your team then all remote from each
10:08 other or are you just remote I’m just
10:12 remote so um it’s interesting CareVet
10:15 headquarters team um is in person has
10:19 been the entire time like through the
10:21 pandemic and everything um which is
10:24 important especially those early years
10:26 when we were growing in like small and
10:29 growing um because people are constantly
10:31 bouncing ideas off of each other and
10:33 there’s an energy at the headquarters
10:35 office that I truly miss um it’s a lot
10:38 of fun we’ve got really talented and
10:40 bright people and so um the preference
10:43 for headquarters team is to be in person
10:45 in St Louis um for that reason um we do
10:49 have a number of people who are not
10:51 those are primarily our business
10:52 development team members and our
10:53 operations team members because they
10:55 need to be closer to where the H our
10:57 veterinary hospitals are
11:00 um but having that nucleus all together
11:03 is helpful absolutely and I’m going to
11:05 go off script a little bit and talk
11:08 about being a portfolio company has both
11:12 positives and
11:13 negatives what’s been your experience
11:16 and and you know again you’ve done large
11:20 corporations law firms you know I mean
11:22 like you’ve what do you think of that
11:25 structure and how does it work at Care
11:28 Vet it’s I really enjoy it um our
11:31 sponsor has a model that really tries to
11:34 leave a lot of autonomy with the
11:36 portfolio companies which is great um
11:39 and especially the pace at which we’re
11:40 doing Acquisitions I think the typical
11:42 model is the sponsor would kind of run
11:44 all of that um but because um of our
11:49 sponsors philosophy and our founders
11:51 philosophy of like we want to be
11:53 personable part of why legal was brought
11:55 in house is because you don’t want like
11:57 someone’s first first impression of the
12:00 company is like someone who doesn’t even
12:01 work for the company um and when you’re
12:05 negotiating a deal and you’re also going
12:06 to have to work with the folks after the
12:09 deal is closed it’s just a little bit
12:10 different and so um we have a great
12:13 working relationship with our sponsor um
12:16 they are
12:16 supportive um and then they also are
12:19 hands off when they need to be um just
12:21 so that we can keep things going for the
12:23 sake of efficiency um and we have a
12:27 board of managers so sort of like a
12:28 board of
12:29 directors um that is seven people and so
12:33 you get a little bit of that good
12:34 corporate governance that um I think
12:37 there are more private equity sponsors
12:39 that move towards that model for their
12:40 portfolio companies but um so so it’s an
12:43 interesting experience I like it yeah
12:45 and I mean I’m I’m really intrigued
12:47 because you know 200 acquisitions that’s
12:51 200 individual cultures that you’re
12:55 trying to assimilate into a large unit
12:57 and it sounds like you’re letting them
12:58 have a lot of you know leeway but but
13:01 are there overarching commonalities that
13:03 you strive for does it matter yes no
13:06 that’s a great question so that is where
13:08 our sort of selection process comes into
13:11 play that’s also something that’s really
13:13 unique that I enjoy um our investment
13:16 committee is larger than than probably
13:21 most companies investment committees are
13:24 um with the idea that um because we are
13:27 having our um new hospitals come in and
13:30 kind of keep their culture we need to
13:32 make sure we know what that culture is
13:34 does it align with the values that we
13:36 have as a company the way they operate
13:38 does it align with the way we’d like to
13:40 operate and so you’re hearing voices
13:43 from legal from operations from
13:46 recruiting like you’ve got a number of
13:48 different voices that weigh in on our
13:50 investment committee and it allows us to
13:52 have those guard rails so that if
13:54 there’s something that is not going to
13:55 be a fit someone’s going to say speak up
13:58 and that investment committee and it’s
14:00 not um there’s a a range of seniority as
14:03 well so it’s not like the people who may
14:05 never have to touch the hospital who are
14:07 weighing in it’s the people who are
14:08 going to be boots on the ground and
14:11 working with our hospitals that are um
14:13 weighing in on how it would fit how it
14:14 would fit with the other hospitals that
14:16 are near in proximity etc. and so what
14:19 happens if you find out maybe a year
14:22 into the, you know, um, acquisition that
14:26 something wasn’t a good fit because I
14:29 think we learn
14:31 from that those challenges as much as oh
14:35 everything’s groovy and yeah yep no I
14:38 think that’s right so it’s um we’re like
14:41 a five almost six-year-old company and
14:44 um so we’ve constantly learned and so
14:47 every single part of our processes
14:49 everything that we look at in investment
14:50 committee what we talk about in
14:51 investment committee today is much
14:53 different than what we were talking
14:55 about in 2020 because we’ve learned a
14:57 lot more um but our philosophy is really
15:00 we have conversations with people it’s
15:02 written into our legal documents like if
15:04 there’s a dispute first we’re going to
15:06 talk about it like we’re not going to
15:08 jump to like I’m calling my lawyer etc.
15:10 so um you know if there is an issue when
15:14 it comes to legal and we’re like okay so
15:16 have you talked to them about it yet um
15:18 and so at times where there seems like
15:20 there might not be a good fit there is a
15:22 lot of um a lot of time and energy spent
15:25 on like how do we make this relationship
15:27 work um because we’ve agreed we’re going
15:29 to be in a relationship so how do we get
15:31 this to work out so that it is um smooth
15:34 and fruitful for everyone yeah and I
15:36 bring it up because you know my
15:37 background in M&A it’s it was easy on
15:41 the finance side to run the numbers and
15:43 make a logical decision the hard work
15:46 was the
15:47 integration it and and there was times
15:51 where it failed miserably and then there
15:54 was times it was like wow what a great
15:57 alignment yes yes so that and it’s
16:00 interesting our integrations process is
16:02 also very different from what I’m
16:04 accustomed to so we when we sign it’s a
16:07 sign and close it’s not sign and then
16:09 close oh so our integration process
16:12 starts actually before the deal even
16:14 closes which gives an opportunity to
16:16 figure out if there’s something wonky on
16:19 either side that there’s an opportunity
16:21 to get to unwind it before it becomes a
16:24 done deal um and so um for you know for
16:28 the people for the businesses we’re
16:29 acquiring they’re primarily small
16:31 businesses they’ve never for a lot of
16:33 folks never been part of a big
16:35 Corporation and so we walk there’s a
16:38 very prescribed process again that has
16:39 developed over the years every week
16:42 there are specific things that we talk
16:43 about this is what’s going to happen
16:45 this is what’s going to happen on the
16:47 acquisition side and this is what’s
16:48 going to happen after we close um so
16:51 we’ve we’ve gotten really really good at
16:53 that and then there’s also a period
16:55 after closing to kind of help ease that
16:57 transition so that we get less and less
17:00 of those things where there’s friction
17:01 after the fact because people know what
17:03 to expect once they’ve come on board
17:05 well in and going from 26 to 200 I mean
17:09 that’s talk about growth how have you
17:12 been able to balance and manage that
17:15 growth I mean we mentioned earlier
17:17 you’re a mom you’re a wife you’re a
17:19 leader you’re you know you’re so many
17:22 things and how have you been balancing
17:25 that so part of that is um making sure
17:28 that my team and the teams that we
17:31 interact with have what they need to be
17:33 successful so one of the values that I
17:35 didn’t talk about that’s really
17:37 important to me is professional
17:39 development for myself and for my teams
17:42 and so I try my very best to know what
17:45 every single person on my team wants out
17:47 of their career and try to build in
17:50 opportunities for them to get that
17:51 experience at care it one cuz they’ll be
17:55 passionate about it and they’ll jump in
17:56 and really make a go of it um but also
17:59 because then it gives them something
18:01 that they can talk about later when it’s
18:03 time um whether it’s at CareVet or
18:05 somewhere else to jump into a bigger
18:07 role um we have that same sort of
18:10 mentality as we’re dealing with our
18:12 internal clients which is okay I see
18:15 like I’m working with we’ll call XYZ
18:18 department and they keep running into
18:20 this issue over and over again what can
18:22 we do to make it so that they’re not
18:25 frustrated and they’re not having to
18:26 come back to us with a problem so it we
18:28 have a lot of opportunity to build
18:30 proactively within the company which is
18:32 great um so that just because something
18:36 has been a problem in the past there’s a
18:37 pretty low barrier most of the time to
18:39 fixing
18:40 it gosh I feel like every every answer
18:43 that you have it makes me think of so
18:45 many other questions it’s just I mean
18:47 one thing I wanted to remark on is I
18:49 think it’s really interesting most of
18:52 the time when you’re talking about a
18:54 portfolio
18:55 company I think there’s a a sentiment
18:58 out there that it’s like only all about
19:00 the numbers and this sounds so like
19:03 beautiful and refreshing and like
19:05 supportive it’s it’s also about the
19:08 numbers so underlying all of this is
19:10 like you can’t do any of the other stuff
19:12 you can’t grow you can’t continue to
19:14 acquire unless you have the numbers to
19:17 to get that financial support you need
19:19 to keep acquiring um and so yes we are
19:22 all um we are all presented with the
19:25 numbers and what we need to work on to
19:28 make sure that we’re at some point able
19:30 to have a successful exit because as a
19:32 as a portfolio company you know at some
19:35 point that is going to be um that’s what
19:37 we’re going to do and so um and that’s a
19:41 fun challenge for me because it’s like
19:42 how do I make this the prettiest package
19:45 with the nicest gift inside for whoever
19:47 is going to um eventually acquire this
19:50 company um and so yes so we all are
19:54 expected to and we all do focus on what
19:56 are we’re doing this great stuff and how
19:58 does that make financial sense for us
20:00 today and also for a future acquirer
20:03 it’s kind of cool though that you’re
20:05 integrating the the cult you know the
20:08 the companies you’re identifying don’t
20:10 just align financially with with your
20:14 objectives but they also have to match
20:15 up culturally which is you know a huge
20:18 part of success in in having a su
20:21 successful organization and I think it’s
20:23 so dependent on leadership so um you
20:26 know as a leader if you were to go back
20:30 to that young woman, you know before law
20:34 school or you know like after after
20:36 college or maybe you know just as you
20:38 completed your
20:39 Masters what what advice would you give
20:42 to your younger
20:43 self that’s an interesting question I am
20:47 very very um fortunate that I’ve had
20:50 amazing mentors throughout my life um
20:54 going back to when I was um at Ball
20:56 State University undergrad I was
20:59 appointed to the Board of Trustees for
21:00 the University um nine member board one
21:04 student and um the president was a very
21:07 good mentor and talked to me about what
21:11 it means to be a leader especially at
21:13 that level so I’m like 19 or 20 years
21:15 old and on the governing board of the
21:18 university and so thankfully I had some
21:21 good voices to my younger self when I
21:23 was young um but what he what it was
21:27 President wor that he imparted to me was
21:29 just the importance of um being diligent
21:34 making sure you know the information
21:35 that’s in front of you and keeping in
21:37 mind you might still feel like you’re
21:39 the same you but people view you
21:40 differently and just being aware of um
21:45 how the things that I say and do can
21:48 have a different perception um just
21:52 because of my position as a leader and
21:54 so that’s something that I’ve thankfully
21:55 have been able to build into my life
21:57 over the years um that is important and
22:00 it’s it’s frankly it’s um something that
22:03 I’ve had to relearn now that I’m like in
22:05 the back half of my
22:07 career um as my peers have gotten
22:10 younger as I’ve gotten older and um I
22:14 have to remember sometimes like okay
22:17 we’re peers and at the same time there’s
22:19 an age difference there and so things
22:21 that and and which means a generational
22:23 difference sometimes too so things as a
22:25 Gen-xer that are normal might not ruffle
22:29 my feathers
22:30 for not this case for all
22:34 generations I’ll just say it like that
22:36 so I’ve had to kind of tweak my um my
22:39 way of thinking about things and my way
22:41 of operating a little bit with that in
22:42 mind yeah and so when you’re looking
22:45 forward what does the next five years
22:48 look like whether it’s at CareVet you
22:51 personally what what is the next chapter
22:55 oh that’s an interesting question it’s
22:56 one I think about a lot, uh yeah so I’m
23:00 having fun where I am um and would like
23:02 to continue to write that out as long as
23:04 I can and sort of continue to grow um
23:06 within my current role, I see myself um I
23:11 like the governance piece of things and
23:13 continuing to expand into more
23:16 governance-related things um advising
23:18 for Private Equity um firms etc. um and
23:22 who knows what my next I think I’ve got
23:24 at least one more full-time role in me
23:27 before I retire
23:29 um and so would love to continue to stay
23:31 in the C-Suite whether it’s in legal or
23:33 another role um but those are the things
23:36 that I’m thinking about absolutely and
23:38 then the last question you know podcast
23:41 hiring for good what does hiring for
23:43 good mean to you it means hiring for
23:48 what makes sense for your context at
23:50 that time and for where you see things
23:52 going so um depending on where I’ve been
23:57 um in different companies etc. um I’ve
24:01 looked for slightly different things one
24:03 thing that’s constant though is you want
24:05 someone that is going to be serious
24:08 about their work but not take themselves
24:10 seriously um so being able to enjoy the
24:14 work be passionate about it have fun
24:17 with it um and that kind of feeds in
24:20 them into doing high-quality work that’s
24:22 like a constant that I always look for
24:24 regardless of sort of skill um or other
24:27 things that I might look for um from
24:29 place to place I’ll give an example so
24:32 for um when I worked at Rabobank it’s
24:35 an agricultural bank for me someone with
24:37 an AG experience was a huge plus because
24:41 um the group that I managed was customer
24:43 facing and so I did not have an AG
24:46 background before I started at Robo and
24:49 so having a team that had that
24:50 experience was really important to make
24:52 sure number one they were teaching me a
24:54 little bit but also um as the team was
24:56 interacting with customers that they
24:57 could have that commonality um and built
25:00 those bonds um at CareVet people that
25:03 have had prior veterinary experience um
25:05 is really important but those those are
25:08 sort of the things that I look for yeah
25:10 and then on the leadership side again
25:14 looking back in in your career what what
25:18 advice would you give to your
25:22 successor yes um I would say we did our
25:25 very best but there is room for
25:27 improvement always
25:28 so that’s like when I took the job I was
25:31 like I get to build this department from
25:32 scratch and then someone else can
25:33 complain about like all the stuff that I
25:35 missed later yeah so um I would say
25:39 there are some things that are really
25:40 foundationally strong and there’s always
25:42 room for improvement and so look for
25:44 those opportunities to strengthen what’s
25:46 already there hopefully there’s not a
25:48 whole lot that would need to be scrapped
25:49 and redone um but just really um you
25:53 know look for those those areas for
25:55 improvement and it’s so interesting
25:58 Christian at listening humility comes to
26:00 my mind you’re a phenomenal leader
26:03 thanks so and and thank you so much for
26:06 being part of this podcast and and it
26:09 was such a pleasure yeah we’re thrilled
26:11 we’re very excited yeah it’s it’s
26:13 interesting we probably have interviewed
26:16 12 15 yeah maybe more and and it’s it’s
26:22 amazing how you can tell a great leader
26:26 because they do come like who they are
26:29 there’s no ego that humility and then
26:33 how that is transcended throughout the
26:36 organization and it sounds like you’re
26:38 in a great space and growing
26:41 and doing it all yes yeah I am it’s um I
26:45 it’s hard for me to be anybody else
26:47 other than who I am so I’ve always tried
26:50 to be very transparent um when I’m
26:52 interviewing on things I like don’t like
26:54 etc. and vibe is important to me so um
26:58 I’m I thrive when I feel like I’m not
27:01 being judged for being the person who I
27:03 am absolutely yep well thank you so much
27:07 I think our audience is going to really
27:09 enjoy this conversation and I know we
27:11 did awesome thank you thank you thanks
27:13 for having me thanks for joining us
27:15 today at Hiring for Good if you inspired
27:17 by our conversation don’t forget to like,
27:19 Follow, and subscribe wherever you get
27:21 your podcast and if you want to learn
27:23 more about our Executive Search Services
27:26 check us out at www hiringforgood.net
27:29 or our company website Acumen
27:32 Executive Search thanks so much and
27:34 don’t forget to join us next time for
27:36 another in-depth conversation about
27:38 transformational leadership till then
27:40 have fun