

Talent Acquisition Leaders Podcast - Recruiting, Staffing, Human Resources
Ryan Dull
On the Talent Acquisition Leaders Podcast, your host Ryan Dull of SageMark HR interviews today’s industry leaders in talent acquisition to discuss challenges, best practices, and what the future holds.
If you are working in talent acquisition and have always wanted to sit down with your peers at other companies and pick their brain, this show is the next best thing.
Topics for the show will include: recruiting, talent acquisition, recruiting technology, HR tech, and recruiting innovation..
Join us each week as we bring you a new talent acquisition interview and extract their expertise.
If you are working in talent acquisition and have always wanted to sit down with your peers at other companies and pick their brain, this show is the next best thing.
Topics for the show will include: recruiting, talent acquisition, recruiting technology, HR tech, and recruiting innovation..
Join us each week as we bring you a new talent acquisition interview and extract their expertise.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Sep 28, 2021 • 14min
Humanizing Recruiting with Sara Fatima of Verifone
Sara Fatima, Head of Global Talent Acquisition at Verifone joins host Ryan Dull on this episode of the Talent Acquisition Leaders podcast to talk about her career journey; how Covid has affected the TA landscape; and how storytelling through social media can be a powerful tool for organizations to personalize the experience candidates have with them during the hiring process.
Sara got her degree thinking computer science was going to be her career path. She wanted to interact with people, which eventually led to her starting in talent acquisition.
Her time in corporate recruiting has included stops at Autotrader, Cox Automotive, IBM, and now Verifone, where she was tasked with the big job of bringing a global recruiting system, which had always been outsourced, in-house.
Covid has been challenging for all TA professionals, and Sara has the additional challenge of hiring in 65 different countries. She talks about the strategic approach they are taking to be intentional about how their team members will work in a post-pandemic environment.
Sara also talks about the Great Resignation, and how she thinks of it as an opportunity to rebrand their organization to make it more attractive for candidates.
Sara Fatima
Verifone
Verifone
ryan-dull
sagemark-hr
www.sagemarkhr.com
This episode is brought to you by Sagemark HR.
Sagemark HR can help you:
✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions.
After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization.
✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices but also deliver tangible business results.
We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution.
✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve.
We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you.
If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at:
www.sagemarkhr.com
ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

Sep 14, 2021 • 16min
Be Humble and Willing to Learn with Blair Dugan of BeiGene
Blair Dugan, Sr. Director, Human Resources, at BeiGene joins the Talent Acquisition Leaders podcast on this episode, and she shares with host Ryan Dull her background as a TA leader in the biotech, life sciences, and pharmaceutical industries, and her role now at a rapidly growing global organization.
Blair got her start at a staffing agency, which she recommends for anyone starting a career in recruiting and talent acquisition. That led to agency work, which led to in-house positions in science industry companies, where she discovered that this kind of work was her passion.
She says her current company, BeiGene, is unique in that the company’s mission and focus are on helping people regardless of location or income. This helps with recruiting because it gives top talent a feeling that they are part of something bigger than themselves.
Being humble and willing to learn is something she learned early on in her career, when she didn’t really understand some of the lab based roles she was filling. It’s advice she would give to anyone in the industry, regardless of experience level.
Resources
Blair Dugan
BeiGene
BeiGene
ryan-dull
sagemark-hr
www.sagemarkhr.com
This episode is brought to you by Sagemark HR.
Sagemark HR can help you:
✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions.
After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization.
✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices but also deliver tangible business results.
We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution.
✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve.
We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you.
If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at:
www.sagemarkhr.com
ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

Sep 7, 2021 • 20min
Becoming a Better TA Pro with Dennis Kaps of Ferrara
On this episode of the Talent Acquisition Leaders podcast, host Ryan Dull welcomes Dennis Kaps, Director of Talent Acquisition at Ferrara Candy Company to talk about his long TA career, his experience in several different industries, and where he sees talent acquisition heading in the future.
Dennis got his start in recruitment back in college at the Ohio State University, where he was recruiting for a leadership fraternity. A move to the national headquarters led to him working across the country and further developing his skill and passion for recruiting.
His career progressed with work at notable brands like Patagonia, Lululemon, and Under Armour. Along the way, anytime his career path changed, he was always recruited to his new position by someone he had previously worked with, including his current position at Ferrara.
At Ferrara, Dennis and his team transformed the talent acquisition process based on his past experience, evolving it into a streamlined and sophisticated system. Being efficient helps in today’s hourly worker market where there is currently a labor shortage which means that companies need to move fast on talent or lose out.
Resources
@Dennis Kaps
@Ferrara
Ferrara
@ryan-dull
@sagemark-hr
www.sagemarkhr.com
This episode is brought to you by Sagemark HR.
Sagemark HR can help you:
✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions.
After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization.
✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices but also deliver tangible business results.
We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution.
✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve.
We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you.
If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at:
www.sagemarkhr.com
ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

Aug 31, 2021 • 14min
Improving TA Processes with Shelley Radford of The Wonderful Company
Shelley Radford, VP of Talent Acquisition at The Wonderful Company joins the Talent Acquisition Leaders podcast on this episode, and she shares with host Ryan Dull stories about her career path, how it led to her role at Wonderful, and her thoughts on being entrepreneurial versus being centralized in a large organization.
Shelly started at a staffing agency where she learned the ins and outs of the administrative and process side of talent acquisition that would be important throughout her career. She held positions at several organizations, including some where she didn’t have much enthusiasm for the industry. That time taught her an important lesson, that she needs to be passionate about the industry she’s working in to be at her best.
That led her to Wonderful, first as a consultant followed by a full-time role to build out a talent acquisition team. Wonderful has a large philanthropic footprint in California and beyond, and she is currently building a team in Corporate Responsibility which consists of seven different departments.
Resources
@Shelley Radford
@The Wonderful Company
Wonderful
@ryan-dull
@sagemark-hr
www.sagemarkhr.com
This episode is brought to you by Sagemark HR.
Sagemark HR can help you:
✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions.
After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization.
✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices but also deliver tangible business results.
We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution.
✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve.
We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you.
If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at:
www.sagemarkhr.com
ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

Aug 26, 2021 • 20min
The Evolving Art of Talent Acquisition with Lisa Hammond and Steve Mahoney of Allscripts
On this episode of the Talent Acquisition Leaders podcast Lisa Hammond, Senior Vice President of Global HR at Allscripts and Steve Mahoney, Director of Global Talent Acquisition at Allscripts, join host Ryan Dull to talk about their careers in HR and TA, how Covid affected the talent market, and the explosive growth the talent acquisition profession is seeing today.
Lisa brings experience with HR operations, generalists, business partners, and talent acquisition to the table. Her career dates back to the time when the whole industry was referred to as “recruiting.” She is proud of the way the industry has evolved, and she is excited about the level of respect that talent acquisition professionals bring to work every day.
Steve started his career like a lot of people, on the agency side—making as many as 100 cold calls a day. After about a decade he moved over to the corporate recruiting world, and he has been with Allscripts for more than nine years.
Together they are working to move Allscripts forward and navigate their way through the growth that is currently happening, as well as the changes to the way people work across the globe due to Covid.
Click on the link below for the whole conversation.
@Lisa Hammond
@Steve Mahoney
@Allscripts
Allscripts
@ryan-dull
@sagemark-hr
www.sagemarkhr.com
This episode is brought to you by Sagemark HR.
Sagemark HR can help you:
✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions.
After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization.
✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices, but also deliver tangible business results.
We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution.
✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve.
We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you.
If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at:
www.sagemarkhr.com
ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

Aug 10, 2021 • 21min
Recruiting Talent in the Music Business with Geri Kalinsky
On this episode of the Talent Acquisition Leaders podcast, Geri Kalinsky, Global Head of Talent Acquisition and Internal Mobility at Warner Music Group, joins host Ryan Dull to talk about her career path, including stops in the fashion and media industries, her role at her current position in the music industry, and why she chose to work in a variety of industries to make her better at talent acquisition.
Geri began her career in the fashion industry in an entry level HR position. After a year and a half at Liz Claiborne, she got recruited by MTV, which was an opportunity she couldn’t pass up at the young age of 24. She spent some time in several different industries before joining Warner Music Group in 2017.
She tells Ryan she has learned over the years the importance of listening, as well as asking great questions. She also believes that it is better to start slow to then move fast, in order to accomplish great results.
@Geri Kalinsky
@Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group
@ryan-dull
@sagemark-hr
www.sagemarkhr.com
This episode is brought to you by Sagemark HR.
Sagemark HR can help you:
✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions.
After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization.
✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices, but also deliver tangible business results.
We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution.
✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve.
We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you.
If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at:
www.sagemarkhr.com
ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

Aug 6, 2021 • 14min
Streamlining the Recruiting Process with Tom Atkinson of HSS
On this episode of the Talent Acquisition Leaders podcast, Tom Atkinson, Senior Director, Talent Acquisition at Hospital for Special Surgery, joins host Ryan Dull to talk about his experience as a TA leader at HSS, the challenges he faces on a daily basis, and how he and his team have worked through those challenges.
HSS has a staff of over 5,000 and is still growing. They perform more than 30,000 surgeries per year, have 50 operating rooms working live at any one time, have 20 active research labs, and they have been ranked as the number one orthopedic care facility in the nation for 12 years running.
When the pandemic hit, Tom and his team had to move their recruiting and hiring process online quickly, while maintaining the best practices that candidates expect from one of the most desirable companies to work for in the industry.
Resources:
@Tom Atkinson
@Hospital For Special Surgery
Hospital For Special Surgery
@ryan-dull
@sagemark-hr
www.sagemarkhr.com
This episode is brought to you by Sagemark HR.
Sagemark HR can help you:
✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions.
After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization.
✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices but also deliver tangible business results.
We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution.
✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve.
We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you.
If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at:
www.sagemarkhr.com
ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

Jul 27, 2021 • 21min
Preparing for Recruiting through Recruiting with Lance Sapera
On this episode of the Talent Acquisition Leaders podcast, host Ryan Dull is joined by Lance Sapera, VP, Talent Acquisition at Talend to talk about his background in the Navy, his career path since joining the civilian ranks, and his experiences in building and improving a global TA company.
After an 18-year career working mostly in operations and deployment in squadrons and carrier battle groups, the Navy selected Lance to lead over 300 Sailors recruiting in Northern California. He recalls an admiral he worked for saying, “This will be the hardest thing you have ever done, because you don't know it the way you know operations.”
Lance accepted that challenge and took command of the Navy recruiting district from the California-Oregon border to Central California. Little did he know how it would prepare him for a career as a talent acquisition professional.
Lance’s civilian career didn’t immediately lead to the TA industry but now, at Talend, he is using his experiences to help build a rapidly growing talent firm into a global powerhouse.
This episode is brought to you by SageMark HR.
Sagemark HR can help you:
✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people-decisions.
After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization.
✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices but also deliver tangible business results.
We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution.
✔ Bridge the gap from ´traditional´ to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve.
We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you.
If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach Ryan at:
www.sagemarkhr.com
ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

Jul 20, 2021 • 27min
How Covid Changed Everything with Kat Brignano of Vituity
On this episode of the Talent Acquisition Leaders podcast, Kat Brignano, Vice President Talent Acquisition at Vituity, joins host Ryan Dull to talk about her career path, changes she has seen in recruiting and in business in general since the Covid pandemic turned the world upside down, and the major changes she sees on the horizon in the world of recruiting.
Kat started her career working in non-profit organizations so that she could do “good work.” She ended up in recruiting, and it wasn’t long before she found out that recruiting is “good work,” in that it provides opportunities to change lives through better job opportunities.
Kat talks about how she has seen it all, including jobs in several different industries, surviving multiple recessions, and how she left the agency world to join her current position for “one to three years.” She has now been there for over ten years with no plans to leave anytime soon.
The latest crisis she has survived is the Covid pandemic, and Kat has seen some fundamental changes in recruiting and in the way companies have had to adapt to a new world and a new idea of what the workplace looks like.
Resources Mentioned:
@Kat Brignano
@Vituity
@ryan-dull
@sagemark-hr
Vituity
www.sagemarkhr.com
This episode is brought to you by Sagemark HR.
Sagemark HR can help you:
✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions.
After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization.
✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices, but also deliver tangible business results.
We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution.
✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve.
We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you.
If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at:
www.sagemarkhr.com
ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

Jul 13, 2021 • 16min
Empowering Recruiters for Growth with Tony Cornett of The Trade Desk
Tony Cornett, Senior Vice President, Global Talent Acquisition at The Trade Desk, got into recruiting by accident when he went to interview for a job and found out there was a recruiting job open that paid more.
He quickly fell in love with the things that most recruiters fall in love with—the research of the hunt, the tenacity needed to press forward, and the tying together business objectives with outcomes.
On this episode of the Talent Acquisition Leaders podcast, Tony joins host Ryan Dull to talk about his career path, on both the agency and the client sides, and how that shaped his thinking about handling his leadership role today.
Tony also looks toward the future, one most people will agree has been drastically altered by the recent pandemic. He gives advice on how the industry needs to turn the mirror back on itself and offer recruiters the same considerations, such as working from home, that candidates are currently clamoring for in the workplace.
Click on the link below to hear the whole episode.
@Tony Cornett
@The Trade Desk
@ryan-dull
@sagemark-hr
The Trade Desk
www.sagemarkhr.com
This episode is brought to you by Sagemark HR.
Sagemark HR can help you:
✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions.
After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization.
✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices but also to deliver tangible business results.
We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution.
✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve.
We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you.
If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at:
www.sagemarkhr.com
ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com


