The world is becoming increasingly connected, seemingly by the day, and HR leaders must be prepared—to stay agile, be willing to pivot and think about innovation in new ways. All of those capabilities, says Gaëlle Le Meur—chief people officer at berry company Driscoll’s, were shaped by her global HR experiences over the last few decades.
Le Meur’s career has taken her across Europe and the Middle East, including her 17-year tenure at The Estée Lauder Companies, for which she relocated to the U.S. two years ago. Now on the West Coast at Driscoll’s, the world’s largest berry producer, Le Meur is tapping into her global HR experience to position HR as a strategic driver of the organization’s ongoing global growth.
Two years ago, Driscoll’s welcomed a new CEO and this spring appointed the first-ever chief communications officer—both of whom were long-term Driscoll’s leaders. Le Meur says the moves are among the changes highlighting the pivotal moment the org is in, and the role that talent will play in its future. As Driscoll’s expands globally, Le Meur says, her priority is on modernizing how the organization responds to the needs of its highly diverse workforce without losing sight of the company’s rich history and long commitment to people-centric practices.
Le Meur recently shared with HR Executive how she envisions her role will contribute to Driscoll’s success.
Le Meur: It is not my first experience relocating; it has been a theme. I’ve worked in France, I lived in the U.K., I worked out of the Middle East, based in Dubai, and most recently, I was already in the U.S., but in New York City. Moving around internationally was part of my personal and professional journey. I would say, of course, relocating to amazing California is very attractive. But some of the ingredients of why I made the decision [to relocate] were around the position itself and the project.
HR Executive: How do you think that global HR experience has shaped your approach to leadership?
Le Meur: It is something that I did not realize would become such an asset, but it has become one over the years. I would say it started with a passion for people. I studied and have worked in classic human resources functions for all of my career: 20-plus years. I have a strong interest in leading people, making sure that the environment for work is at its best. And very quickly, an appetite for international work started; I relocated to the U.K. as a teenager, and that was a seed that was ready to grow and has been nurtured over time.
Given the experience that I gained relocating, working in different environments, with different cultures, pushing myself to make my second language become my first at work—all of those ingredients made me realize how passionate I am about understanding and working with different cultures. And, of course, I would say when you look at the human resources environment, the people function, that’s a key to understanding today’s world—where barriers are more blurry and you interact on a daily basis with people from a variety of different backgrounds.
HR Executive: How does your global HR background fit into where Driscoll’s is today?
Le Meur: It’s an amazing company with a very robust culture that they established a long time ago and have reinforced year over year their mission, values and culture in a very solid way. Some of my reasons for joining are exactly around those elements: the culture, the way the company engages with its people, this very specific moment in the growth of the organization.
There are more than 100 years of farming heritage, but at the same time, an incredible global environment. Many people do not always identify Driscoll’s as a global or international company, although we sell in more than 40 countries. That was a perfect fit for me, coming from a very diverse and multicultural background.
We are at the moment where I will be able to share some of that international experience I’ve gained over the years with a company that is becoming more and more global.
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HR Executive: Given the moment Driscoll’s is in, how are you working to modernize the way the organization supports its workforce?
Le Meur: I’d like to start with a story around my job title because, for me, that’s already an ingredient of modernization. I went through a super-thorough and very engaging recruitment process where I got to meet quite a lot of people—people who have been with the company for a long time and recent hires and board members. I was fascinated with the culture, the engagement and the excitement for the function.
And as I was building my own personal excitement and clearly had an intention to join, I realized we never even mentioned the job title. We were absolutely focused on the mission, on helping me better understand the organization and on Driscoll’s assessing my cultural fit. So, I was given the opportunity to decide on my job title: the classic CHRO or CPO conversation.
I think [the chief people officer title is] more than just a symbol. It goes back to the modernization, and it says something about the humility that Driscoll’s has in everything they do: the capacity to listen, the capacity to embrace some newness and the intention to have a people-centric approach. And it only took us 30 seconds [to decide the title] when we discussed it.
HR Executive: How is ongoing global disruption impacting your ability to build a cohesive culture?
Le Meur: This is an area that is very true for many companies and Driscoll’s as well: the level of uncertainty and volatility that we experience in our home market and internationally. The core elements around what we stand for as a company are equipping us with a very high level of resiliency. It’s embedded in the organization. People are highly engaged at Driscoll’s, and there is profound connection to the culture elements: passion, humility, trustworthiness. Passion is the way we accomplish things. When we talk about humility, it’s a way to say that we respect and learn from colleagues and competitors, and it extends to the notion of listening. And when it comes to trustworthiness, it’s acknowledging our interdependence.
It goes back to our full ecosystem—not only our people internally, but every single consumer of our berries, every grower we interact with. My early observation is that we are very equipped to face the level of uncertainty the outside world brings—given the level of engagement, cohesion and culture that the people demonstrate within the organization.
HR Executive: How does your experience as a certified psychologist shape your approach to HR leadership?
Le Meur: It has given me an opportunity, I believe, to listen more than I speak. I’d rather listen to my people and make sure that they are represented more than be a spokesperson. I think that’s a strength. It gives me deep insight in terms of how people interact. And it’s something that defined me earlier on in my career when I started in talent acquisition—being able to map the skills compared to the work that was needed. If I fast-forward to where I am today, it continuously has been a journey and assisted me with engaging with different cultures, trying to understand how humans behave in a variety of different environments, being always very humble with what I don’t know and keeping an open-minded approach to everything I do.
It is not a unique path, but it is one path that has worked pretty well for me.
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