As organizations increasingly recognize the value of aligning people and business strategy, HR and transformation have become synonymous. Kaleen Love knows the intersection well. As chief people and culture officer, U.S., at Philip Morris International, Love is shepherding the HR function through PMI’s significant organizational transformation, to which people are key, she says.
The multinational tobacco company, long a beacon of “Big Tobacco,” has pivoted its product and mission focus in recent years, with a stated “ambition to replace cigarettes with science-based smoke-free products” and a commitment to a “smoke-free future” by 2030. It’s a shift that requires deep strategic work on the part of HR—to ensure candidates and employees understand PMI’s evolving purpose and the role they can play in it and to drive the culture to support the transformation.
Love took on the HR leadership role in 2023 after two years of leading strategy and planning for PMI’s People & Culture practice. There, she brought a diverse, global background—including consulting work for the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment in Indonesia, lecturing experience at the University of Oxford and as a vice president of Capital One, building out teams and company priorities. Also leaning into her experience as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, she is now helping the PMI workforce bring their authentic selves to the job, connect to their purpose and find joy in their work through transformation.
Love: If you take a step back and look at my full life and the chapters of my story, I’ve gone from studying humans as an anthropologist to studying companies and transformation at both McKinsey and Capital One. It’s my dream job in that it brings together those passions: people and transformation.
But on the other side of that, I have the opportunity to really have a positive impact on people’s lives and to bring things that matter to me to the environment: a sense of joy, a sense of purpose.
HRE: How has living and working all over the world shaped the type of HR leader you are today?
Love: It goes all the way back to being a child in Bandung, Indonesia, where from a really young age, I knew what it meant to be different. And from a really young age, I was seeking a place of belonging. As I’ve gotten older, I think I’ve realized that I have the opportunity to help create spaces of belonging for others—whether that’s how I raise my twin girls about being inclusive, or whether that’s how we really push to have a workplace that accepts people and creates spaces for diversity and difference.
HRE: Jumping off of that, how has your being out as an LGBTQ+ community member impacted the culture of inclusion at PMI?
Love: I’ll start back at Capital One, where I was very out; we joked that I was “queen of the gays” because I was the account executive for the Mid-Atlantic and, as such, was able to represent Capital One at various functions and speak to associates, employees, colleagues. I remember having a peer at work say, “You talk a lot about this—this gay thing—and you’re making it all about you.” And I looked her in the eye and just said, “I’m talking about my experiences in order to make others feel comfortable sharing their own.” It was painful and difficult and dark to get here. And so yes, I speak a lot about it, and I think it creates spaces for the LGBTQ+ community to also share their own stories.
I speak about it because it’s the lens by which I understand what it’s like to hide yourself—as I did for years—what it’s like to not feel accepted, what it’s like to feel scared about living your truth or being able to express and live your identity. You can read about “covering” at work as a concept, and everyone covers in some way. To me, this is just the lens where I appreciate being on the outside. And by sharing my story, I hope to invite others to do the same.
HRE: This is a time when some organizations are being less visible around diversity, equity and inclusion. Do you think we’re going to see ongoing backtracking on corporate DEI commitments?
Love: As my AP History professor in high school would say, history is just cycles of progressive and reactive trends. What I do believe at my core is that history progresses toward inclusion. Like MLK said, the arc of history is long but it bends toward justice. I have to believe that how we have evolved as a society comes from embracing difference.
What makes us stronger is the fact that we can bring different perspectives and different experiences to the table. At Philip Morris International, and for myself personally, we are resolute in our belief that having a broader set of experiences at the table, having those voices heard through inclusion, and frankly, giving access through equity, is something that will make us a better company, better people, and frankly, contribute to a better world.
HRE: Has it been challenging to get the C-suite on board with that belief?
Love: PMI has been on a journey in this space for some years, and I am lucky to be in a place where the senior leadership really believes it and believes that what makes us different is what makes us stronger. If you look at PMI globally—80,000 employees strong in markets all over the world—we really are a company that’s been built on coming together and bringing different people into the mix with a common mission and a common purpose, which is progressing toward our smoke-free future and providing better, science-backed alternatives for adults who would otherwise continue to smoke.
I know that’s a mouthful, but we believe it, and so I think we’re just a company that’s grown up believing diversity has made us stronger. Now we know that we also need to be mindful of inclusion and equity to really ensure that the voices and the mix we bring to the table will work. I don’t have to sell that to senior leaders, which is wonderful.
HRE: This work is happening as PMI undergoes a broader organizational transformation. Where has the HR focus been during the transformation journey?
Love: Globally, it’s a huge piece of the equation. A company only has a few assets: You have your global brand—which is the CEO—the CFO has the money and the chief people officer has the people. And ultimately, people are the key asset to propel sustainable success over time. People are the engine who make it all work and make it work over time.
As we as a company have pivoted toward a smoke-free future—most recently, about 40% of our global revenues are from smoke-free products, which is an incredible story of transformation—that has to start with the belief in the leadership and the mindset and culture of the place. It also has to go through, who are the talent we’re bringing to the table? How are we structuring the organization? How are we moving the organization from a very different business model to a new one? That’s all people.
People & Culture at PMI has played a huge role in the U.S. We are privileged to not have the combustible business; in the U.S., we are smoke-free. And the role of People & Culture is really thinking about, how do we build this business? How do we grow? Just last week, we were in Kentucky announcing a $232 million investment in Owensboro, in the factory there, which brings 450 new jobs, about 410 indirect jobs. This is a growth story in the U.S. It’s a growth in smoke-free. It’s a growth story for people. And there’s just a lot of work to be done to continue to grow.
HRE: During this transformation work, how are you communicating the growth journey as you recruit?
Love: A lot of folks will have a mindset of “You’re Big Tobacco, right?” When I was called some years back by a headhunter, and they said, “We’re Philip Morris International,” I said, “That’s a no thank you.” And they said, “Hold on a sec. Just hear us out.” And so, I then heard a story about a mission where we accept that adults are going to adult, and how do we actually provide better alternatives?
I believed and bought into our triplet: If you don’t smoke, don’t start. If you smoke, quit. If you can’t quit, change. And this is the mantra and the belief—so, how do we change the mindset of the talent? They go, “Hold on. I thought you were this one thing,” and we can say, “Let me talk to you about what we are and what we’re trying to do.” That’s one of the first things as we attract talent.
The other is more around the sell we would make for any company. Who are we? What are our values? What is exciting about being here? I think our strongest value proposition is that, as a company looking to transform the sector and looking to transform the behaviors of the billion smokers in the world, this is a place of change. This is a place that builds leaders. This is a place that builds adaptive leaders. The world’s going to continue to change. The world is going to continue to change at pace, and it’s only accelerating. I love working at a company where I get to stay ahead of the curve, where I’m learning about change, I’m learning about transformation and I’m leading transformation every single day. This is not a static organization—so, if you want a boring job, don’t come here.
HRE: Speaking of change, what role is emerging technology playing in PMI’s people process?
Love: We’re absolutely, as a company, investing in AI. And on the People & Culture side, globally, all of the leaders have been following a training that will really help us think about using AI, particularly for differentiated learning and growth and development opportunities. If we’re trying to create a continuous learning organization, the key is to learn the thing at the time you need it, right? So, [we’re focused on] how do we really think about a learning environment that helps to serve up the opportunities in a more tailored way when folks need them?
The other thing that is always on my mind is, how do we continue to have a human at the heart of AI? Generative AI, in particular, is only as creative as the cues you use to generate it. What’s going to be really important on the People & Culture side is not just to embrace the technology, which we should, and not just to lean into AI, which we should, but to really think about what it means to be a leader on the human side of the equation with AI. What are the particular skill sets we need to build for people to then be better able to use AI in their day-to-day life?
HRE: Looking at your life outside of work, as a busy CHRO with twins at home, how do you make it all work?
Love: I don’t know if I do! I’ve got four cats, three dogs, two kids—my 7-year-old twin daughters, who are just going into second grade—and I also am the eldest daughter and play a role taking care of my mom. Like many in my generation, we’re thinking about aging parents and kids and jobs; it’s a lot to balance.
I’m going to sound contradictory when I say what I’m about to say, which is, I focus on presence, but I also use spare time to think. By focusing on presence, I mean, when I’m with my kids, I’m with my kids. When I’m with my team, I’m with my team. I really try to be focused and present and think about what is the problem we are trying to solve in this moment, and how do I help the people I’m with?
The other side of that is I’m always thinking. Whether I’m getting back from CrossFit in the morning or just walking from place to place, I really try to keep the problem-solving happening in my brain to make me more effective when I’m then present. I really treasure my thinking time. It’s what allows me to then, in the moment, be present.
HRE: Is there a mantra that guides your work?
Love: Recently, if you follow the political cycle, the word joy has made its way back into the zeitgeist in a lovely way. And I love that because I’ve been talking about joy for some time now. PMI has a pretty unique purpose—even if we have to help people understand what we’re trying to do. We have a great mission, and we’re looking to create a fair and consistent environment where people have access to opportunities, where there’s a wide range of experiences at the table and where we listen to those experiences. But I think the secret ingredient is joy.
A winning team operates from a place of joy. We can create and unlock people’s discretionary energy by bringing joy to the workplace. I think about it in my own life. I delight in my children, I delight in the problems we get to solve as People & Culture and HR professionals. I delight in the opportunity to actually impact people’s livelihoods.
For me, when we talk about growing in Owensboro, Ky., those are people’s lives that are going to be changed. That’s a mom or a dad or a grandparent, or anyone who is getting a job that is going to help the next generation and the next generation. That’s amazing, and that brings me joy. That joy comes from connection and teamwork and all of those things. I think joy is going to be a key part of our success in the future.
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