Calabrio Hires Kristin Gaarder as First Chief Human Resources Officer

Experienced international human resources pro joins Calabrio to drive employee and company growth through human connection

Calabrio, the customer experience intelligence company, has brought on Kristin Gaarder as its first chief human resources officer. This important addition to the executive team comes as Calabrio continues to strengthen operations in analytics-based customer service and workforce engagement management and builds a workforce highly dedicated to its own customer satisfaction. Named by the Star Tribune this year as a Top Workplace for the eighth year in a row, Calabrio will look to Gaarder to lead and evolve efforts to enable organizational growth.

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“Kristin’s experience and focus on people-first practices will be an asset to Calabrio as we continue to grow along with this ever-changing industry.”

“As human centricity becomes increasingly more important in the contact center industry, Calabrio is focused on providing our employees with a dynamic work experience so they can concentrate on flawlessly executing this for our customers,” said Tom Goodmanson, president and CEO of Calabrio. “Kristin’s experience and focus on people-first practices will be an asset to Calabrio as we continue to grow along with this ever-changing industry.”

In this role, Gaarder and her team will support more than 700 current employees as well as lead Calabrio’s expansion to a team of over 1,000. She will oversee human resources, including recruitment and talent retention, leadership development, benefits, employee relations, diversity, belonging and inclusion, and the many employee-development programs offered by Calabrio.

Gaarder has more than 20 years of experience marrying brand promises with human resource initiatives to better support an engaged employee population. Prior to joining Calabrio, Gaarder served as the SVP of Human Resources & Corporate Services for Amplifon. She was also the general manager and VP of Human Resources for Nilfisk High Pressure Washers. Gaarder is on the board of the HR Executive Forum and was recognized as a Top Woman Leader in Minnesota. Through these and other previous roles, Gaarder witnessed firsthand and helped guide organizational transformation.

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Gaarder commented, “Looking back on the experiences I’ve had at companies across multiple industries, I’ve found that the key to business success always comes down to one element: human connection. Whether with your employees, customers, prospects, or everything in between, the path to growth lies with building and strengthening one-to-one connections. I’m excited to collaborate alongside Calabrio’s seasoned leadership team who also hold these same core values. We will work together to create meaningful experiences for employees, develop their talents and continue to deliver to our customers the excellence they expect.”

Earlier this year, Calabrio’s growth trajectory charted new territory as the company became the fifth Minnesota-based technology unicorn when private equity firm, Thoma Bravo, acquired Calabrio from KKR. The acquisition is not only a testament to Calabrio’s growth but its strength and innovation as a global team over the past few years, values which continue to expand across the organization.

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