Kamra’s hiring signifies Material’s ongoing commitment to advance its employee experience

Global customer experience transformation company, Material, announced that Sharon Kamra has been named as its first Chief People Officer. Kamra assumes responsibility for the company’s overall people experience and operations, including recruiting, compensation, benefits, and learning and development. Kamra will report to Material’s Chief Operating Officer, Laurie MacLaren.

During the past several years, Material has evolved and integrated diverse capabilities across strategy, insights, design, and technology to become a trusted leader in customer experience. The company’s “Science and Systems” approach drives ongoing relevance for clients in a digital first, customer-led world. Material’s pursuit of the company’s strategic agenda is equally matched with pursuit of a highly differentiated and compelling people experience. Embracing a human-centered philosophy consistent with the company’s overriding orientation, Material has adopted supporting policies across physical and mental health as well as emotional and financial wellness.

With Kamra’s arrival, Material has renamed its talent team as the People Team. COO MacLaren said, “It signals our commitment to and focus on supporting the whole person and their value beyond the skills they bring to their job.” She continued, “Sharon’s track record shaping values-driven workplaces combined with Material’s strength in continuous learning and actionable human insights are powerful ingredients for delivering a highly relevant and differentiated employment proposition. Just a quarter into her tenure with Material, Sharon and the People Team are leading the organization through a sweeping modernization of its people policies which emphasize transparency, accountability, and flexibility across performance management, time off, wellness, and productivity.”

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Kamra built her career at Sapient and its iterations including SapientNitro, SapientRazorfish, and Publicis Sapient as Chief People Officer, leading recruiting and workforce planning, among other roles. During her tenure, the company grew from 5,000 to 20,000 employees with Kamra focused on creating a nurturing culture and people experience to more powerfully enable its rapid growth. On her watch, turnover rates were consistently lower than the industry average. She started her career at Ultradata as a project manager and went on to hold client-facing roles in the customer experience space for a decade before transitioning into the people function.

Kamra said, “I was drawn to Material because of our people, culture, and values (especially fearless inclusion) as well as our insights capabilities around deep human understanding. Our special combination of analytical competency and heart equips us to apply these capabilities to ourselves— understanding our people in a way that no other company can and enabling them to do meaningful work while leading fulfilling lives. We are creating a new model for Employee Experience that will differentiate us and make us a better kind of company, because in our pursuit of a better kind of world, we are in partnership with the employees who work here.

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Kamra will be based in Chicago. She also is an active volunteer with her family, dedicating time and resources to help alleviate food insecurity for vulnerable residents in their community.