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Second Harvest Of Silicon Valley, A Leading Non-Profit, Hires Gwenn Riehl As Director, Human Resources Business Partner

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, one of the largest food banks in the United States, has recruited Gwenn Riehl as Director, Human Resources Business Partner (HRBP). Second Harvest partnered with Frederickson Partners on the search.

As Director, HRBP, Riehl will be based in San Jose, CA, reporting to Vice President of Human Resources Barbara Wilets. In her new role, Riehl will guide Second Harvest management and staff across many parts of the organization, and will drive initiatives such as organizational effectiveness, workforce planning, employee engagement, culture strategies, training and employee, leadership and organizational development.

“We’re delighted to work with Second Harvest of Silicon Valley and to place Gwenn Riehl in the role of Director, HRBP,” said Valerie Frederickson, Founder and CEO, Frederickson Partners. “Gwenn has over 15 years of experience building HR strategy, and has the broad HR executive experience to help Second Harvest continue evolving to meet the call, which has increased with COVID-19, to provide nutritious food to those who are in need.”

Riehl joins Second Harvest from holding HR executive position at TORANI, a flavored syrups manufacturer, where she served as Senior HRBP for two years. Previously, Riehl was Senior HRBP at MICHELIN Food and Travel in Paris, France, a tech and publishing subsidiary of MICHELIN Group.

Before that she was regional HRBP in hospitality, and HR Generalist in a wood & materials business. Riehl earned a master’s degree in strategic HR at the University of Montpellier (France), after studying HR at UQUAR at Québec (Canada) and earning a bachelor’s degree in economics at University of Brittany. Riehl is a certified HR professional and earned the SHRM-SCP and SPHR certificates.

Founded in 1974, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley is a trusted nonprofit leader in ending local hunger. The organization distributes nutritious groceries through a network of more than 300 partners at drive-thru and walk-up sites across Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. Due to the prohibitively expensive cost of living in Silicon Valley and the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, hunger is at an all-time high. Second Harvest is now serving 500,000 people on average every month, which is twice as many people as they reached pre-pandemic. Second Harvest also connects people to federal nutrition programs and other food resources, and advocates for anti-hunger policies on the local, state and national levels.

Frederickson Partners recruits high impact human resources leaders for innovative companies. Frederickson matches startups, tech unicorns, and the Fortune 500 with world-class full-time and project-based talent. The country’s leading People executive search firm, Frederickson Partners is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices nationwide. Clients include Alphabet, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Gartner, Gilead, Intel, Pinterest, Qualtrics, Roche, ServiceNow, StockX, The Nature Conservancy, Twitter, Uber and Workday.

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Frederickson Partners, a Gallagher company is a market leader in retained executive search since 1995. As one of the top-rated HR executive search and C-suite recruiting firms, we have expertise in placing Chief People Officers, Chief Human Resources Officers, Chief Diversity Officers, Chief Financial Officers, Chief Legal Officers and many other senior leaders. We draw on a broad network of rising and established executives and leaders, and a 28-year reputation as a talent acquisition and HR Advisory provider.

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