Terri Lewis
Senior Vice President, Global Head of Human Resources
Pontoon Solutions
Please tell us a little bit about your role.
I am the global head of HR for an organization that delivers total talent solutions. I have overall accountability for Talent Acquisition, People Operations and Talent Management. I am obsessed with ensuring our team doesn’t only understand HR. We have to stay close to the business. We have to understand the P&L. It’s essential we contribute to and fully understand the business strategy so we are able to align the people strategy to drive it forward.
As an HR leader, what is one thing that “keeps you up at night?”
Pontoon is a world-leading HR outsourcing organization placing 1.5M contractors annually through our MSP programs and 65,000 permanent placements a year in our RXO programs for our over 150 clients globally. When I can’t sleep at night, my brain wanders to ensuring we are able to attract the right talent in a very tight and competitive labor market to drive our business forward. From there we have to be able to train, engage and continually develop our team. The challenges associated with accomplishing this and balancing priorities in a truly global organization are many.
What’s something you and your team have accomplished that you’re proud of?
In 2018, Pontoon went through a global transformation. We went from a regionally focused organization to a global one. With that comes new challenges, and new insights are needed to continue to strategically drive the business forward. Our HR team is rolling out technologies that are allowing us to see real time workforce analytics which drive decision making. In our business it’s all about people and clients. Our HR team is now able to provide the kind of insight our leaders need at their fingertips every day.
If you could live anywhere on this planet and take everything that you love with you, where would you choose to live?
This is really tough for me as I have been lucky enough to travel the world in my current role. I think I would pick Stockholm, Sweden if you made me pick one. I find it so open and welcoming with wonderful food and great people and culture. I don’t love how cold it is, but I could get used to that for all the other wonderful aspects of life there.
If you could sit on a bench in a beautiful woods, who would you like sitting next to you on the bench and why?
My grandmother. She passed in 2006 and played a very important role in my life. Both of my parents had busy careers and I spent a lot of time before and after school and in the summers with her. She passed relatively early in my professional life and when my son was only 2 years old. I often have conversations with her in my head as I walk through new cities. I would love to be able to talk to her, hear her wonderful words of wisdom again and simply hold her hand.
