SUCCESSFUL PLACEMENT: NICHE – CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER

Feb 2, 2022

Niche’s Hiring Spree Continues into 2022, Adding New Chief People Officer

Strip District-based Niche, a company that developed a platform of rankings on schools, colleges and places to live, announced another pair of new executive team appointments following last year’s hiring spree that increased the company’s employee count by more than half.
Kelly Lavin takes on the new role as the company’s first chief people officer where she’ll craft the company’s future strategies and processes relating to talent acquisition and retention as well as leadership development and performance management, among other tasks. She joins Niche with over two decades of experience working in people-focused jobs, most recently coming from a similar post at global talent acquisition software company Jobvite, which is based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

“I’m thrilled to have Kelly and Paul at the helm of two very robust teams,” Luke Skurman, Niche’s CEO and founder, said in a release. “Kelly has been a successful executive at several growth-stage companies, so she will bring key expertise to our People team and the business as a whole. Paul’s deep understanding of marketplaces as well as his experience scaling engineering teams will help strengthen and grow our engineering function. I’m excited to work with each of them to push the company forward.”

In 2021, the company grew its full-time employee count by more than 50%, from 156 workers to 241 workers. It’s pacing to have 330 full-time employees on its payroll by the end of 2022.
Founded in 2002 and initially named CollegeProwler by then-Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business students Skurman and Joey Rahimi, the company has since evolved from its original form of publishing print guidebooks on U.S. colleges to one that posts online rankings of K-12 schools, colleges, cities, neighborhoods and companies throughout the nation. In April 2020, it raised $35 million in Series C funding led by Radian Capital and with participation from Salesforce Ventures, as well as the company’s existing investors; Allen & Co. LLC and Tim Armstrong.
View the full press release published by Niche here.

ON Partners consultants Jake Espenlaub, Danny Bolger, and Alex Peters are proud to have partnered with Kelly Lavin and Niche on this successful placement. View more human resources placements from ON here.

About Niche

 

Niche is where students and parents choose their school. Whether a school is already on their list or the perfect fit they haven’t yet discovered, Niche connects families to the ones that are uniquely right for them. Our enrollment marketing solutions enable our 2,000 partners to build genuine connections that nurture interest into visits, applications and enrollment. By supporting over 50 million students and parents, Niche is changing how schools and colleges connect with families and build their future classes.

Follow our work, updates, and recent success on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Find our related successful placements of leading executives here.

About ON Partners

In a high-tech world, our difference is human. ON Partners is a pure-play retained executive search firm building C-level and board leadership teams for high-growth private and public companies, private equity, and venture capital.

With a partner-led, high-touch model, clients gain direct access to seasoned partners who lead every search from day one to day done. Our boutique structure enables speed, agility, and precision. This hands-on approach fosters a deep understanding of client needs, delivers elite talent quickly, and ensures unmatched responsiveness.

ON Partners is the most referred executive search firm in the industry. And the numbers back it up— 85% of our clients return, 95% of new business comes from referrals, and clients and candidates rate their experience with us 4.9 out of 5.

Consistently ranked among the top 20 retained executive search firms in the U.S., ON Partners has been recognized by Forbes as one of America’s Best Executive Recruiting Firms and has appeared on the Inc. 500/5000 List nine times.

Our Approach Works.

SUCCESSFUL PLACEMENT: NICHE – CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER
SUCCESSFUL PLACEMENT: NICHE – CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER
SUCCESSFUL PLACEMENT: NICHE – CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER
SUCCESSFUL PLACEMENT: NICHE – CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER
SUCCESSFUL PLACEMENT: NICHE – CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER
SUCCESSFUL PLACEMENT: NICHE – CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER
SUCCESSFUL PLACEMENT: NICHE – CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER
SUCCESSFUL PLACEMENT: NICHE – CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER