Catherine Petersen
Groundworks
“What gets me up every day is the fact that my team can make a difference for people who just want to do an honest day’s work and provide for their families.”
Catherine Petersen has been named to the Talent 100, Class of 2026, the annual award recognizing up to 100 leaders in each category of talent acquisition. Honorees are nominated by peers or found by committees that look for excellent work wherever it happens, then chosen for the depth of their craft and their impact on hiring. This is Catherine's story.
For Catherine Petersen, Vice President of Talent at Groundworks, talent acquisition was never part of the original plan. Her career began in human resources, where she built a strong foundation as an HR generalist before advancing into leadership roles, including a stint as Regional HR Director for Lowe’s, where she focused on developing talent, supporting business leaders, and driving organizational performance.
What ultimately changed the trajectory of that career was a knack her colleagues noticed before she named it herself: she consistently identified, attracted, and developed talent. “I was recognized as one of the HR directors who was really successful at finding and developing talent,” she explains. That reputation led to an unexpected opportunity.
In 2005, during a period of rapid expansion at Lowe’s, Catherine was selected to lead talent acquisition for the organization on an enterprise-wide level. The role represented a significant shift, moving her from regional HR leadership to overseeing recruiting strategy for one of the country’s fastest-growing organizations. Over the next several years, she helped revitalize and refine the company’s talent acquisition function, building systems and processes capable of supporting growth at scale.
“Somehow I was good at it,” she says with a laugh. “And somehow I just stayed in it.”
Making a Difference for Families
Catherine has spent years building recruiting functions and leading talent teams, but her motivation remains remarkably simple. For her, talent acquisition is fundamentally about helping people provide for their families.
Today she leads recruiting efforts for Groundworks, an organization with approximately 7,000 employees that hires roughly 5,000 people annually to support its continued growth. Despite the scale of that operation, she never loses sight of the individual lives behind every hiring decision.
“What gets me up every day is the fact that my team can make a difference for people who just want to do an honest day’s work and provide for their families,” she says.
In a labor market filled with uncertainty, economic shifts, and changing workforce dynamics, Catherine sees recruiting as an opportunity to create stability for thousands of individuals every year. The true impact of the work, in her view, extends far beyond business metrics. Every offer accepted represents a family gaining financial security, career growth, and new possibilities.
Balancing Technology with Human Connection
As AI continues reshaping the recruiting landscape, Catherine believes organizations must be thoughtful about how they put new tools to work. Over the past several years, she has watched the industry move toward greater automation, with many companies relying increasingly on algorithms, automated workflows, and machine-driven candidate interactions. She recognizes the value technology can bring, but she is equally clear that companies must be careful not to lose the human element that makes recruiting effective in the first place.
“I’ve seen recruiting shift from human interaction to machine interaction,” she explains.
That concern has shaped how her own organization approaches technology adoption. Rather than using AI to replace recruiters or automate decision-making, Catherine focuses on leveraging it to eliminate administrative tasks and create more time for meaningful candidate engagement. Her team is currently exploring solutions that can automate candidate communications and repetitive recruiting workflows while preserving the personal interactions candidates value most.
“The technology should help us spend more time with human beings,” she says. In her view, AI’s greatest value lies in enabling recruiters to become more present, more responsive, and more relationship-focused, not less.
Every Candidate Is a Customer
Looking toward the future of talent acquisition, Catherine returns to one principle she believes should guide every recruiting team: treat every candidate like a customer. Whether or not a candidate ultimately receives an offer, the experience they have with an organization can carry lasting consequences.
“Every single candidate is a customer,” she says.
Candidates talk to friends, family members, colleagues, and future applicants. They may become customers, referral sources, or even future hires. More importantly, they form opinions about an organization based on how they are treated throughout the hiring process.
For Catherine, creating a positive candidate experience is both good business and the right thing to do. Even when the outcome is a rejection, candidates who feel respected, informed, and valued are far more likely to speak well of the company afterward. “If you give someone a positive candidate experience, even with a negative outcome, they can still become your brand ambassador,” she explains.
Advice for Talent Leaders Heading into 2026
As organizations continue balancing technology, efficiency, and workforce demands, Catherine encourages talent leaders to keep their attention on the human side of recruiting. Technology will continue to evolve and processes will continue to change, but relationships remain at the center of successful talent acquisition.
Her advice is straightforward. Treat candidates with respect. Invest in the candidate experience. Remember the families behind every hiring decision. And use technology as a tool to strengthen human connection rather than replace it.
By combining operational excellence, people-first leadership, and a deep commitment to candidate experience, Catherine Petersen continues to demonstrate how talent acquisition can create meaningful impact for both organizations and the people they serve.
The Talent 100 exists to celebrate the people shaping the future of how the world hires, and few embody that better than Catherine. We are honored to welcome Catherine Petersen to the Talent 100, Class of 2026, and grateful for the experience, perspective, and craft they bring to this community. Congratulations, Catherine. Welcome to the Talent 100.
About the Talent 100
The Talent 100 is an annual list spotlighting the leaders who push HR and talent acquisition forward, organized by Noon AI. Honorees are selected through peer nominations and independent selection committees. Selection is entirely merit-based, with no fees or pay-to-play requirements.
