Chris Woodham
FedEx
“I think I've been in talent acquisition for the better part of 20 plus years.”
Chris Woodham has been named to the Talent 100, Class of 2026, the annual award recognizing the 100 most exceptional leaders and practitioners in talent acquisition. Honorees are selected by the Talent 100 committee from thousands of nominations and candidates across the industry, chosen for the impact of their work, the depth of their craft, and their influence on the future of recruiting. This is Chris's story.
Chris Woodham, Head of Talent Acquisition at FedEx, has spent more than two decades in a profession he never set out to join. Few people set out to join it in the early 2000s, when talent acquisition was still considered the younger brother of HR. Woodham was working in sales at T-Mobile when a family friend reached out with an opportunity that would change everything: the friend had just joined a company that recruited nurses across the country, and saw something in Woodham's sales work that translated. More than twenty years later, he has built a career in talent acquisition while watching the profession move from personnel's afterthought to a strategic business function. His path into the field was accidental, like so many in the industry, but his commitment has been deliberate.
From Sales to Talent
Woodham's move from T-Mobile sales into recruiting was never about abandoning what he already knew. It was about applying it differently. The skills he had honed selling mobile plans turned out to be precisely what recruiting demanded: building relationships, understanding needs, and matching solutions to problems. The mechanics did not change much whether the product was a phone plan or a nursing career.
The family connection opened the door. His sales background gave him the tools to walk through it. What he walked into was an industry still working out its own identity, long before talent acquisition became the strategic discipline it is today.
Two Decades in the Field
"I think I've been in talent acquisition for the better part of 20 plus years," Woodham says, a tenure that neatly spans the profession's transformation. When he started, recruiting was often treated as a support function rather than a driver of business outcomes. Over the years, he has watched talent acquisition claim its seat at the leadership table.
His longevity in the field reflects both adaptability and conviction. He has stayed because the work matters, and because the industry kept evolving in ways that kept him engaged. The friend who recruited him into recruiting could not have known they were launching a twenty-year career. Woodham took that initial opportunity and turned it into a calling.
The Evolution of Recruiting
Woodham remembers when talent acquisition was still called personnel, a term that in itself reveals how much has changed. The function was subordinate, reactive, and administrative. Today it is strategic, proactive, and central to organizational success.
He has been part of that shift, helping to elevate recruiting from back-office necessity to competitive advantage. The profession is no longer the younger brother of HR. It has grown up, and the leaders who stayed with it through the change are the reason why.
Grateful for the Journey
Gratitude is the quality most evident in the way Woodham speaks about his career. He appreciates being counted among his peers, and he values the partnerships and connections that have shaped his path, including colleagues such as David Marshall. His career began with a referral from a family friend and has been sustained by relationships ever since.
That thread of connection runs through everything he does in talent acquisition. Recruiting, after all, is fundamentally about people: finding them, knowing them, and helping them find where they belong. Woodham understood that from his first day in the field, and he still understands it now.
The Talent 100 exists to celebrate the people shaping the future of how the world hires, and few embody that better than Chris. We are honored to welcome Chris Woodham to the Talent 100, Class of 2026, and grateful for the experience, perspective, and craft they bring to this community. Congratulations, Chris. 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.
