Katie Gregoire
Highspot
“Data helps tell the story, but instinct and human judgment often help recruiters make the best decisions.”
Katie Gregoire 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 Katie's story.
Like many people in talent acquisition, Katie Gregoire found her way into recruiting unexpectedly. She had initially considered a career in sales and accepted an entry-level role with a healthcare staffing company, where she sold staffing services to hospitals, school districts, and nursing homes while also recruiting therapists to fill open positions.
Working in healthcare staffing in the years after the 2008-2009 financial crisis gave her firsthand experience bridging the gap between sales and recruiting, and it reframed how she thought about the work. Over time, she discovered that recruiting offered something unique: the opportunity to combine business acumen, people skills, and judgment into a single profession.
From Healthcare Staffing to Technology
After six years in healthcare staffing, Gregoire made the transition into technology by joining Slalom. There she developed a deeper understanding of business strategy, consulting, and solving complex organizational challenges through talent. The experience strengthened a belief that still anchors her approach: recruiting is ultimately about helping businesses solve problems through people.
Six and a half years ago, she joined Highspot as the company's third recruiter, when the organization had fewer than 300 employees. Since then she has helped scale the company to nearly 1,000 employees, and today she oversees global recruiting across North America and EMEA while partnering closely with teams in India.
Control the Controllables
Her first piece of advice for talent leaders moving further into 2026 is disarmingly simple: control the controllables. The talent landscape continues to evolve rapidly, with shifting markets, changing hiring plans, new technologies, and AI-driven transformations reshaping the profession. Recruiters cannot control external conditions. What they can control is the quality of their work, the strength of their relationships, and the guidance they provide to business leaders.
That discipline, in her view, is what is pushing the function beyond transactional recruiting. Talent acquisition professionals, she believes, are increasingly becoming strategic advisors who help organizations understand market trends, talent dynamics, and hiring realities.
Trust Your Gut
Her second piece of advice is to trust your gut. Data remains an important tool for decision-making, but recruiting is ultimately a people-centered profession, and people are inherently unpredictable. Strong recruiters, she argues, must balance analytics with experience, judgment, and intuition rather than choosing one over the other.
As Gregoire puts it, "Data helps tell the story, but instinct and human judgment often help recruiters make the best decisions."
The Talent 100 exists to celebrate the people shaping the future of how the world hires, and few embody that better than Katie. We are honored to welcome Katie Gregoire to the Talent 100, Class of 2026, and grateful for the experience, perspective, and craft they bring to this community. Congratulations, Katie. 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.
