Katrina Curry
Riveron
“Anyone can learn an ATS. Anyone can write a Boolean string. Anyone can build a dashboard. But you can’t replicate my relationships. You can’t duplicate trust, reputation, or a network built over years.”
Katrina Curry 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 Katrina's story.
Katrina Curry, Director, Talent Acquisition at Riveron, did not begin her career in recruiting. She began it in retail, working her way through college by managing stores across the Bay Area, an early apprenticeship in people that would end up shaping everything that followed.
By 2012 she was already leading multiple locations, and she was later tapped to help launch new stores across both the West and East Coasts for L’Occitane. Hiring the staff for each new location was simply part of the job. At the time, she did not yet realize she was building the foundation for a career in talent acquisition.
Retail recruiting was fast, seasonal, and relentlessly people-focused. Without any formal recruiting training, Katrina learned to assess talent quickly, build trust in a single conversation, and hire at scale. It was not until she joined a boutique executive search firm, though, that she felt the full impact of the work for the first time.
Her very first placement was a roofing estimator in Dallas, a candidate who had just welcomed a baby and was looking for stability, better pay, and stronger benefits. Katrina cold-called him, built a relationship, and helped him land the job within two weeks. They still keep in touch today.
“He told me I changed his life,” she recalls. “That was it. I was hooked.”
From that moment on, recruiting became more than a job. It became a way to create real, tangible change in people’s lives, and compared with selling products, helping someone find a better future struck her as far more meaningful work.
What Energizes Her Most
For Katrina, the most exciting part of talent acquisition today is the human side of the work, especially in an era increasingly shaped by AI. Tools and automation keep evolving, but she believes the true differentiator in recruiting has never changed: relationships.
“Anyone can learn an ATS. Anyone can write a Boolean string. Anyone can build a dashboard,” she says. “But you can’t replicate my relationships. You can’t duplicate trust, reputation, or a network built over years.”
She is especially passionate about developing the skills that pair data with human context. Interpreting workforce data, communicating insights with nuance, and guiding hiring leaders through complex decisions are, in her view, where talent professionals add the most value.
How Recruiting Is Changing
Katrina sees AI as a powerful accelerator rather than a replacement for what makes great recruiting work. Technology can improve efficiency, streamline sourcing, and automate administrative tasks, but it cannot replace relationship-building, credibility, or the ability to genuinely understand both candidates and hiring teams.
In her view, the future of TA belongs to professionals who double down on two areas. The first is tangible skills: data literacy, storytelling with metrics, and strategic workforce planning. The second is meaningful relationships, built on long-term trust with candidates, hiring managers, and peers.
As the tools themselves become more accessible to everyone, she believes human judgment, context, and connection will only grow more valuable.
Katrina’s Advice for 2026
With constant change in technology, market conditions, and hiring priorities, Katrina’s advice to other talent leaders stays grounded and practical: invest in skills that cannot be automated, and relationships that cannot be copied.
Trends will shift and platforms will change. The professionals who can blend analytical thinking with strong human networks, she argues, will remain indispensable no matter how fast the landscape evolves.
For Katrina, in other words, the future of recruiting is not about competing with AI. It is about focusing on the uniquely human strengths that technology cannot replace.
The Talent 100 exists to celebrate the people shaping the future of how the world hires, and few embody that better than Katrina. We are honored to welcome Katrina Curry to the Talent 100, Class of 2026, and grateful for the experience, perspective, and craft they bring to this community. Congratulations, Katrina. 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.
