Kerri Walsh
Pinnacle
“The most underappreciated question in hiring is also the simplest: do we actually want to work with this person every day?”
Kerri Walsh 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 Kerri's story.
Kerri Walsh did not set out to build a career in recruiting. She found it at a moment when she needed it most, and a quarter century later the work still sits at the center of her professional life as Director of Recruiting at Pinnacle.
In the late 1990s, Kerri was working as a server at Landry’s Restaurants while going to school. When a back surgery forced her to step away from physically demanding work, Landry’s offered her an alternative: a role in their corporate office as a recruiter. What started as a practical solution became the foundation of a 25 year career in talent acquisition.
Kerri discovered quickly that recruiting fit her instincts. Matching people to opportunity, understanding motivation, reading between the lines of resumes and conversations: these were the parts of the job that came naturally to her. She thrived in the work and stayed with Landry’s for several years, learning the fundamentals of hiring, screening, and relationship building.
Building a Career Without a Traditional Playbook
From Landry’s, Kerri moved into agency recruiting at Swift Worldwide Resources, entering the oil and gas sector she had grown up around in Alaska. She spent five years there before joining competitor Air, now known as Airswift, expanding her experience across different clients and markets.
Her career took a pivotal turn when Chevron recruited her, and for Kerri the offer carried special meaning. She did not have a college degree, something she had planned to complete but never returned to after surgery and career momentum took over. Chevron’s willingness to hire her based on experience and impact was a defining validation. At Chevron, she was exposed to global talent acquisition and executive level hiring, broadening both her scope and her influence. She expected to stay long term. Instead, another unexpected message changed everything.
Eleven years ago, the founder and CEO of Pinnacle reached out to her on LinkedIn. The company was growing quickly, had no formal recruiting function, and needed someone to build it from the ground up. Kerri trusted her instincts and joined.
Growing With the Business
Kerri started at Pinnacle as a recruiting manager. Two years later, she was promoted to Director of People Performance and joined the executive leadership team, with responsibilities that reached well beyond recruiting to cover HR operations, onboarding, global mobility, safety, learning and development, employment law, and business partnerships.
Leading at that level taught her how companies truly operate: how decisions ripple across teams, and how people strategy connects directly to business outcomes. Later, she transitioned into an engineering focused role to deepen her understanding of Pinnacle’s core work, before returning to recruiting during COVID to help rebuild teams as hiring resumed. Today, recruiting remains at the heart of her work.
Why the Work Matters
What energizes Kerri most is not filling roles quickly. It is finding the right people. Hiring at Pinnacle is intentionally difficult, and roles often take six, nine, or even twelve months to fill. Technical ability matters, but it is not enough on its own; cultural alignment, values, behavior, and energy carry equal weight.
That standard leads her back to what she considers the most underappreciated question in hiring, and also the simplest: do we actually want to work with this person every day? When the answer is yes, everyone feels it. The hiring manager. The recruiter. The candidate. Those moments, arriving after months of searching, are what make the work meaningful.
How Recruiting Has Shifted
Over the past year, Kerri has seen a clear imbalance emerge: more candidates, fewer roles. For employers, that means deeper pipelines. For candidates, it means increased competition.
At the same time, not all roles are equal. While some positions attract strong inbound interest, Pinnacle’s most strategic and technical roles still require proactive sourcing and headhunting, and that work has become harder, slower, and more relationship driven than ever. The market continues to change rapidly, often every six months, so Kerri focuses less on predicting what comes next and more on adapting to what is in front of her.
Kerri’s Advice for 2026
Kerri’s guidance is consistent and hard earned. Hire for values, not just resumes: technical skills can be learned, but values alignment, behavior, and energy determine whether someone will truly thrive. Think beyond today’s org chart, too. Do not hire only for what the company needs right now; hire for where the business is going in 2026, 2027, and beyond.
Above all, she counsels patience and humanity. Be willing to wait for the right person, because rushing to fill a seat often leads to turnover, while taking the time, even if it takes months, protects both the company and the candidate. And keep recruiting human. People build with people, and technology can accelerate workflows, but it cannot replace judgment, trust, and real connection.
The Talent 100 exists to celebrate the people shaping the future of how the world hires, and few embody that better than Kerri. We are honored to welcome Kerri Walsh to the Talent 100, Class of 2026, and grateful for the experience, perspective, and craft they bring to this community. Congratulations, Kerri. 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.
