2026 Talent 100 Honoree

Patricia McKeating

Director Talent Acquisition, Oracle

“The business grew, new markets opened, acquisitions happened, and clinicians had better tools to provide patient care”

Like many talent leaders, Patricia McKeating never planned to build a career in talent acquisition.

Fresh out of university in Brazil, Patricia set off to travel the world. During her travels, she landed an HR role in Vietnam, an opportunity that would unexpectedly shape the rest of her career.

Like many recruiters, she fell into the profession by accident.

But what started as a temporary opportunity quickly became something much more meaningful.

“I fell in love with that matchmaking aspect of the job,” Patricia explains.

Helping people find opportunities was rewarding, but what truly fascinated her was seeing how different cultures approached work, leadership, and people.

Her career took her across Vietnam, South Korea, the Middle East, and Europe, giving her a unique global perspective on talent.

Each country taught her something different about the human side of business.

Building Talent on a Global Scale

Patricia's first experience with structured corporate talent acquisition came when she joined ExxonMobil in Prague.

For the first time, she experienced recruitment at an enterprise scale, learning how world-class talent organizations operated across large, complex businesses.

But the defining chapter of her career came later when she joined a rapidly growing healthcare technology company in the United Kingdom.

There, Patricia built recruitment teams across Europe before expanding into AMEA, APAC, and Latin America.

As the company entered new markets, completed acquisitions, and continued growing internationally, she was able to see the direct connection between talent acquisition and business success.

“The business grew, new markets opened, acquisitions happened, and clinicians had better tools to provide patient care.”

That experience transformed the way she viewed her profession.

Instead of simply matching candidates with jobs, Patricia realized she was helping organizations become what they aspired to be.

That shift continues to shape how she approaches talent leadership today.

Leadership Lessons from Every Manager

Throughout her career, Patricia has worked with many different leaders.

Some inspired her.

Some challenged her.

Others taught her lessons she never expected.

Rather than pointing to only one or two mentors, Patricia reflects on the value each leadership style brought to her development.

The inspiring leaders gave her opportunities before she felt ready.

“They saw me growing into it,” she says.

Those moments taught her the importance of trusting potential rather than simply rewarding experience.

The absent managers, while frustrating at the time, forced Patricia to become more independent.

Without constant direction, she built strong professional relationships outside of her reporting line and learned to seek guidance from a broader network.

Even the difficult leaders left a lasting impact.

Rather than simply teaching her what not to do, they helped her recognize similar tendencies in herself.

“They gave me a mirror.”

That self-awareness became one of the most valuable leadership lessons of her career.

Instead of avoiding uncomfortable experiences, Patricia believes they often become the greatest opportunities for personal growth.

Leading AI Adoption Through People

As a leader at Oracle, Patricia has had a front-row seat to the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence.

Rather than focusing only on the technology itself, her first priority was helping people become comfortable using it.

She recognized that every team contains early adopters alongside those who prefer to wait and see.

Instead of relying on formal training programs, Patricia encouraged her early adopters to lead peer-driven workshops built around real recruiting challenges.

Teams experimented with AI together, solving practical problems in a safe environment while learning directly from one another.

The goal was simple:

Create a baseline level of AI fluency across the entire organization.

Today, that foundation has allowed her teams to move beyond experimentation and begin building practical AI solutions together.

For Patricia, AI fluency is no longer simply a technical skill.

It has become a professional mindset.

Using AI with Purpose

While Patricia is optimistic about AI, she also believes many organizations are approaching it the wrong way.

One of the biggest mistakes she sees is implementing AI before understanding the real problem that needs solving.

“AI adoption for the sake of it is a trap.”

Rather than diagnosing broken processes, some organizations simply layer AI on top of existing inefficiencies.

“If you apply AI to the wrong thing, you're just going to make that wrong thing faster and more expensive.”

She believes every implementation should begin with careful diagnosis.

Where is the bottleneck?

What problem actually needs solving?

Will AI improve the experience—or simply automate a poor process?

Those questions matter more than selecting the newest tool.

Keeping the Human at the Center

While AI can automate repetitive work and surface valuable insights, Patricia believes it should never replace the human side of recruiting.

She worries that some organizations, in the pursuit of efficiency, risk losing sight of the candidate experience.

Candidates are navigating uncertain careers and trusting recruiters with life-changing decisions.

That responsibility cannot be fully delegated to technology.

“AI may change who does the work, but it does not change who owns it.”

Accountability.

Empathy.

Trust.

Those remain human responsibilities.

Patricia believes one of the biggest misconceptions in today's AI debate is framing people and technology as opposing forces.

“The human is not the obstacle.”

“The human is the point of the function.”

For her, AI should remove administrative burdens so recruiters can spend more time where they create the greatest value—building relationships, understanding people, and helping organizations make better hiring decisions.

Advice for the Next Generation of Talent Leaders

For professionals entering talent acquisition today, Patricia's advice is clear:

Get on board with AI.

Not simply by talking about it, but by learning how to use it thoughtfully.

At the same time, she reminds new recruiters that technology alone will never define success.

Talent acquisition is a demanding profession.

It involves constant pressure, difficult conversations, changing priorities, and often very little recognition.

The people who thrive are those who genuinely care about helping businesses and candidates succeed.

Recruiters have continuously adapted through every major shift—from the rise of the internet to social media, digital sourcing, and now artificial intelligence.

Patricia believes this transformation will be no different.

“The carpenter didn't disappear when power tools were invented.”

“They simply built more complex things faster.”

The same is true for recruiting.

Those who remain transactional or operate purely as order-takers may struggle in the future.

But those who think strategically, embrace technology responsibly, and keep people at the center of every decision will help shape the next generation of talent acquisition.

For Patricia McKeating, the future of recruiting isn't about choosing between humans and AI.

It's about combining both to build stronger businesses, better hiring experiences, and more meaningful careers.

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.