2026 Talent 100 Honoree

Stefanie Spackman

Sr. Director, Global Talent Acquisition – Center of Excellence, Ecolab

“I look at that recruiter role now and think, 'Imagine the impact I could have made in that seat with the power of AI behind me.'”

For Stefanie Spackman, recruiting was never part of the original plan.

With a degree in social work, her career began with a passion for helping people. Early on, she worked in higher education within career services, helping students launch their careers while partnering with employers to create opportunities.

That experience introduced her to recruiting from a different perspective.

From there, Stefanie transitioned into agency recruiting, where she learned the fundamentals of talent acquisition and developed the resilience that comes with the profession.

She then spent nearly two decades in technology recruiting before moving into a technology-adjacent industry, bringing with her years of recruiting leadership and strategic talent expertise.

Looking back, she describes her journey as one that she simply "fell into"—a path that ultimately became a rewarding lifelong career.

Learning From People-Centered Leaders

Throughout her career, Stefanie has been shaped by leaders who demonstrated that great recruiting starts with investing in people.

One of those leaders was Angie Hawkins during Stefanie's time at Target.

Angie led with a deeply people-centric philosophy, consistently focusing on helping others discover and maximize their strengths while creating opportunities for them to succeed.

At Meta, Sophia Bianchi expanded Stefanie's perspective by combining that same focus on people with a strong emphasis on analytics, innovation, and building scalable solutions.

Sophia helped Stefanie embrace a builder's mindset, encouraging her to think differently about creating processes and driving innovation across talent acquisition.

Stefanie also credits Jason Gross, her former leader at Ecolab, for reinforcing the importance of strengths-based leadership.

Rather than micromanaging, Jason provided clear direction, trusted his team to execute, and empowered people to lead through their own expertise.

Together, these leaders helped shape Stefanie's belief that unlocking the strengths of others is one of the most important responsibilities of any leader.

Leading Recruiting Through AI

Stefanie believes artificial intelligence is transforming talent acquisition by allowing recruiters to focus on the work that matters most.

She sees AI removing much of the administrative burden that has traditionally occupied recruiting teams, creating more space for strategic partnership, relationship building, and business impact.

Having spent years as an individual recruiter before moving into executive leadership, she often reflects on how much more she could have accomplished with today's AI capabilities.

"I look at that recruiter role now and think, 'Imagine the impact I could have made in that seat with the power of AI behind me.'"

While she sees AI rapidly advancing, Stefanie believes today's recruiting landscape remains fundamentally human-led, with AI serving as a powerful enabler rather than a replacement.

She expects that balance to continue evolving as technology matures.

Advice for Talent Leaders

Stefanie believes recruiting is, above all else, a business centered around people.

One lesson has remained with her throughout her career: recruiting influences the areas of life people care about most—their family, their time, and their financial well-being.

Because of that, she believes talent leaders should never lose sight of the human impact behind every hiring decision.

At the same time, she encourages recruiting professionals to recognize the tremendous influence talent has on organizational success.

Everything begins with the people an organization hires, making talent acquisition one of the most strategically important functions within any business.

Finally, Stefanie emphasizes the importance of data.

She believes that combining people-centered leadership with strong data-driven decision-making enables recruiting teams to operate strategically rather than reactively.

As AI continues making data more accessible and actionable, she sees enormous opportunities for recruiting teams to improve hiring, build stronger organizations, and create better experiences for candidates.

By combining empathy, strategic thinking, innovation, and a commitment to developing people, Stefanie Spackman represents the kind of talent leader helping shape the future of recruiting with both heart and purpose.

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.