Kevin Rutherford, CEO of Nuun Hydration

Before joining Nuun, Kevin spent his early career as a Senior Brand Manager at SC Johnson and Miller Brewing Company before serving as Marketing Director at Kashi Company and eventually CEO at Caldrea Company. Kevin shares his people-first approach to hiring and evaluating teams. We also discuss how he leverages purpose and vision to build thriving cultures. Highlights from our conversation include: How optimism became integral to Kevin’s leadership style (1:42) Lessons about people, inclusivity, and positivity from his career path (3:04) Connection to mission and purpose (9:01) Canadians’ unique scrappiness (10:57) His approach to building leadership teams (12:22) Culture add vs. culture fit (15:56) His experience coming into Nuun (20:30) Defining leadership competencies (22:35) How his team contributes to hiring decisions (24:10) The benefit of working with recruiters to make key hires (26:49) How the recent health and social crises have affected Kevin’s approach (31:54) Nuun’s success hiring virtually (36:26) Adapting to 2021’s accelerated pace of change (37:49) Visit HowIHire.com for transcripts and more on this episode. Follow Roy Notowitz and Noto Group Executive Search on LinkedIn for updates and featured career opportunities. Subscribe to How I Hire: Apple Spotify Amazon Google