I recently went one-on-one with Valerie Capers Workman, Chief Human Resources Officer of Empower Pharmacy. Valerie previously served as Vice President of People at Tesla, reporting directly to Elon Musk, and as Chief Talent Engagement Officer at Handshake.

Adam: Long before you were leading HR in the world of pharmacy, you were leading HR for a company that everyone in America knows, probably everyone in the world knows, and that is a company called Tesla. Can you take us back to your days leading HR for Tesla? What did you learn from that experience? What were your biggest takeaways from your time at Tesla?

Valerie: Adam, I have to tell the story of how I got that job because I’m not HR by trade. That was never my career plan. It wasn’t in my game plan, and it definitely was not on my bingo card. When I joined Tesla in 2018, I joined as head of compliance to build out the company’s HR compliance function, which, honestly, was a dream job for me. I had a great two-year run there doing everything from domestic compliance work to supporting the Shanghai Gigafactory work in China. If you know compliance, doing compliance work in China is a major achievement in itself.

Full Interview on AdamMendler.com