Last week we announced that Nadia Rawlinson ( @nadianicolej ) was joining Slack as our first Chief People Officer: https://slack.com/blog/news/nadia-rawlinson-appointed-chief-people-officer-of-slack

So: Cool!! Nadia is amazing! But there were a lot of things about the process that culminated in this news that were really interesting …

First, Nadia really is amazing. There were more than a few 2 hour+ conversations as we were getting to know each other and they were deep

Because of the nature of the role, it was a very different and much more personal dialogue than normal in executive recruiting.

But the really unusual thing *for me* (and, presumably, her) was that we never met face to face. While >20% of Slack's employees started post-pandemic (never worked in an office, never met their teams f2f, etc.) this was my first new world hire & first one joining the exec team.

The unusual thing for the company: this would be the first person who reported to me *not* based in SF. Nadia lives in Chicago and is not moving.

So, this stuff is really happening. One-way doors are being walked through every day. We get to/have to invent a different future.

500 Howard has the logo on the side of the building but our HQ is Slack for real.

Don't get me wrong: I'm eager to get to spend some time back in an office, with people. But two days a week is seeming like more than enough :)

Anyway: Welcome Nadia!!