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