O’Hearen’s Opportunistic Approach Leads to Success
12/7/2020 10:55:00 AM | Volleyball, Support, Features, Flight 45, Intellectual Development
By: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Sports Communications
After graduating Lehigh in 1988, volleyball alumnus Kerry Loughman O'Hearen has kept an open mind.
"I haven't had a linear path," she said. "I call human resources my third career."
O'Hearen currently serves as CHRO (Chief Human Resources Officer) at Pzena Investment Management. Her road to this point has featured a number of different, but equally rewarding, turns.
"I've taken a very opportunistic approach to my career," said O'Hearen. "I have been very open to everything. Growth doesn't always have to be a bigger company or bigger team.
"I actually went to Pzena to start its HR function," she continued. "I brought on my first employee a few months later and my second employee a few years later. It was a growth experience in a different way. At each point in time, you have to assess all the factors in your life to find what fits best."
O'Hearen's post-undergraduate road actually kept her at Lehigh.
"I got my MBA at Lehigh and was the volleyball graduate assistant," she said. "Then, I began my career with Anderson Consulting, which is now called Accenture."
After more than three years, O'Hearen moved onto Deloitte – a multinational professional services network – for approximately 10 years, doing a variety of risk management consulting.
"Both of those first two jobs featured a lot of travel and a number of great learning experiences, with high client interactions because they were consulting roles," she said. "I eventually got married and had a child, so I left Deloitte and switched paths to have a different lifestyle."
Anderson Consulting was O'Hearen's first career (information systems) while Deloitte was her second (risk management).
O'Hearen's third career has been HR.
"When I left Deloitte and had my son, who is now 18, I ended up consulting with a very small, entrepreneurial accessories company (Fashion Accessory Bazaar/NY)," she said. "My introduction to that company was through one of my Lehigh roommates and best friends. She worked there and told me they needed help with certain projects because they were a 'big' company now."
The word big is relative.
"They were 35 people and had just bought a 40-person company and were now 75," said O'Hearen. "I had just come from a global firm, so it seemed very simple and I started consulting for them. The company quickly doubled in size. I was in charge of all the recruiting and helped them implement organizational processes; it expanded and morphed into an HR role."
O'Hearen's human resources career was born.
She thought it would be much more temporary than it ended up being.
"Working in larger companies gave me the background to understand how more structured organizations need to run, and the infrastructure that needed to be in place," said O'Hearen. "I brought that knowledge to the smaller company. I planned to move onto something else after several years, but that timing happened to coincide with the global financial crisis, so I stayed put and was there for more than eight years. Business slowed or almost stopped for many companies during the GFC, so for a couple years, everything was on stand still."
Through hands-on experience, O'Hearen learned everything there was to know about HR functions.
"Since I was self-taught, I obtained my certification from the national HR organization (HRCI/SHRM)," she said. "That, plus my prior work in large firms and entrepreneurial companies, set me up quite nicely for my next job, which was at a substantially larger, very fast-paced, private-equity owned technology company (TravelClick)."
O'Hearen's career path hasn't been linear, but each stop has built on the previous. Her tech company featured approximately 1,500 employees, as O'Hearen led a team of more than a dozen people globally and helped take the company through a sale.
"That was a fantastic experience, and set me up to consider the choices I wanted to make at that moment," she said. "Selling a private equity company is quite intense."
O'Hearen was at a point in her life where she enjoyed and appreciated the experience, but wanted to spend more time with her family.
"I had children in middle school and wanted to be able to see them more, because when you're going through an event like a sale, you're spending your waking hours working for very long periods of time," she said. "I found this very interesting opportunity at Pzena. I took the job for many of the same reasons I took previous jobs… because of the people.
"They were quite intelligent, humble and had high expectations."
Words that also described O'Hearen's time on the Lehigh volleyball team.
"For four years, you're around very smart people," she said. "You learn how to work hard, how to learn, be resourceful and be held to a high standard."
Whether in athletics or the business world, O'Hearen sees two roles when on a team.
"You have a role as a teammate and leader," she said. "The idea of always being willing to share in the work and share in the success is very important. Always be willing to commit to others. In the work world, being responsible for your own success is simpler than being responsible for other people's success. That's what you learn as you manage people and become a leader in your company."
Today, with her current company Pzena, O'Hearen is a generalist who covers every HR function in her team.
"That's everything from talent acquisition (recruiting), onboarding, employee development and employee relations," she said. "I work with our benefits, compensation, compliance and talent management, which is performance feedback and managing development of our employees all the way though the employee life cycle. It runs the gamut of the HR functions."
O'Hearen is in a strong position to lead people due in part to her time as a collegiate student-athlete.
"You have to know how to win and lose," she said. "Nothing can be just about self. People who have played sports understand that it's not about self. You need the ability to have resolve and understand hard work. We love to hire candidates who are college athletes because it means they've had to balance a lot in their life and they're pursuing excellence in multiple ways."
O'Hearen is looking for certain characteristics, not necessarily only athletes.
"We love athletes, but we really look for excellence, because people can pursue that in non-athletic activities as well," she said. "We understand the time commitment required, particularly for a sport, and people who can manage that can usually manage high-demand environments."
Today, O'Hearen remains grateful for the environment at Lehigh. She continues to give back to her alma mater.
"The volleyball program has always had a very important part in my life," she said. "I didn't know about Lehigh until I was recruited. Would I have found it and ended up there if it wasn't for volleyball? I really don't know.
"One of the most fortuitous things that's happened in my life was to end up at such a great place."
O'Hearen's bond with her Lehigh teammates will last a lifetime.
"My lifelong friends are from Lehigh," she said.
O'Hearen has certainly made Lehigh proud, showing the value of being open to any and every opportunity.
"I recently spoke with Lehigh students for a class, I've spoken with the volleyball team and I've spoken with MBA students," said O'Hearen.
Her message?
You don't have to be so prescribed.
"Everything doesn't have to be predetermined, as long as you're always seeking interesting and excellent experiences," said O'Hearen. "I didn't study what I'm doing today. I learned it, so the ability to keep leaning is really important."
Every stop along the way, O'Hearen has kept learning and appreciating the impact of Lehigh.
"Lehigh remains an important part of my life to this day," she said. "I've found the older you get, the more you appreciate it."
After graduating Lehigh in 1988, volleyball alumnus Kerry Loughman O'Hearen has kept an open mind.
"I haven't had a linear path," she said. "I call human resources my third career."
O'Hearen currently serves as CHRO (Chief Human Resources Officer) at Pzena Investment Management. Her road to this point has featured a number of different, but equally rewarding, turns.
"I've taken a very opportunistic approach to my career," said O'Hearen. "I have been very open to everything. Growth doesn't always have to be a bigger company or bigger team.
"I actually went to Pzena to start its HR function," she continued. "I brought on my first employee a few months later and my second employee a few years later. It was a growth experience in a different way. At each point in time, you have to assess all the factors in your life to find what fits best."
O'Hearen's post-undergraduate road actually kept her at Lehigh.
"I got my MBA at Lehigh and was the volleyball graduate assistant," she said. "Then, I began my career with Anderson Consulting, which is now called Accenture."
After more than three years, O'Hearen moved onto Deloitte – a multinational professional services network – for approximately 10 years, doing a variety of risk management consulting.
"Both of those first two jobs featured a lot of travel and a number of great learning experiences, with high client interactions because they were consulting roles," she said. "I eventually got married and had a child, so I left Deloitte and switched paths to have a different lifestyle."
Anderson Consulting was O'Hearen's first career (information systems) while Deloitte was her second (risk management).
O'Hearen's third career has been HR.
"When I left Deloitte and had my son, who is now 18, I ended up consulting with a very small, entrepreneurial accessories company (Fashion Accessory Bazaar/NY)," she said. "My introduction to that company was through one of my Lehigh roommates and best friends. She worked there and told me they needed help with certain projects because they were a 'big' company now."
The word big is relative.
"They were 35 people and had just bought a 40-person company and were now 75," said O'Hearen. "I had just come from a global firm, so it seemed very simple and I started consulting for them. The company quickly doubled in size. I was in charge of all the recruiting and helped them implement organizational processes; it expanded and morphed into an HR role."
O'Hearen's human resources career was born.
She thought it would be much more temporary than it ended up being.
"Working in larger companies gave me the background to understand how more structured organizations need to run, and the infrastructure that needed to be in place," said O'Hearen. "I brought that knowledge to the smaller company. I planned to move onto something else after several years, but that timing happened to coincide with the global financial crisis, so I stayed put and was there for more than eight years. Business slowed or almost stopped for many companies during the GFC, so for a couple years, everything was on stand still."
Through hands-on experience, O'Hearen learned everything there was to know about HR functions.
"Since I was self-taught, I obtained my certification from the national HR organization (HRCI/SHRM)," she said. "That, plus my prior work in large firms and entrepreneurial companies, set me up quite nicely for my next job, which was at a substantially larger, very fast-paced, private-equity owned technology company (TravelClick)."
O'Hearen's career path hasn't been linear, but each stop has built on the previous. Her tech company featured approximately 1,500 employees, as O'Hearen led a team of more than a dozen people globally and helped take the company through a sale.
"That was a fantastic experience, and set me up to consider the choices I wanted to make at that moment," she said. "Selling a private equity company is quite intense."
O'Hearen was at a point in her life where she enjoyed and appreciated the experience, but wanted to spend more time with her family.
"I had children in middle school and wanted to be able to see them more, because when you're going through an event like a sale, you're spending your waking hours working for very long periods of time," she said. "I found this very interesting opportunity at Pzena. I took the job for many of the same reasons I took previous jobs… because of the people.
"They were quite intelligent, humble and had high expectations."
Words that also described O'Hearen's time on the Lehigh volleyball team.
"For four years, you're around very smart people," she said. "You learn how to work hard, how to learn, be resourceful and be held to a high standard."
Whether in athletics or the business world, O'Hearen sees two roles when on a team.
"You have a role as a teammate and leader," she said. "The idea of always being willing to share in the work and share in the success is very important. Always be willing to commit to others. In the work world, being responsible for your own success is simpler than being responsible for other people's success. That's what you learn as you manage people and become a leader in your company."
Today, with her current company Pzena, O'Hearen is a generalist who covers every HR function in her team.
"That's everything from talent acquisition (recruiting), onboarding, employee development and employee relations," she said. "I work with our benefits, compensation, compliance and talent management, which is performance feedback and managing development of our employees all the way though the employee life cycle. It runs the gamut of the HR functions."
O'Hearen is in a strong position to lead people due in part to her time as a collegiate student-athlete.
"You have to know how to win and lose," she said. "Nothing can be just about self. People who have played sports understand that it's not about self. You need the ability to have resolve and understand hard work. We love to hire candidates who are college athletes because it means they've had to balance a lot in their life and they're pursuing excellence in multiple ways."
O'Hearen is looking for certain characteristics, not necessarily only athletes.
"We love athletes, but we really look for excellence, because people can pursue that in non-athletic activities as well," she said. "We understand the time commitment required, particularly for a sport, and people who can manage that can usually manage high-demand environments."
Today, O'Hearen remains grateful for the environment at Lehigh. She continues to give back to her alma mater.
"The volleyball program has always had a very important part in my life," she said. "I didn't know about Lehigh until I was recruited. Would I have found it and ended up there if it wasn't for volleyball? I really don't know.
"One of the most fortuitous things that's happened in my life was to end up at such a great place."
O'Hearen's bond with her Lehigh teammates will last a lifetime.
"My lifelong friends are from Lehigh," she said.
O'Hearen has certainly made Lehigh proud, showing the value of being open to any and every opportunity.
"I recently spoke with Lehigh students for a class, I've spoken with the volleyball team and I've spoken with MBA students," said O'Hearen.
Her message?
You don't have to be so prescribed.
"Everything doesn't have to be predetermined, as long as you're always seeking interesting and excellent experiences," said O'Hearen. "I didn't study what I'm doing today. I learned it, so the ability to keep leaning is really important."
Every stop along the way, O'Hearen has kept learning and appreciating the impact of Lehigh.
"Lehigh remains an important part of my life to this day," she said. "I've found the older you get, the more you appreciate it."
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