LPL Financial hires a hiring, retention and culture czar

Brooke’s Note: LPL Financial is known for hiring great talent — and paying well for it. Now it appears the company is making an investment in those investments — and building on a strength.

LPL Financial LLC, today announced that Sallie Larsen was appointed managing director and chief human capital officer as of May 1, 2012.

In her newly created role, Larsen will be the head of human resources for the company but she will enjoy much more power. She will also be in charge of communications to employees and oversee the real estate used by employees. Larsen will be the first head of HR at LPL to report to Mark Casady, LPL Financial’s chairman and CEO directly. See: LPL brings aboard a godfather of clearing business.

LPL has aggressively hired top talent in recent years and has more hires in mind as a central part of its strategy for growth and evolution. Larsen will be responsible for making sure the company gets the most from its people — and lands the best talent in the future. See: LPL Financial names a strategy czar.

“It’s critical in shaping our culture,” she says from San Diego where she is based. A good culture internally, she added, then flows to advisors. “It brings together classic human resources with the way people get their information…We can unlock a new source of strategic value.” See: LPL lures a TD Ameritrade talent across the San Diego street.

Three decades of management

Mark Casady: I am particularly
excited to leverage Sallie’s experience in
developing and shaping corporate cultures that
are both customer-centric and highly engaging
for employees.

Casady put it this way in a release.

“I am particularly excited to leverage Sallie’s experience in developing and shaping corporate cultures that are both customer-centric and highly engaging for employees — an approach that will unlock new sources of strategic value both for us and for the advisors and institutions we work to support each day.”

Larsen brings more than three decades of human resources and talent management experience to her new role. Prior to joining LPL Financial, she served as chief human resources officer for the Federal Home Loan Bank — Office of Finance since 2009, where she was responsible for modernizing the organization’s human resources infrastructure and implementing a new human capital strategy to respond to changing priorities in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008.

Optimizing human resources comes down to a couple of basic concepts, Larsen says. “We’re…making sure they’re in the right place at the right time.”

“The hire of Sallie Larsen reflects LPL’s continued commitment to growing their executive leadership team who will ensure their successful evolution and growth as a public company. They keenly understand the impact a dynamic and fully engaged team can make within the organization and in their communities,” says Cecile V. Munoz, president of U.S. Executive Search, Inc. in Los Angeles.

Prior to her work at FHLB, Larsen served in a number of senior human resources roles at Capital One Financial Corp. and Marriott International, Inc. She began her professional career as a human resources and talent management professional at technology and business services firm TRW, Inc.

Larsen earned a Master of Arts in communications from Purdue University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology (summa cum laude) from California Lutheran University.