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Greg Whitson
SVP Human Resources at Macy's
Professional Background
Gregory L. Whitson, affectionately known as Greg, is currently making waves in the retail industry as the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for the Macy's brand. In his vital role, Greg leads the Human Resources organization that supports a wide array of functions including Macy's Stores, Logistics, Merchandising, Marketing, Credit, Information Technology, eCommerce, and Strategy/Innovation teams. His leadership is pivotal in navigating a cultural transformation within Macy's, transitioning HR from a decentralized approach to one that emphasizes integrated solutions vital for enhancing business performance.
Under Greg's direction, one of the most significant undertakings has been overseeing a multi-year HR transformation program at Macy's Inc., which saw a $60 million investment in an Oracle HCM and the establishment of a shared services center. This strategic reorganization of the HR function has positioned Macy's to better meet the needs of its diverse operational segments, ensuring that the HR services delivered are both effective and aligned with the business objectives.
Before his impactful tenure at Macy's, Greg carved a notable path at Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc. as the Vice President of HR Strategic Planning and Service Delivery. In this role, he was entrusted with developing long-term and short-term strategies for the HR function while also ensuring smooth operations in service delivery concerning HR transactions. Greg's work included operational effectiveness, business process reviews, and fostering continuous improvement initiatives designed to enhance employee relations, HRIS, and even Finance for HR. His forward-thinking approach was instrumental during the major divestiture of CCE's North American operations in 2010, highlighting his ability to manage large-scale HR transformations while ensuring alignment with business goals. His collaborative work with senior leaders, including the CIO, CFO, and SVP of Public Affairs, demonstrated his skill in establishing effective HR strategies aimed at bolstering organizational efficiency.
Throughout his career, Greg has also enjoyed key roles at other prestigious companies. Notably, he led HR functions for the Information Technology sector at The Home Depot and contributed significantly to the corporate HR landscape at Sears, Roebuck and Co. His diverse experiences have equipped him with a wealth of knowledge and an expansive skill set in HR management, making him a respected leader in the field.
Education and Achievements
Greg's educational foundation features a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, which provided him with a robust understanding of business principles that he has effectively applied throughout his career. His foundational studies at the United States Naval Academy also contribute to his discipline and strategic thinking skills, further enhancing his leadership capabilities in human resources management.
Greg has amassed an extensive professional background with multiple high-level roles that showcase his dedication and expertise in human resources. As the Senior Vice President of HR at Macy's, he continues to forge pathways for workforce development, focusing on creating a cohesive culture that mirrors the company's strategic goals. Previously, Greg served as the Principal Consultant at Whitson HR Consulting, where he provided tailored HR solutions to various clients, leveraging his extensive experience to address unique workplace challenges.
Notable Achievements
Throughout his extensive career, Greg Whitson's impact has been felt across several organizations through strategic HR management and innovation. Some of his most notable achievements include:
- Leading the development of a comprehensive HR transformation strategy at Macy's, facilitating a shift from a decentralized HR model to one that focuses on integrated solutions.
- Spearheading a $60 million investment to enhance HR capabilities through Oracle HCM, which streamlined operations and improved efficiency across the board.
- Playing a crucial role in the strategic divestiture of Coca-Cola Enterprises' North American operations, showcasing his adeptness at managing complex transitions and organizational changes.
- Establishing strong partnerships with senior executives while serving as the Senior HR Business Partner at Coca-Cola Enterprises, thus aligning HR strategies with business objectives and enhancing operational performance.
- During his time at The Home Depot and Sears, Greg developed and refined HR strategies that effectively met the unique needs of their respective corporate functions and contributed to overall business success.
With a remarkable background that blends strong leadership with a clear vision for HR innovation, Greg Whitson continues to make a significant impact in the world of human resources. His career is a testament to the power of effective HR management, driving business success through talent development, cultural transformation, and strategic alignment of human capital.
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.