Carey Martin has continued her whirlwind rise up the ranks of the Whirlpool Corporation with the Eli Broad College of Business alum’s recent ascent to the position of chief human resources officer for the world’s leading major home appliance company.
Martin, (BA Human Resource Management ’98; Master in Labor Relations and Human Resources ’99), will succeed David Binkley in that role effective March 1, 2019. Martin is currently the vice president of global human resources for the Benton Harbor, Mich.-based firm.
Carey Martin. Photo courtesy of Whirlpool Corporation
“The true essence of diversity and inclusion in any organization is manifested by the composition of its leadership team. We are thrilled but not surprised that Broad Spartan women are being tapped for the C-suite in large, prominent companies because our mantra on campus has been to encourage and prepare every Broad Spartan to think big, aim high and make business happen,” said Sanjay Gupta, dean of the Broad College.
“Carey joins an impressive and growing list of Spartan women in global organizations across different industries and geographies who are heading up functions as varied as human resources, supply chain, sales, finance, and diversity and inclusion,” Gupta said.
Those leaders include Priya Balasubramaniam (MBA Supply Chain Management ’01), vice president of operations at Apple Inc.; Natalya Leahy (MBA, Finance and Supply Chain Management ’06), chief financial officer of Holland America Line; and Danielle Brown (BA Business ’99), vice president of employee engagement and chief diversity and inclusion officer at Google, among others.
In Martin’s new role, she will manage relations with 92,000 employees spread out over 70 manufacturing and technology research centers for Whirlpool, which had $21 billion in sales in 2017.
“I am thrilled to take on this new challenge and consider myself fortunate to lead such an incredible team of professionals,” Martin said in a prepared statement. “I look forward to building on Dave’s achievements and taking our people strategy to the next level.”
Martin will report directly to Whirlpool CEO Mark Bitzer.
“In Carey’s relatively short tenure with Whirlpool, she’s become an important architect of many of the people processes and systems that touch our employees every day,” Bitzer said. “I’m confident in her ability to fuel change in the many ways we attract, develop, and retain the best employees and make Whirlpool’s work culture reflective of our strong company values.”
Martin joined Whirlpool five years ago as VP for human resources for the North America region. She assumed her current role just last year. She came to Whirlpool in 2013 from Eaton Corporation, where she spent 13 years in global leadership roles in human resources.
