Keli Van Holde is the Director of People at Zapproved, where she oversees Zapproved's People team and drives initiatives on issues relating to talent and succession planning, employee relations, compensation, benefits, manager success, L&D, compliance and more.
Keli has been in the HR and talent space for about eight years now, the last five with Zapproved, a Portland-based legal software company.
“I’ve traditionally been more on the talent acquisition side, but lately have been branching into more elements of HR and leading a small team,” Keli said. “I’m getting more experience and expertise in the employee relations and programs space, which I'm really excited about. It’s been a fantastic journey.”
Keli was born in Portland and grew up mostly in Washington state, with a few years in Colorado. In 2015 she moved back to Portland, which she said had always been her intent.
How did you get involved with PWA?
“It was [PWA Past Board President] Anna Yates who first met with me back in the spring of 2017 to learn more about how Zapproved could potentially start doing some career days, what ways we could get involved, and how I could get involved personally. I had a chance to work with the volunteer recruitment committee for a couple of years now and then formally joined the board this last year.”
Why does this work matter to you?
“I love having a chance to run a booth at the [NW Youth Careers] Expo and conduct and lead mock interviews. I got to work with [PWA Board President Marcus Carter] and others in putting together the tech zone at the Expo, which was a whole other level of coordination... That was a really great experience in 2019.
“This year I'm really excited about the innovative work that we have been doing for the Expo and the volunteer recruitment in terms of creating compelling virtual content and spaces for students in what has been a very bizarre year for all of us.
“I’ve worked closely with [PWA Volunteer Committee Chair Sara Stowe and PWA Board Member Ebony Lawrence] to create a new Career Talk focused on networking -- particularly networking for students who are more introverted. [We talk about] how they can utilize the changes of the last year and how to network and get to know people in the digital era. I’m really excited about that work. I'm super excited to continue my journey here at PWA.”
