In this episode of The Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast, Char Doll, Chief Human Resources Officer at Ansell, reflects on the experiences that prepared her for the CHRO role and the lessons learned in leading through transformation. Joining the company at a pivotal time—emerging from the disruption of COVID-19, integrating a major acquisition, and responding to heightened expectations from the CEO and board—she was charged with establishing a stronger, more strategically-aligned HR function.

Char shares how she built trust quickly, identified her top priorities, and introduced best-in-class talent practices while honoring the company’s legacy and culture. She also discusses how Ansell approaches executive succession planning and what it takes to position HR as a true strategic partner amid shifting global demands.

Below is a full transcript of the episode, which has been lightly edited for clarity.

Welcome to The Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast. Heidrick is the premier global provider of diversified solutions across senior-level executive search, leadership, assessment and development, team and organizational effectiveness, and culture shaping. Every day, we speak with leaders around the world about how they're meeting rising expectations and managing through volatile times, thinking about individual leaders, teams, organizations, and society. Thank you for joining the conversation.

Jennifer Streitwieser: Hi, and welcome to The Heidrick and Struggles Leadership Podcast. I'm Jennifer Streitwieser, a partner in Heidrick and Struggles’ Philadelphia office, and a member of Heidrick Consulting. 

Scott Harris: And I'm Scott Harris, a senior client principal in the Heidrick Consulting practice based in our Boston office. 

Jennifer Streitwieser: Today we're excited to welcome Char Doll, Chief Human Resources Officer at Ansell, a global leader in personal protective equipment, or PPE.

Headquartered in Australia and listed on the ASX, Ansell operates in over 50 countries with over 17,000 employees, protecting people across healthcare, industrial, and consumer sectors. As CHRO, Char leads Ansell's global people strategy, overseeing talent, leadership, inclusion, rewards, and people analytics.

She is also accountable for corporate social responsibility and community engagement strategy. With nearly 20 years of international HR leadership, Char previously held senior roles at GE HealthCare, Kohler, and Cargill. Char, it's great to be with you today. 

Char Doll: Awesome, and, and thanks for the invitation, Jennifer and Scott. It's great to be here with you as well. 

Jennifer Streitwieser: So Char, to start us off, as you reflect on your career to this point, what key experiences prepared you for the CHRO role? 

Char Doll: Growing up the daughter of a farmer and a clinical psychologist, I like to say that I was raised both to fix fences and to fix feelings. That unique blend taught me grit, empathy, and the ability to read a room, skills that I think have proven invaluable throughout my leadership journey.

The second one I think is really about the importance of aligning people strategy with business impact. From the very beginning of my career, I did quickly realize the critical length between people strategy and making sure that that is very connected to business outcomes. And this perspective has consistently shaped my leadership approach, that is, ensuring that talent, culture, and organizational design, and I would also throw in effectiveness, are not just HR priorities, but actually strategic levers that drive measurable business success. And the third one is one of my favorites, and that would be leading through complexity and purpose, and having experience in that capacity. One of the most defining chapters in my career was actually leading HR for GE HealthCare's AMEA region while I was based in the UK. I oversaw a team of 220 HR professionals supporting 15,000-plus employees across 50 different countries during a time marked by two wars and multiple natural disasters.

These were all situations and experiences that I had never dealt with in my career, much less all in a single day. In leadership, you're constantly navigating new terrain. If that's new teams, new challenges, new expectations, and while experience, I think, definitely helps, it's really about the ability to learn, adapt, and grow quickly that truly sets you apart.

And the last one is also one of my favorites. And the final experience that I would share here is around empowering others to thrive.

Early in my career, I came to understand that unlocking extraordinary potential within an organization requires three essential elements: One, the right capabilities; two, a growth mindset; and three, a strong one-team culture. To bring this to life practically, I think it starts with being intentional about your vision and mission and your priorities, and that is to foster alignment and share a sense of purpose within your organization.

Scott Harris: Thank you, Char, for sharing such powerful reflections on the foundations of your leadership. As we shift to your present role, it's notable that you got off to a fast start at Ansell. The company had recently come out of the turbulent COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 periods that tested its manufacturing and supply chain operations.

It also recently acquired, but not yet fully integrated, Kimberly-Clark's PPE business, the largest acquisition in Ansell's 130-plus year history. Given the degree of change within the business and given your role with Ansell, how did you balance the speed of action with building relationships and gaining an understanding of the current situation?

Char Doll: You know, Scott, I think joining a new organization is always a balancing act. That is, you feel a little bit pressured, right, to move fast, but also, you know that you need to learn deeply. I knew early wins were gonna be very, very important, but they had to be meaningful and aligned with what truly mattered to the Ansell business.

So to do that, I focused first on building trust, and that included listening to the board, the executive leadership team, the HR leadership team, my broader HR function, and my broader Ansell colleagues around the world. Understanding the business and identifying where HR could deliver the most value was absolutely foundational.

In parallel, it was interesting because we needed to start building on the strengths of the HR function. Ansell is awesome. It has a rich foundation of talent, commitment, and values. The goal wasn't to reinvent everywhere. It couldn't be, right? We had a lot to be proud of. It was really to scale. We began shaping a more future-ready HR function, one that could support a growing global business while enhancing the employee experience.

So again, practically, what did this mean, right? One, it meant elevating the employee experience, as I mentioned, ensuring our people felt connected, supported, and empowered, especially during times of change. And two, it's about scalability, and that's streamlining our processes within HR, creating the right capabilities and ensuring our structure was best positioned to support the business across all regions and functions.

Scott Harris: Thank you, Char. That gives us a very clear picture of the strategic focus as a whole. Regarding Ansell's recent acquisition, what were the key considerations in integrating Kimberly-Clark's PPE business, and how did you ensure a smooth transition for all employees? 

Char Doll: You know, Scott, it's really interesting. The Kimberly-Clark PPE acquisition was tremendously strategic for Ansell. What made it truly unique was that the most valuable asset wasn't just the products or infrastructure. It was actually the people, and that's not just a nice statement for a podcast, it's a fact.

We committed to a white glove, if you will, integration experience, one that prioritized empathy, transparency, and connection. Equally important was embracing this best of both organizations concept. You know, Kimberly-Clark's PPE business brought with it a ton of best practices, insights, and talent. We were super intentional throughout the process about learning from those strengths and integrating them intentionally into Ansell, not just to honor their legacy, but more importantly, to elevate our collective future together. And what's really, really interesting is that the results really do speak for themselves.

On the people front, the retention of the Kimberly-Clark PPE colleagues was 95% in the first year. Engagement rates aligned with legacy Ansell colleagues, and this made all the difference. I’m happy to report that during our fiscal year 25 year-end earnings call, we shared that the top- and bottom-line performance of this business exceeded the acquisition case. I think it goes to show that when you combine the right capabilities with a growth mindset and a culture of collaboration, you don’t just manage change, you unlock potential, and that’s what made this transition well-integrated and truly meaningful for our colleagues, customers, and shareholders alike.

Scott Harris: When joining any new organization and assuming responsibility for a function like HR, the opportunities for improvement must seem limitless. During your first six months or so in the role, how did you determine the top priorities for enhancing the HR function?

Char Doll: I'll never forget my first HRLT, and my HR leadership team meeting in Brussels. We had inventoried over 120 active HR priorities. It was an important and powerful moment of realization because we couldn't do it all, and we definitely shouldn't have tried. So what did we do? Practically, we asked ourselves three critical questions: One, what do we need to continue because it matters most? Two, what do we pause for later and consider it in our multi-year roadmap? And then three, what do we stop because it no longer serves our purpose? In my experience, prioritization is a challenge in most companies, but I'm maniacal about it. Once we aligned on the highest impact priorities for HR, reducing them from 120 to the top 15, we embedded them into how we operated as a leadership team and across the HR function.

Clarity, I think, becomes a catalyst. It allows us to move faster, make smarter decisions, and build a more scalable strategic HR function, and most importantly is better positioning us now to deliver real, measurable value for the Ansell business. 

Jennifer Streitwieser: That's really insightful, Char, thank you for sharing that. One of the strategic initiatives that you tackled was executive succession planning. What are some initial steps you've taken, and what else are you looking to do going forward? What have been the lessons learned so far? 

Char Doll: I believe that executive succession planning is one of the most strategic and high-impact initiatives we've taken in HR. It's not just about preparing for the future, it's about shaping it. From the start, I knew we needed to approach it with clarity and tension and deep alignment with the business.

We began by building a strong foundation, understanding the business strategy and identifying the leadership capabilities that would be most critical for the road ahead. That was step one. And to do that, I partnered closely with the executive leadership team and the HR leadership team to assess our current talent landscape, define what great leadership looks like at Ansell, and then begin mapping succession for our most critical roles.

As we did that, we focused on visibility and ownership. Succession planning cannot just be an HR exercise. It has to be a business imperative. And to do that, we made sure that our process was transparent, collaborative, and embedded into how we think about talent across the organization. We developed robust development plans, prioritized the readiness of our talent, and ensured that our executive leadership team was actively engaged in growing the next generation.

Looking ahead, we're continuing to evolve on our talent planning. We're expanding our pipeline, investing in leadership development, and we also aspire to embed succession planning rigor deeper into our talent systems. We're also focused on ensuring diversity of thought, experience, and background, because the future of leadership must reflect the future of our business.

But overall, I would say that the biggest lesson is that succession planning is not just a one-time event, it's a continuous commitment. It's about creating a culture where leaders grow leaders, where potential is nurtured, and where the future is always being built. And when you do that right, you don't just secure continuity, you unlock possibility.

Scott Harris: As you look to the future, what global trend do you see having the biggest effect on the HR function, and how are you preparing for it? 

Char Doll: I think that my answer won't surprise you, because one of the most transformative global trends shaping the future of HR, and I would also say business more broadly, is the rise of advanced technologies, especially artificial intelligence (AI).

As HR leaders, I think we really need to approach this transformative shift with two critical lenses. I think the first one is how we support the business in adopting AI. it's not just about implementing tools; it's about enabling people to thrive alongside them. We are taking the initial steps to build out our company's AI roadmap at Ansell, determining where investments in AI will have the highest return on investment. An important piece of this will be capability building, change management, and embedding AI into the fabric of how we work, that is ethically, inclusively, and with material financial return.

The second lens is how we leverage AI within HR to elevate our own impact as a function. At Ansell, we're just getting started and exploring how AI can be used in three different areas. One is enhancing talent acquisition through smarter sourcing and candidate matching. The second, we aspire to look at personal learning and development pathways based on individual needs and career aspirations. And third, we're really starting to look at automating routine and mundane tasks, allowing us to address HR workload challenges that we have, as well as freeing up our teams to focus on more strategic work. 

Our role is to ensure that technology amplifies what makes us human, not replace it. When we get that balance right, I do believe we don't just adapt to the future, we will help shape it. 

Scott Harris: Char, thank you so much for a thoughtful discussion today. It's been a great conversation and we're so grateful you could join us and share lessons learned that all leaders could benefit from.

Char Doll: Scott, Jennifer, it's awesome to be with you and to everyone listening, thank you for the work you do to build better organizations and stronger cultures. Keep showing up with courage, curiosity, and heart. And if the path forward feels uncertain, just remember that often, that's where the most meaningful growth begins.

Thanks for listening to The Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast. To make sure you don't miss the next conversation, please subscribe to our channel on your preferred podcast app. And if you're listening via LinkedIn or YouTube, why not share this with your connections? Until next time.

About the interviewers

Scott Harris (sdharris@heidrick.com) is a member of Heidrick Consulting; he is based in the Boston office

Jennifer Streitwieser (jstreitwieser@heidrick.com) is a member of Heidrick Consulting; she is based in the Philadelphia office.