According to Laurie Ruettimann, the chief party planner, Tim Sackett day is the day we recognize someone in Human Resources who won’t end up on some fancy influencer list.
This year’s honoree is Paul Hebert.
Paul has done some great work at his company I2I and has a can’t miss blog as well. He’s been a contributor on Fistful of Talent for a long time. He’s also in the process of battling cancer.
Seriously, fuck cancer.
I don’t know if it is fate or not but today is also his birthday. Happy cake day, Paul.
As someone who does occasionally make it on a fancy influencer list, Paul Hebert influences me. And he is a great guy to know in the industry. How do I know this?
I had only met him a couple of times before we met up at HR Tech a few years ago. I wanted to check out this other event going on at the time in McCormick Place called the Motivation Show. I can’t remember but I think Paul was speaking. Anyway, I mentioned to him that I’d like to check it out and browse the floor with him. We marched up there and I expected that I’d have to lay out some green to make this happen.
Nah, Paul had it covered. He big timed the show organizer and let me in with some handwritten pass.
We walked around for an hour just chatting about all of the ridiculous stuff they had. It was enormous.
Anyway, that was the start of a pretty good friendship. He’s a guy who has always been willing to take my calls when I’ve had questions and I’ve helped him out with a few things as well.
Unlike the namesake of this holiday, there’s not much to be snarky about with Paul. He’s a smart guy and a good dude, who helps make this industry run without taking much credit. There are a lot of guys like Paul out there, he’ll tell you, but I’m glad I know this one.
Check him out by following him on Twitter and connecting with him on LinkedIn.
