Endeavor chief human resources officer Kerry Chandler is departing her post, Variety has learned exclusively.
The executive joined Ari Emanuel’s shop in 2018, ahead of a watershed moment for the business that has since gone public and continues to acquire portfolio properties outside its core talent representation and events verticals. She is said to be pursuing other opportunities.
In a companywide memo obtained by Variety, Emanuel said that when Chandler joined the organization, “we lacked a truly global, professionalized HR organization. We were a smaller, private company with big ambitions and a relentless pace. While the pace hasn’t changed, our company has — dramatically — and the role Kerry has played for our business is nothing short of transformative. Which makes it especially difficult to let you know that Kerry has decided to leave the company.”
Chandler will remain with Endeavor through the end of November while a replacement search begins. Emanuel credited Chandler with helping Endeavor survive the coronavirus pandemic and accelerating diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Chandler joined Endeavor from Under Armour, where she served as chief HR officer. She’s also held roles at Exxon, Motorola, IBM and various posts at Disney — including a top role at Hong Kong Disneyland.
Read the full Emanuel memo:
When Kerry Chandler joined us three years ago as our Chief Human Resources Officer, we lacked a truly global, professionalized HR organization. We were a smaller, private company with big ambitions and a relentless pace. While the pace hasn’t changed, our company has—dramatically—and the role Kerry has played for our business is nothing short of transformative. Which makes it especially difficult to let you know that Kerry has decided to leave the company at the end of the month to pursue new opportunities.
Kerry has been an incredible asset not just to me and our global leadership team, but to our entire organization, navigating some of the most turbulent times our company and industry have ever seen with compassion, humanity and the courage of her convictions.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began to decimate our company in March of 2020, she worked tirelessly to ensure we were able to make the changes necessary to shore up our business while helping us all cope with the effects in the most thoughtful way possible.
Only a few months later, she helped lead us through a nationwide reckoning with systemic racism and accelerated her plans for a diversity, equity and inclusion program.
On top of all that, she and her team have created an HR org structure purpose-built to best support our various businesses; launched holistic programs focused on learning and development and sustainable recruitment; integrated 10 new companies into the Endeavor fold; and built a foundation that will continue to serve our company well into the future.
Kerry will be missed. Please join me in wishing her all the best in her next chapter.
AE
