D&I Champion Spotlight : William Chichester III, Peloton
William, the Global Head of Early Career Talent at Peloton, is incredibly passionate about diversity within early career recruitment. His commitment to D&I extends beyond university recruiting and into his own team, life, and extracurricular pursuits. A University of Virginia alumni, he was a first generation college student who began achieving big goals and setting the foundation for a successful career early on. William lived on The Lawn at UVA, an honor reserved for just 100 students from an undergrad population of over 13,000. He was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., 100 Black Men of America, and an alumni spokesman of the Sallie Mae Fund’s Kids2College Program.
RippleMatch is proud to recognize William Chichester for his impressive career in diversity & inclusion and talent that followed his standout community work in college. He was recently hired as the first Global Head of Early Career Talent for Peloton, where he is responsible for building out this specialty talent acquisition function for the company for both campus & inclusive hiring pipelines. Prior to Peloton, William enjoyed a 14 year career in university recruiting in both the tech and financial services industry at companies like Microsoft, Capital One and Wells Fargo’s Investment Bank.
At Capital One, in particular, William served as an undergraduate recruiter, pioneered the firm's campus diversity strategy, led talent acquisition for five of the bank's 10 undergraduate development programs, built an entirely new 20 person experienced-hire industry recruiting team for the new Small Business, Walmart, United Income division, co-launched Capital One’s new graduate campus efforts and delivered 610 hires while boosting the firm's diversity results year over year for women & underrepresented minorities.
William also holds FINRA Series 7, 24 & 63 licenses & HR designations, including his PHR & CDR. Today, he resides in Richmond, VA with his wife and college sweetheart Ivy and their son Cade. We asked William about his motivations for working in the D&I space, and some exciting upcoming projects.
L: Why are you passionate about working in D&I?
W: I’m a translator, helping others who are speaking one language when their dreams and future careers are speaking another. As a first generation college graduate and “Corporate American,” I love closing the awareness gap for historically underrepresented groups as it relates to higher education, career management and personal finance. For me, there was no road map. I had to be a trailblazer and a pathfinder and I want to help others blaze their own.
Everyone is uniquely gifted and talented but oftentimes a person’s biggest dream killer is oneself. I want to help others to overcome their insecurities, mute their sometimes loud negative, limiting, self-talk, and equip them with the tools that they need to be successful. No dream is too big.
L: Please share some accomplishments related to DEI you/your team have made in the past year that you're particularly proud of:
W: I'm only 90 days on the job here at Peloton but I'm most proud of the three amazing D&I veterans that joined me to help build out Peloton's early career talent strategy. I have some D&I superstars - one who pioneered HSI (Hispanic Serving Institutions) efforts at his past employer, one who led DEI campus efforts at a major tech firm and my most recent hire who founded an employee resource group! The sky's the limit for my team and I'm humbled to have them with me.
L: What D&I related projects are you most looking forward to this year?
W: For me, early career talent strategy and diversity are interwoven. Campus recruiting is one piece of an early career talent strategy. It also encompasses other inclusive hiring efforts such as apprenticeships, internships, military, disabilities/neurodiversity, second chance programs for the formerly incarcerated, etc. These initiatives all feel very disparate but what these programs all share is appetite for entry level corporate roles.
A successful early career talent strategy centralizes all of these efforts under one leader and the ultimate goal is to serve business groups with a smorgasbord of entry level talent for corporate roles. Therefore, I’m most looking forward to continuing to build the early talent foundation for the company and in turn help Peloton fulfill it’s Pledge commitments and social impact goals within the Beyonce x Peloton partnership.
*To learn more about the Peloton Pledge, click here: https://blog.onepeloton.com/peloton-pledge-first-steps/
*RippleMatch is recognizing standout individuals in talent acquisition through our D&I Champion, Program Innovator, and Outstanding spotlights. Know any standout individuals who should be recognized? Please submit their info through this survey.
