The job of a CIO and IT leaders at our institutions presents constant demands for attention and distractions, from operational fires to contract negotiations to decisions on key enterprise investments and technology. But the most important work, the work only we as leaders can do, is to recruit, hire, retain, and grow our people. In this presentation, I’ll talk about Davidson’s journey to radically rethink how and who we hire. Our journey, informed by DEIB principles, has led us to double-down on recruiting talent with an eye towards aptitude, ability and growth mindset over technical skills and education. This, in turn, has led us to see many more internal promotions (from internships to the help desk and onwards to technical SMEs) and stronger, more diverse candidate pools and hires.