Presidents MBA Program Alumni Testimonial

PKE MBA Alumnus Raymond Hall

As the Chief Human Resources Officer of Larry H. Miller Management Corporation, Raymond understands the need to incorporate inclusiveness within the workplace. In his current position, he is responsible for the development and implementation of the people and culture for The Larry H. Miller Group of Companies, which employs nearly 11,000 employees across five primary business segments located in 46 states.

After a successful career in the military, Raymond enrolled in the Presidents and Key Executives MBA program at Pepperdine to embrace a new type of challenge. Attracted by Pepperdine's mission, Raymond believes his experience in the PKE program has shaped him into a transformative leader. With the desire to impact others, Raymond applies his MBA to create a lasting impact on the world. Emerging as a leader, Raymond is committed to serving those around him.

Raymond has more than 20 years' global experience in human resources and significant experience in developing Human Resource policy and talent strategy. He has served on the leadership teams of substantial international businesses since 2008 and has a strong international outlook, having lived and worked across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Raymond is also a highly decorated military veteran and served more than 11 years with the US Army Special Operations Command, headquartered at Ft Bragg, NC.

Read Raymond's Story

"My grandfather always told me there were only two important days in everyone's life. The first day is the day you were born and the second day is the day you realize why you were born. And so that really served as a guiding light for me at an early age to figure out what do I love doing because when you love doing it, it doesn't feel like work. For me, it was the ability to identify talent and help that talent reach his full potential. That was my gift. And so that became my purpose.

My name is Raymond Hall, and I'm the chief human resources officer for the Larry H. Miller group of companies. What excites me the most is, I feel that of all the roles that you can have in a company, HR is probably the most exciting and fun because you get a chance to have an impact on just so many lives in so many different ways. And so I get a lot of energy when I get up in the morning. It doesn't feel like coming to work. It just feels like coming to fun because that's what it is to me. When you think about you can sit down with an employee and really help them figure out what it is they really want to do and then help them develop a plan on how they're going to get there and then actually see the plan happen. I think it's my responsibility, or any leader's responsibility, to lift others around you. I think it creates stronger communities. I think it creates a stronger workforce and for most organizations that we wanna make sure that we have environments that's the best place in town to work and that's no exception here at the company I work for now.

My family has a long history of military service beginning with my grandfather. And in 1989, that was the initial build up of the the First Gulf War, Desert Shield and Desert Storm. And that was my opportunity to make a difference. That was my opportunity to serve my country and do it when the country needed me the most. And so I made the intentional decision to leave school and join the military. I didn't anticipate doing 11 years in the military. My initial thinking was I will go and serve, then I will go back to school. But I didn't. I actually enjoyed it. I had attained a certain level of success in the military and really felt like I was making a difference when you think about the number of lives that were impacted because of the service we were providing. So my question was, do I re-enlist or do I embrace another challenge?

I chose to pursue an MBA for the primary reason of wanting to be the very best at what I do. And so I knew the MBA would be the path to accomplishing that. The process for evaluating schools was pretty robust. But I think the differentiating factor in why Pepperdine versus the others was the value. When you think about operating with integrity and you think about doing it now versus waiting for tomorrow and courageous leadership, all of those things really resonated with me. And it was really clear to me that there was no other school that could best serve me in my quest to be a transformational leader.

The Presidents and Key Executives MBA program at Pepperdine is unique. I don't believe that can be replicated in any other educational institution. The makeup of just the diversity of who's in the cohort from an experience level, from across different industries, different age groups, that diversity lends itself to a number of different perspectives at such a senior level, that the experience you gain from the course, or the program, is just an amazing transformation. When I went into the program obviously, I was a technical expert on everything human resources. What Pepperdine created was an expert in business and an expert in people. I got to know myself better than I ever thought I would. And the one thing that I would say that I can point to in terms of how I show up differently, versus how I used to show up, was in meetings. Just the confidence in the ability now to be able to just simply be a business leader versus just a functional expert.

My purpose is truly to create a better world. And I think I can do that through my own example. Creating the environment which is more around inclusion and having people feel like they belong, really lends itself to create an environment where people can really flourish, where they feel like their opinions count, their ideas matter, they're heard in a place that they can call home. If my grandparents were here today, my grandparents will say they're proud. They're proud of what I've been able to accomplish but I'm not done yet. There's still much good to do in the world."