Meet Diana Brown, Head of People at Eco

Think you know fintech and Web3? Guess again. Eco is a new player that is shifting how consumers experience banking.?

Eco is unlike any bank or neobank—it’s better. This digital wallet replaces checking accounts and credit cards with a single balance allowing customers to save, spend, send, and make money all in one place. Leveraging web3 technology to cut out the costly middlemen on which traditional financial infrastructure depends, Eco delivers higher interest to consumers and better rewards like cash back on major merchants—all without any fees. As the Eco exec team focused on building an efficient and delightful consumer platform, they recognized the importance of hiring an HR leader who would help them center the employee experience into the conversation. That’s where the partnership between Gray Scalable and Eco began.?

Gray Scalable was thrilled to partner with an innovative and visionary company like Eco to find an HR leader who could partner with the senior leadership team to collaboratively set and execute a long-term vision and strategy for key people initiatives. Given this was the first-of-its-kind hire for Eco, getting it right was important. We spend a considerable amount of time interviewing the exec team and learning what makes them go and what keeps them up at night—all to understand? the spoken and unspoken requirements for a successful candidate in the Head of People role.?

As the search began, the obvious became not-so-obvious. The Eco team pushed us to think differently about our approach and search strategy, which led us to an unconventional-yet-stand-out candidate: Diana Brown.??

A career HR leader at Capital One, Diana Brown served as VP of International HR, responsible for a large, growing part of the Capital One business. She recognized Eco’s unique value proposition, did her own due diligence, and grew? excited about the opportunity to learn and develop in a new industry with talented leaders. We chatted with Diana about her role and her journey to get here.?

Why Eco??

“The opportunity to make? a real impact—not just influence on the margins, or see an impact on a small piece of the business. The chance to make a direct impact on Eco’s culture, leaders, and the People programs—all of that felt incredibly compelling to me. I’ve worked with incredibly talented leaders my entire career, and that was a requirement for me. I did my homework—I learned about the founders and CEO, their track record of success, and the investors that believed in them. Who I work for—and with—matters immensely to me. I want to work for leaders who I’m going to learn from every day, who themselves are humble enough to want to learn from me, and who are knowledgeable and skilled enough to lead the business to success. I was also excited to learn about web3 and step into a new industry. I had been in traditional financial services for over 20 years, and the idea of thinking about money completely differently was compelling to me.”

What did you see as potential challenges??

“A few things—1) Not being web3-fluent. I had/have a ton to learn in this space and knew that learning this new space would be a challenge. 2) Not being able to keep pace. I had a vision of start-ups as being tough, cutthroat, round-the-clock, and super fast. I was reminded that when you have a team of talented people working on hard problems aligned around a common and inspiring mission, the hard work is actually really fun!”

You’re now in a leadership position that is brand new to the company,? what are your priorities for building the function?

“Building a culture with an unapologetically high talent bar that ALSO supports, develops, encourages, and energizes teammates so that working here feels fun and enjoyable. Building out a recruiting and new hire onboarding program that WOWS our candidates and new hires. I am focused on the business, the leaders, and the employees. With the business, my function is here to do everything we can to make the business successful. That can mean a lot of different things: hiring excellent talent; creating a warm, positive culture; providing best-in-class benefits; paying people well enough so that they want to stay and recruit their friends; supporting their development; making tough calls when we need to, etc. With leadership, I’m focused on how my team and I can make the leaders the absolute best they can be. Leaders matter—they inspire, motivate, and encourage. My role is to coach, advise, and support them in being the best leaders they can be. With employees, the last few years made it abundantly clear that? HR matters in people’s everyday lives. The way your employer treats you—the culture, your coworkers, your benefits—these all matter.? We touch people’s lives in moments that matter—births, deaths, illnesses, performance reviews, pay, etc. I don’t take that role lightly.”

What would you like to share about your experience with this Gray Scalable during this search??

“I loved the personal outreach strategy—first engaging me directly, then having a member of the Eco executive team reach out. Nissa Booker was with me every step of the way—representing Eco as her client and also guiding me so that I presented myself in the best way possible. Working with GS was everything you’d want from a search firm partner—they knew Eco and they helped me understand why this opportunity was great, while never making me feel like they were “selling me.” Nissa felt like an objective matchmaker—wanting the best match for Eco and the best match for me.”