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Carolyn Frank
EVP & Chief Human Resources Officer
Professional Background
Carolyn Frank is a highly experienced and respected leader in the field of Human Resources, boasting over 20 years of experience in building and managing HR organizations across various industries and geographies. With a strong commitment to fostering the development of employees, Carolyn focuses on enhancing their capabilities to better serve the business while also nurturing their personal growth. Currently, she is the Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Finance of America Companies, where her vision and leadership play a pivotal role in shaping the organization’s culture and strategic direction.
At Finance of America Companies, Carolyn is dedicated to promoting a supportive and inclusive workplace. She places a significant emphasis on nurturing organizational culture and driving the company’s continued success. Under her guidance, the HR department not only aligns with business objectives but also serves as a catalyst for employee engagement, productivity, and satisfaction. Carolyn’s approach to HR is deeply rooted in her belief that when employees thrive, businesses flourish.
In addition to her professional responsibilities, Carolyn is passionate about building community and actively supports various initiatives through the Finance of America Cares foundation. This commitment to social responsibility demonstrates her belief in giving back to the community and enhancing the lives of others. Carolyn enjoys finding joy in her daily work and draws inspiration from her hobbies, including travel, hiking, and spending quality time with family and friends.
Education and Achievements
Carolyn’s academic journey has equipped her with the knowledge and skills necessary for success in HR management. She earned her Master’s degree in Human Resource Management from National University, a program renowned for its focus on contemporary HR practices and leadership strategies. Additionally, she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from Baldwin Wallace University, which provides her with a strong foundation in effective communication—an essential skill in the field of Human Resources.
Over the years, Carolyn has held several key leadership positions that have honed her expertise in HR management. Before her role at Finance of America Companies, she served as the Chief Human Resources Officer and Senior Vice President at Guild Mortgage Company, where she played a crucial role in developing HR strategies that aligned with corporate goals. Her tenure at Guild Mortgage is marked by significant contributions to employee engagement and organizational performance.
Carolyn’s career also includes impactful positions such as the Senior Director of Human Resources at Genoptix Medical Laboratory, where she led initiatives that enhanced workforce capabilities and improved overall business outcomes. Additionally, she served as the Director of Human Resources at both Amylin and Johnson Outdoors Inc., where her strategic insight and operational expertise were instrumental in managing HR functions that supported business growth.
Achievements
Throughout her extensive HR career, Carolyn Frank has made remarkable contributions that have positively influenced the organizations with which she has been involved. Her commitment to employee development is evident through tailored training programs and initiatives aimed at fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
As an advocate for inclusive workplaces, Carolyn has driven successful diversity and inclusion strategies, ensuring that all employees feel valued and have an equal opportunity to thrive. Her leadership style emphasizes collaboration and communication, enabling her teams to meet challenges effectively and support the organization’s strategic vision.
In recognition of her contributions to HR and organizational success, Carolyn has garnered respect and admiration from peers and industry professionals alike. Her ability to lead with vision and compassion ensures that she is not only a leader but also a mentor and inspiration to others in the field.
In summary, Carolyn Frank is a distinguished HR leader whose extensive experience spans multiple sectors and highlights her dedication to the growth and development of individuals within an organization. Her focus on building a strong organizational culture, supporting community engagement, and fostering employee capabilities positions her as a key asset in the ongoing success of Finance of America Companies and beyond.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
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Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.