Gillian Felix Joins Bazaarvoice as Chief People Officer

Bazaarvoice, the market and technology leader in hosted social commerce applications that drive sales, today announced the appointment of Gillian Felix as Chief People Officer. Felix, who brings 20 years of executive experience leading global human resources teams for companies such as Virgin, Hoover’s, and Golfsmith, joins Bazaarvoice at a time of unprecedented growth and worldwide expansion. She will provide strategic guidance for the company’s human resources efforts, including leadership development, employee training, and people practices to support the company’s unique entrepreneurial culture that fosters passion, execution, excellence, teamwork, and openness. Bazaarvoice, which has been voted a Best Place to Work in Austin by its employees for three years running, was recently featured on CNN in their Building Up America series for its unique culture and strong business growth in a challenging economic environment.

“In less than 5 years, Bazaarvoice has grown from a small Austin start-up to a global company with more than 500 employees and 750 clients worldwide,” said Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice. “As we’ve grown, we’ve worked hard to maintain a unique company culture where transparency rules and everyone retains ownership in a shared goal. Gillian is a truly exceptional executive with a clear vision of how to maintain this culture – which I truly believe is a major key to our success – while effectively scaling and streamlining our human resource processes to meet the needs of a rapidly growing employee base around the globe.”

Before joining Bazaarvoice, Felix was most recently Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Guest Experience at Golfsmith. Prior to Golfsmith, Felix served as Vice President of Human Resources for Hoover’s Inc., as well as Vice President of Human Resources at NextLeft. Between 1989 and 2003, Felix held various Human Resources management roles for Virgin Retail Inc. in both the UK and the U.S. Felix moved to the U.S. from her native London eight years ago, and brings a unique international perspective to executive-level HR management. She is a graduate of the Institute of Personnel & Development in London. In her rare spare time, Felix enjoys world travel, discovering new cuisines, playing golf, and hanging out with her two Welsh Corgis.

“The Bazaarvoice executive team is one of the most stellar leadership teams I have ever encountered, and I’m excited to join such a high caliber group of business innovators as they chart a course for continued rapid growth,” said Felix. “Bazaarvoice’s employees are exceptional and extremely passionate about their mission to bring the authentic customer voice to our clients. I look forward to working with the entire company to continue this culture of excellence as we rapidly expand around the globe.”