Kristina Garrity
Kristina Garrity is the Founder and CEO of Hawk & Helm Advisory, a consulting firm she launched after more than 15 years of experience in corporate learning and development. Throughout her career, she has built deep expertise in designing learning, sales enablement, and capability strategies across leading global organizations. After years of working in corporate America, she reached a point where she felt ready to apply her accumulated knowledge independently and build a practice focused on helping organizations transform how they think about learning and performance.
Her decision to launch her own firm was also shaped by her role as a mother of two competitive gymnasts. She wanted the flexibility to pursue meaningful, high-impact work while being present for her children’s demanding schedules and commitments. This balance became a key driver in creating a business that aligns professional purpose with personal priorities, allowing her to operate with both autonomy and intentionality in how she supports clients and her family.
Through Hawk & Helm Advisory, Kristina specializes in helping organizations elevate learning and development into a true business capability—positioning it as a strategic driver of performance rather than a standalone training function. One of her most notable achievements was leading the learning and development strategy at Boar’s Head Brand, where she supported a network of over 5,000 distributors and more than 100,000 retail associates. The program was recognized by distributor partners as the strongest in the company’s 125-year history. Having built that ecosystem to a mature and scalable level, she now works with organizations nationwide and is positioned for future global expansion.
• Leadership development program through CCL (Center for Creative Leadership)
• Maximizing Your Leadership Potential
• Midjourney
• Claude
• ChatGPT
• University of Phoenix - MBA, e-business
• Capital University - BA
• Presidents Club Winner 2014
• Association for Talent Development (ATD)
• Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance in Florida
• Mentor for Cincinnati Youth Collaborative (2011)
• Mentoring young women and college students entering their first job
• 50-mile walk for soldier suicide prevention (upcoming in May)
• Supporter of the Democratic Party
What do you attribute your success to?
When somebody tells me I can't, I'm gonna prove to them that I can. I came from a very blue-collar family, and I was one of the first to graduate from college. I didn't come from parents who didn't think I could, but maybe because of my socioeconomic class, people would tell me that I didn't, and that just drove me.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think it's important that you become a lifelong learner. What I find is some people get a degree, and then they're like, oh, I know everything, right? And you don't. And even, you get a promotion, and oh, I know everything, and you don't. At every single stage in your life, it's important that you continue to be open to coaching and development. Because I could tell you that's where - what's gotten me to where I am today. And I think whether you're a man or a woman, if you are open to continuing to learn and develop, and you're open to coaching, you are going to be far more successful than the smartest person in the room.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
What I'm seeing is there's a lot of cutbacks and consolidations. What typically happens is when budgets need to get cut, the first thing people cut is training and development, which is probably the last thing you should be cutting during that timeframe. I think the other challenge is trying to consolidate sales or training into another function. So what I'm seeing, especially in the beauty industry right now, is where they're expecting salespeople to be trainers and trainers to be salespeople. Some people have the talent to do both, but in many cases, they're not, and as a result, they're not getting the business results that they need.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Honesty, integrity, passion, and emotional intelligence - those things, I think, you know, hard work is really important, but I also think you've got to have a work-life balance.
Locations
Hawk & Helm Advisory
Sarasota, FL 34211