Raquel Karls, MS
Chief Human Resources Officer
Outerwall
University of Oregon
Raquel Karls has nearly 20 years of experience in human resources and management. In her role as chief human resources officer, Raquel is responsible for the human resources function as well as corporate responsibility. She has implemented a highly successful wellness program, other key talent development initiatives, and started the diversity and inclusion function. This includes the launch of business resource groups and has also yielded an improvement of more than 40 percent in diversity representation on the CEO’s executive leadership team during her tenure. Raquel recently served on an internal panel at Outerwall in celebration of Women’s History Month in two corporate office locations, speaking to women and men about the importance of taking risks, setting boundaries, and taking ownership of their own careers. She was also recently a featured panelist at Points of Light 2013 Conference on Volunteering and Service. Before joining Outerwall in 2010, Raquel served as vice president of human resources at Expedia, Inc. and Starbucks Coffee Company. She also spent 11 years at the Pepsi Bottling Company in a variety of roles, including vice president of human resources for the largest business unit in the United States. Raquel is also the vice president on the board of the Academy for Precision Learning, an inclusive school for students across the autism spectrum and their typically developing peers.