Career Talk: Herb Callahan of Golden State Foods

Herb Callahan is senior director, human resources, McDonald's Distribution, for Golden State Foods. He also runs their in-house training program, GSF University, and is an MBA graduate of Brandman University and working to complete his Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in organizational leadership. Here are his thoughts on his career. Podcasts are also available for download on iTunes. Read more about what he's gained from the Ed.D. program here. Transcript: Welcome to Brandman Speaks: Career Talks. In this episode, we'll hear from Herb Callahan, senior director of Human Resources at Golden State Foods, a nearly $7 billion company based in Irvine, California. Herb earned his MBA from Brandman University and is about to earn his doctorate in education or Ed.D. from Bradman. Here's what he had to say about his career path. So a kind of a great story. So I'm retired military. I retired in 2005. I knew I was going to go into the human resources field. About halfway through my career I got into a lot of training and development. I was a drill instructor. I taught at UCLA for a little bit. I really enjoyed teaching and making folks better by teaching them. So when I retired from the military in 2005 and went directly into a H.R. position for a small logistics company and really enjoyed helping folks be more effective. I used to say in the Marine Corps that if I could make a better Marine, I could make a better Marine Corps, so I kind of took that to the civilian world with me. If I can make better associates by providing the tools and the benefits they need to be really productive, then I help make a better company. So I was at a a small logistics company. I got recruited to a larger logistics company. The great part of the story is I went back and worked on my my MBA at Brandman and while I was doing that I wrote about supply chain operations, and I wrote about McDonald's and I read a little bit about Ray Kroc. So later in my career when Golden State Foods reached out to me, I knew who they were from the classes and things I've done for my MBA. So just out of pure curiosity, I said well I've got to go see them. So I came down and saw the company and met with a couple folks, got called back, you know got another call back in and kind of the rest is history at least getting into Golden State Foods. I started with Golden State Foods as a regional human resources manager for the Southwest overseeing the H.R. for City of Industry, California, the corporate IT. Phoenix, Arizona --see if I'm missing anything -- oh, in Hawaii, was the region that I had. But a year and a half into my role our GSF University continued to grow as the company grew, so I was asked to come down to the corporate office in Irvine and oversee the university. So I did that and continue to work very closely with the university. But in that role I was asked again the come back to the distribution side and oversee the distribution for all of the McDonald's distribution. So I'm kind of a couple hats as many folks in this company, you know, we wear multiple hats as most people do. So I'm very involved with the university and I oversee the H.R. for the McDonald's distribution centers of Golden State Foods. He didn't grow up thinking he would be in human resources. But there is a connection between his first ideas about a good job and what he does now. I often talk to my older brother, who's another retired Marine, and I can remember us walking home from school talking about 'let's be a truck driver like the Dad' who was a truck driver and I'm not sure we went stray but we ended up joining the military and taking another path. But I think as a as a young kid, I was just envious of my my dad . He was the strong silent type and he had a real manly job so maybe the connection is I'm back in distribution working with drivers, working with warehouseman folks who are making it happen every day...