As Civic’s senior vice president of people and culture, Sophie Kim’s lending expertise, business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit has led her to a pivotal, defining moment in her career: successfully navigating 325 employees through COVID, while simultaneously guiding CIVIC through the high-stakes acquisition by a publicly traded bank. In a year of pivoting, Kim revolutionized CIVIC’s internal communications by focusing on the employee experience more than ever before. She started CIVIC’s State of the Union, a livestream broadcast for CIVIC’s President and CEO, alongside Kim, to communicate important updates to the company on a weekly basis.

Kim also orchestrated The Pulse, CIVIC’s daily e-newsletter to all employees with photos, important updates and events; as well as the launch of C2, CIVIC’s Intranet. Kim also played a critical role in CIVIC’s recent acquisition by Pacific Western Bank. She led the integration for payroll and benefits, and built the internal communication plan to ensure everyone knew what was happening at every step of the way. Through it all, Kim launched two new training initiatives: one for developing leaders, and one for all employees. As a leader who develops new leaders, Kim supports her people but keeps in mind that she is in a position that makes her a cultural representative of the whole organization.

Name:

Sophie Kim

Title:

SVP, People and Culture

Company Name:

Civic Financial Services