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Pamela Harding, CHRO at Next Dimension Media, runs Linkedln's largest group of HR professionals-and keeps herself in stitches.
If you're a member of Linked:HR, you are among more than 940,000 HR professionals networking in the largest Linkedln group for professionals-and you may recog- nize the name Pamela Harding, SPHR.
That's because as Next Dimension Media's (NDM's) chief human resource officer and director of corporate operations, Harding brings together 1.5 million professionals as they network within more than 100 groups and subgroups on Linkedln. She is community chair of Linked:HR, one of the four largest among 2 million groups on Linkedln.
In her role as NDM's top HR executive, Harding is respon- sible for corporate services that support business-to-business marketing for the organization's Fortune 500 clients. She also manages all of NDM's business operations and is manager in a number of the businesses' Linkedln groups.
For many, Linkedln has become far more than just an online resume database. It's a place where people find jobs, grow their connections and enhance their knowledge by net- working online with others in their profession.
Harding's own Linkedln profile showcases her tremen- dously varied work history, which ranges from the military to HR to needle art.
From the Navy to HR
How did a young woman go from a small town in the shadow of Mount Rainier (Enumclaw, Wash., population 11,000) to great heights in HR?
First, she enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1975. "I was 17 years old and was in the Navy when there were very few women in the military," she says. She hadn't intended to make it a career, but she quickly began rising through the ranks and blazing her trail. Her military career ultimately spanned 24 years, and she reached the level of senior chief petty officer. A single mom, she also raised her son, Jason, who followed in her footsteps to become an intelligence specialist in the Navy. The two even served together on a Navy warship.
It Started with a Class
It was in the Navy that Harding fell in love with HR.
"When I...