WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner Honored as a Great Place to Work For All Leader

WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner has been named a Great Place to Work For All Leadership Award CEO Honoree. The award celebrates leaders from companies on Fortune’s annual list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For, 100 Best Workplaces for Women, 100 Best Workplaces for Diversity, and 150 Best Small and Medium Companies to Work For.

In 2019, Heather was named a For All Leadership Honoree, a similar award in which honorees are selected from submissions analyzed by Great Place to Work.  

This year’s CEO honorees were personally selected by Great Place to Work CEO Michael C. Bush, who specifically chose leaders who have demonstrated bold acts of leadership to create great workplaces for all, either in their organizations or in the community at large. These include leaders who have built a workplace that’s better for people by instilling an inclusive sense of belonging, as well as emotional and psychological safety within their organizations. 

All of this year’s honorees were recognized at an awards gala on March 3 in San Francisco, which kicked off the 17th annual Great Place to Work® For All Summit™. Heather was again recognized for her long-term dedication and commitment to the development of every employee, for connecting diverse people to a common purpose, practicing humility and empathy, adapting to uncertainty, and for fostering trusting relationships across WP Engine’s eight global offices.

Speaking about the honorees, CEO Michael C. Bush said: “The financial performance of these organizations and the industry-leading commitment to corporate responsibility provide strong evidence that when you create a great place to work for all, it is better for business, better for people, and better for the world.”

At WP Engine, Heather has created a great place to work for all through a sustained focus on empowering WP Engine employees to give back to their local communities, celebrate diversity, and be their best selves. 

Over the past year, this focus culminated in Engine for Good, a corporate social responsibility program WP Engine launched in June 2019 to advance the company’s global impact and its stewardship for a positive future. Engine for Good focuses on three pillars: Open Future (WordPress), Open Doors (Diversity and Inclusion) and Open Hearts (Give Back).

While the first pillar focuses on WP Engine’s massive investment in the WordPress community, the second and third pillars, Open Doors and Open Hearts have played a major role in fostering the type of workplace for all that was recognized at the awards gala.    

From the company’s Employee Resource Groups like Represents which seeks to raise awareness of the perspectives and experiences of all racial and ethnic groups within the tech industry and increase the equality of opportunity, to Sheroes, a group that aims to inspire women in technology to own their paths to professional and personal successes, there are multiple ways for WP Engine employees to support diversity and inclusion and engage with issues that are important to them. 

Additionally, from causes in support of everything from hunger relief to wounded military veterans, WP Engine employees are also always encouraged to give their time, talents, and resources to improve the communities where they live and work, primarily focusing on the areas of health, hunger, and education. In 2019 alone, WP Engine employees volunteered more than 813 hours and $101,000, across 21 community events globally including Bike MS, Central Texas Food Bank, Dam That Cancer, Help for Heroes, Movember, The Daniel Morecombe Foundation, The Pieta House, The Thinkery and many others.

All of the above is led, first and foremost, by WP Engine employees, who are keenly aware of their role in keeping the company’s culture aligned with our core values. While the direction may emanate from the top-down, every WP Engine employee plays a crucial role in making this company a Great Place to Work for All. 

Want to find out more about why WP Engine is a Great Place to Work for so many people? Check out our Careers Site for more information about what it’s like to work at WP Engine and the types of positions we’re hiring for right now!