Gordon Trujillo Aims for Excellence

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Gordon Trujilo was stacking up wins. In the first two decades of his career, he climbed the ranks at Accenture to become the professional services firm’s global head of digital learning. In his seventeen-plus years at Accenture, he worked with clients across the world to transform their learning strategy into business results. He then moved to Visa, where he served as the large card payment company’s vice president of learning and development and global head of people systems.

His career was thriving, but Trujillo found himself at a crossroads. After seven years of optimizing the center of excellence he had built from the ground up at Visa, he was ready for a change. Though rewarding, the job was missing a sense of fulfillment for him. He longed to put down roots, spend more time with family, and make a positive impact on his local community.

That’s when DaVita reached out. The dialysis and kidney care company needed a veteran leader to design, launch and lead learning and development at an enterprise level that would provide training, support, and resources to all its healthcare employees.

Trujillo saw the potential right away. “I had been looking for clearer life alignment and purpose, and DaVita is so purpose driven that joining the organization was an obvious move,” he says. “Twenty-four years into my career, I finally found a chance to make a local impact.” DaVita is headquartered in Trujillo’s home state of Colorado.

Although DaVita already had a strong learning and development culture, company leaders turned to Trujillo to formalize and unify their existing efforts. “They wanted me to think about what they were not doing that we could be doing to achieve more,” he explains.

Serving and training others comes naturally for Trujillo, which he attributes to the values his parents instilled in him. Trujillo’s father is Hispanic; his mom is Thai Chinese. “I was raised to see the big picture and the greater good while appreciating differences,” he says, recalling that he grew up in a Catholic household that still had room for a Buddhist shrine.

Traveling the world with his family during the summers exposed Trujillo to various cultures and perspectives. As a college upperclassman, he turned his attention away from athletics to support younger students as a resident advisor in his dorm.

These experiences prepared Trujillo for success as a consultant at Accenture. His mixed heritage and cultural intelligence helped him build relationships and bring learning and development to large and small businesses alike.

“Twenty-four years into my career, I finally found a chance to make a local impact.”

Gordon Trujillo

Three years after stepping in as vice president and head of learning and development at DaVita, Trujillo is busy guiding his team as they work behind the scenes to integrate virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and other advanced digital tools to make training and development more accessible. “Our goal as a team is to work hard and pave the way for the next generation of leaders at DaVita,” Trujillo says.

While technology may occasionally lead the way, Trujillo knows no company can afford to lose the human connection. “If we just focus on tech, we’ve missed an opportunity to help lead people and organizations well. Being uniquely human in our leadership is more important than rolling out the latest digital tools,” he says.

This focus on humanity is central to DaVita’s culture. “We’re encouraged to be ourselves and make our work our own here, and I pass that along to my team,” Trujillo says. He uses his passions, like food, music, and sports, to connect with others and build rapport.

But Trujillo offers his colleagues more than connection and understanding. He also provides robust options for career growth. DaVita has clearly outlined development pathways for employees at every level.

DaVita now has about 55,000 employees worldwide. Trujillo is proud to be making a positive impact on them, but he also wants to make a similar impact on his local community. “Giving back matters, and I notice places where resources just don’t go, so people and communities don’t always have good opportunities,” he says.

Trujillo is working to shift that reality. He has been involved with various nonprofit groups and is now focused on organizations like Girls Inc., which provides mentorship in a pro-girl environment while advocating for policy changes that remove the social and systemic barriers girls face.

Three years into his tenure, Trujillo is proud with how his efforts to build an innovative and future-focused learning organization while uplifting underrepresented voices are elevating the culture at DaVita. Meanwhile, his own journey reflects a deep commitment to effecting meaningful change. Trujillo remains driven by a purpose that transcends corporate success. He personifies the values he instills in the next generation of leaders.

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