Horizon Family Brands, Talent Growth Partners Win Brandon Hall Group Gold for Jointly Built Leadership Development Program

As Horizon Family Brands expands its portfolio of better-for-you food and beverage products, it is also investing in the leaders who are essential to the achievement of the company’s strategic business initiatives and advancement of its mission. What began as a single cohort has since expanded into multiple cohorts, ongoing executive coaching, alumni development, and broader talent initiatives—turning an initial development program into a growing leadership ecosystem at Horizon.

That work has now earned Horizon a Gold Award for Best Leadership Development Program in the 2026 Brandon Hall Group™ HCM Excellence Awards®, recognizing a seven-month leadership initiative developed in partnership with Talent Growth Partners (TGP).

Now in its 33rd year, the Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Awards evaluate programs for their design, effectiveness, measurable results, and business impact through an international judging process involving senior industry experts, practitioners, and analysts. Gold is the program’s highest award level.

For Horizon, the recognition comes during a formative period in the company’s growth, as the organization remains a leading provider of organic dairy products while also strengthening its commitment to quality, market expansion, sustainability, and supporting family farms.

“We’re building Horizon for significant long-term growth,” said Tyler Holm, Chief Executive Officer of Horizon Family Brands. “So for us, partnering with TGP to build a program designed to cultivate cross-functional leaders who confidently make decisions and own the results was a mission-critical investment.”

Horizon and TGP purpose-built the program to foster meaningful, responsible growth at scale.

Rather than starting with a standardized curriculum, the partners identified the leadership behaviors most critical to Horizon’s strategy and culture, then designed an experience combining Hogan personality assessments, executive coaching, peer accountability, executive sponsorship, and direct application to real-world business challenges.

The award-winning results included:

• Full return on program investment in less than one year

• 94% of participants reporting stronger cross-functional relationships and collaboration

• 50% of participants earned promotions

• 100% of participants saying they would recommend the program

• Reported improvements ranging from 26%-45% in delegation, communication, leadership confidence, and accountability

For Talent Growth Partners, the recognition reinforces the philosophy behind its work across leadership development, executive coaching, search, and talent strategy: that organizational challenges are best solved by having the right people in the right spots at the right time.

“We wanted development to manifest in the way leaders actually work, not just be relegated to session notes,” said Maria Nicholas-Groves, President and CEO of Talent Growth Partners. “That meant connecting this program directly to real decisions, real relationships, and real business priorities. And the program's expansion reflects the value Horizon's leaders and organization at large have felt from that approach.”

The initiative was sponsored by Kristi Nelson, Chief Human Resources Officer and General Counsel at Horizon Family Brands, and co-designed and led by Nikki Palmer-Quade, Practice Director of Leadership Effectiveness at Talent Growth Partners, with executive coaching and facilitation from Eric Greene, PCC, Executive Coach at Talent Growth Partners.