Hi, nice to meet you.
I am passionate about helping organizations invest in their people to increase productivity. Let’s face it. Leaders are flooded with guidance on management effectiveness. I zero in with clients to diagnose, and move the needle forward with them. There is nothing I love more than supporting leaders to drive fast-paced, actionable strategies that impact the business.
I fell into human resources management early on, rather by accident - I tell people careers are more elegant in hindsight, and that includes my own. Along the way I became passionate not only about people management, but realizing how much people’s productivity is impacted by the environmental conditions they work in, the sum of “how we do things around here”, often called organizational culture. Psychologists studied organizations in the 1930s and exposed key findings: Elements such as organizational structure, values, leadership, communication, performance/reward and other collaborative processes are powerful influences of workforce behavior and motivation.
I have over 30 years of experience as an HR and Organization Development (OD) professional, including 16 years at Amgen (a large biotech company) where I was fortunate to be a part of chaotic, hyper growth as the company grew from 2,000 to 20,000 employees, and from $1B to $15B in revenue. I’ve lived in a thriving organization invested in developing their people to drive business goals forward. I now enjoy helping bring that experience and insight to others.
Some of the things I’m most passionate about:
Coaching leaders to become the best version of themselves, and get the best out of their teams
Shaping organizational culture and values, especially in rapidly scaling environments
Facilitating large scale change - planning, communicating, and executing
Enhancing performance management processes and training
Implementing high value initiatives such as flexible work arrangements, career planning and conversation
Employee listening, interpreting results, action planning, driving engagement
Prior to Amgen, I worked for 11 years with a subsidiary of ARCO, and subsequently held HR roles of increasing responsibility including Director of HR until the acquisition of ARCO Solar by Siemens. I grew up speaking French at home, and have conversational Hebrew.
I am a graduate of the Wexner Heritage Foundation program in communal leadership, and my most meaningful and involved communal leadership positions have been in the service of Camp Ramah in California - first bringing my HR expertise to the board, and eventually serving as the Chair of the Board, and as an officer of the National Ramah Commission.
Eleven years ago, I left the high-paced high-tech lifestyle to have more freedom for family and travel. But I simply love what I do, so I started a consulting business where I’ve been able to support a wide variety of organizations in driving actionable people management and organizational solutions - from the non-profit and education sectors, to startups and high tech companies. I am based in Los Angeles, but I am now also making my services available in Israel where I’m spending more and more time ever since my two grandkids arrived (oh, and my daughter and son-in-law are pretty great too). Aside from just spending time with family, I come from several generations of ardent Zionists and I feel immensely privileged to have the opportunity in some small way to contribute to Israel’s thriving economy. As I have cultivated a “shuttle” life style of going back and forth, I have found that with a bit of proper planning, a good amount of my consulting work, mainly the preparation, can be done remotely.
To learn more about specific areas I focus on and workshops or consultations I can offer - check out my services here.
Or, if you’d simply like to learn more about how I might be able to support you and your people to have more impact, let’s grab a coffee and talk. Contact me here.