Counsel Collective · Leaders to Watch · People & Culture
The People& Culture Fifty
The leaders who run the function everyone else has an opinion about.
Fifty leaders across people, culture and total rewards, from fifty organizations. Thirty five sit in the top seat. Fifteen run the part of it that decides what a job is worth. Chosen editorially, confirmed against each person’s own record, sponsored by no one on it. Recognition here is free and always will be.
The people seat stopped being a support function, and the careers prove it.
Fifty leaders. Four ways into the seat.
Most people lists are a stack of chief people officers at companies you already know, ranked by a method nobody explains. This one is grouped, not ranked, and the groups are the point. Fourteen of the fifty joined below the top seat and climbed to run the function inside the same organization, some of them over two decades. Eighteen were hired at the exact moment their company changed shape: a scale-up, an integration, a reset. Eleven run benefits, compensation and total rewards, the part of the function that decides what a job is actually worth, and most of them sit one seat below chief, which is precisely why they are here. Seven run people strategy for a public institution, where the function is a city’s, a school system’s or a police department’s ability to staff itself.
Thirty five sit in the top seat. Fifteen do not, and were not marked down for it. One seat per organization, fifty organizations. Every seat was confirmed against the person’s own record in September 2026. Where our file disagreed, the record won.
Built From Inside
Joined below the top seat and climbed to run the function, inside one organization. The tenure is the argument.
Patagonia
Shannon Ellis
Head of North America People and Culture and Global People and Culture Operations
Shannon Ellis has spent twenty-two years at Patagonia, and she started in benefits and payroll. Recruiting, then HR management, then the directorship, then the North America function and global people operations, every step of it inside one company. Almost nobody in this class has a longer continuous view of how a people function actually matures.
Kohler Co.
Ginger King
Chief Human Resources Officer
Ginger King has held four different senior HR seats at Kohler, moving from corporate HR into the Kitchen & Bath Group and back out to the enterprise before taking the top role in 2024. Running the function for a business that spans manufacturing, hospitality and design means the same policy has to work for a plant floor and a resort. She has been on both sides of that problem.
United Wholesale Mortgage
Laura Lawson
EVP, Chief People Officer
Laura Lawson ran marketing at United Wholesale Mortgage before she ran its people function, taking the chief people officer seat in 2014. That is a rarer route than it sounds: she came to the work already thinking about audience, message and brand, and has spent more than a decade applying it to a workforce.
Geisinger
Brion Lieberman
Chief Human Resources Officer
Director, then assistant vice president, then vice president, then chief, Brion Lieberman's entire arc has been inside Geisinger. He took the top seat in 2021, which means he has led people strategy for one of the country's most-studied integrated health systems through the hardest labor market healthcare has ever faced.
Paramount
Nicki Raggio
VP, HR Data Operations & Solutions
Nicki Raggio's background is data analytics, she led it at ViacomCBS and then Paramount, and in 2023 she took that discipline into the people function. Most companies say they want HR to be evidence-led; comparatively few put someone who came up through analytics in charge of the evidence.
PGA TOUR Superstore
Scott Russell
Chief Stores and Human Resources Officer
Scott Russell came from Macy's, where he ran employment, talent acquisition and HR shared services, joined PGA TOUR Superstore as SVP of human resources in 2018, and in 2022 took on the stores organization as well. Owning HR and store operations in one seat is genuinely unusual, and it puts the people function on the same side of the table as the P&L.
St. Louis Blues
Jamie Sackman
Chief People Officer
Jamie Sackman came to the Blues as a senior director in 2014, became vice president in 2018, and has been chief people officer since 2021. Before that she ran her own HR consultancy. A professional sports organization is a small corporate staff wrapped around a very public product, and she has built the function for both halves.
Nationwide
Angela Bretz
Senior Vice President, Human Resources Business Partner
Angela Bretz served as Nationwide's chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer before moving into the senior HR business partner seat in 2023. Carrying that experience into core HR, rather than leaving it in a separate function, is a structural choice, and it is the one more enterprises are quietly making.
Southern Illinois Healthcare
Molly Hamilton
Chief Human Resources Officer & VP of HR
Molly Hamilton was an HR business partner at Southern Illinois Healthcare, then director of talent management, then interim CHRO, and took the role permanently in 2024. Rural health systems compete for the same clinicians as the academic centers without the same brand to do it with.
Maverik
Kim Lazerus
Chief People Officer
Kim Lazerus started in territory HR at Maverik and worked through talent management and the VP People seat before becoming chief people officer in 2023. Convenience retail runs on distributed hourly teams, which is the hardest people problem in the enterprise and the least written about.
AutoZone
David McKinney
Vice President, Human Resources and Public Affairs
David McKinney's remit at AutoZone has spanned human resources, public affairs and customer satisfaction, three functions that most companies keep in separate buildings. Holding them together forces a single answer to a question retailers usually answer three different ways: what is this company actually like to deal with.
Martin's Point Health Care
Teresa Nizza
Chief Human Resources Officer
Teresa Nizza arrived at Martin's Point as an HR consultant, ran the executive office, took the VP seat in 2013, and has been CHRO since 2015. A decade in the top role at a regional health plan and care system is a long time to be accountable for the same workforce, and a long time to watch decisions play out.
Smoothie King
Laura Scavone
Chief People Officer
Laura Scavone was deputy HR director for the City of Vancouver, Washington before she joined Smoothie King as VP of human resources in 2018; she became chief people officer in 2022. Moving from municipal government to a franchise system means learning an entirely different relationship between the brand and the people who wear it.
Hair Cuttery Family of Brands
Gustavo Serbiá
Chief Human Resources Officer
Gustavo Serbiá led HR at The Millennia Companies and Crescent Hotels before joining Hair Cuttery as head of human resources in 2020; he became CHRO in 2026. Salons, hotels and property management share a workforce shape, dispersed, frontline, service-first, and he has now built the function for all three.
Brought In At The Turn
Hired at the moment the company changed shape: scaling, integrating, repositioning.
Digital Asset
Daisy Auger-Domínguez
Chief People Officer
Daisy Auger-Domínguez became chief people officer at Digital Asset in 2025. She is also a contributing writer at Forbes and sits on the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, which makes her one of the few people in this class who both runs a people function and writes publicly about the craft of running one.
Dyson
Laura R. Garza
Chief People Officer
Laura Garza came to Dyson in 2021 from Nissan, where she was global head of talent and, before that, global head of HR transformation. Transformation work at a global automaker is a particular education: it is done at scale, across cultures, and with very little tolerance for theory.
Roc Nation
Joyce “JJ” Jelks
Head of Human Resources
JJ Jelks came to Roc Nation in 2026 from FanDuel, where she led employee experience and inclusion, and before that was head of people and culture at Wieden+Kennedy. Agencies, sports betting and entertainment all run on creative talent that will leave if the environment stops being worth it, she has now built for all three.
Cedars-Sinai
Andy Ortiz
SVP & Chief Human Resources Officer
Andy Ortiz came to Cedars-Sinai in 2016 from Health Net, where he was SVP of organization effectiveness and chief people officer, and was CHRO at Western Dental before that. A decade leading the people function at one of the country's best-known academic medical centers covers the entire modern arc of healthcare workforce strategy.
Molson Coors Beverage Company
Dave Osswald
Chief People and Culture Officer
Dave Osswald joined MillerCoors as chief people and diversity officer in 2018 and carried the function through the formation of Molson Coors Beverage Company, becoming chief people and culture officer in 2024. Integrations are where people functions are actually tested, and he has led one from inside.
Revlon
Tchernavia Rocker
Chief People Officer
Tchernavia Rocker joined Revlon in 2024 after four years at Under Armour, latterly as EVP and chief administrative and people officer. Consumer brands in the middle of a reset need a people leader who can hold operations and culture at once, and her remit at Revlon extends into the business itself as strategic advisor for ethnic hair care.
Planet Fitness
Ed Welsh
SVP, People & Culture (Head of HR)
Ed Welsh has built people functions for franchise businesses more or less throughout his career, chief people officer at OVME Aesthetics, partner and chief people officer at Atticus Franchise Group, before joining Planet Fitness in 2025. The franchise model splits the workforce between corporate and franchisee, and getting culture to travel across that line is the whole job.
SmartBank
Becca Boyd
Executive Vice President, Chief People Officer
Becca Boyd has led the people function at SmartBank since 2020, and serves as president of the East Tennessee Compensation and Benefits Association. Running a regional bank's rewards while presiding over the region's rewards community means one person sees both what a single employer pays and what the market around it is doing.
Seacoast Bank
Dan Chappell
EVP, Chief Human Resources Officer
Dan Chappell spent a decade as an SVP and human resource executive at Bank of America before joining Seacoast Bank as chief human resources officer in 2014. Twelve years building the people function at a community bank, with the operating memory of a global one, is an unusual combination in regional banking.
Commvault
Martha Delehanty
Chief People Officer
Martha Delehanty spent more than two decades at Verizon, including as CHRO of Verizon Wireless, before joining Commvault as chief people officer in 2020. Moving from a company of that scale to a software business is a deliberate change of instrument, and she has spent six years making the case that the discipline transfers.
Calm
Katie Greseth
VP, People
Katie Greseth joined Calm in 2024 from BrightInsight, where she led the people function, and came to that from a human capital role at Rally Health. Running people at a company whose product is mental wellbeing raises an obvious internal standard, and it is not a comfortable one to be held to.
Triumph Financial
Stephen Grossi
EVP, Chief Human Resources Officer
Stephen Grossi was EVP and chief human resources officer at BOK Financial for eight years before joining Triumph Financial in 2019, having started in HR business partnering at PNC. He has now led the people function through two very different periods of change in financial services.
Gametime
Danny Guillory
Chief People Officer
Danny Guillory was chief people officer at Glassdoor and served as interim chief people officer at Dropbox before joining Gametime in 2025. Having run people at a company whose entire product is workplace transparency is an unusual credential to bring to the seat.
Wilson Bank & Trust
Patty Hoppenstedt
Chief Human Resources Officer
Patty Hoppenstedt became chief human resources officer at Wilson Bank & Trust in 2025, after leading human resources at Southwestern Family of Companies. Community banks compete for talent against national institutions without national compensation bands, which makes this a genuinely strategic seat rather than a supporting one.
Kirby
Jenny McCauley
Chief Human Resources Officer
Jenny McCauley was SVP, chief administrative officer and CHRO at Southwestern Energy for over a decade, and vice president of human resources at BG Group before that; she joined Kirby in 2025 after several years consulting independently. Energy and marine transportation share a workforce that is operational, mobile and safety-critical.
GATX
Kim Nero
Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer
Kim Nero joined GATX in 2021 from Ferrara Candy Company, where she was vice president of human resources, having come up through talent management and acquisition. Railcar leasing is a long-cycle, capital-heavy business, and building a people function against that time horizon is a different exercise from building one for a consumer brand.
ONEOK
Brent Strehlow
SVP, Chief Human Resources Officer
Brent Strehlow founded and ran TMI Leadership Consulting for nearly three decades, advising chief executives, leadership teams and boards on culture, integration and organizational alignment, before he took the top people seat at ONEOK in December 2023. Coming inside to run the function for a Fortune 500 energy company in a period of growth and transformation is the rare case of an adviser being asked to do the thing he spent a career advising on.
Breeze Airways
Jeff Weber
Chief People Officer
Jeff Weber joined Breeze Airways in 2025 after building the people and operations function at Xevant, and before that as EVP of people and places at Instructure. Standing up the people function at a young airline means writing policy for a workforce that is unionized, safety-regulated and geographically scattered from day one.
The Rewards Architects
Benefits, compensation and total rewards. The people who decide what a job is actually worth.
Providence
Bill Dinger
Group Vice President of Caregiver Benefits & Wellbeing
Bill Dinger spent nine years at The Walt Disney Company working on healthcare innovation and labor support before joining Providence in 2021. He now designs benefits for caregivers inside a health system, which means building healthcare for the people who deliver it, a problem with no clean external benchmark.
BASF
Mary Jakubowski
Head of Benefits, US & Canada
Mary Jakubowski's route to benefits ran through finance: strategic functional controller, then director of HR planning and strategy, then head of regional analytics, digitalization and innovation management, and since 2021 head of benefits for the US and Canada. Benefits leaders who arrived via the controller's chair read a spend differently.
The Cigna Group
Olga Lozada
Head of Global Benefits and Wellbeing
Olga Lozada was VP of benefits at Charter Communications and senior director of global rewards at Energizer Holdings before joining The Cigna Group in 2024. Designing benefits inside a health services company means your own program is a working argument for the product.
The Coca-Cola Company
Richard McDonald
Head of Global Benefits
Richard McDonald spent twenty-nine years in global health and benefits at Johnson & Johnson before joining The Coca-Cola Company in 2021. Three decades in one discipline at one company, followed by a move to another of the world's most recognizable employers, is about as deep a benefits career as exists.
Volvo Group
Frank McLaughlin
Head of Executive Compensation
Frank McLaughlin has been with Volvo Group since 2000, moving through global mobility management, a stint at Renault Trucks, the global mobility directorship, and into executive compensation in 2014. Twenty-six years is long enough to have designed pay for several generations of leadership.
L3Harris Technologies
Allison Oncel
Vice President, Global Benefits
Allison Oncel came up through benefits strategy at L3Harris, manager, director, senior director, and vice president of global benefits since 2024. Defense and aerospace employers carry unusually complex obligations to their people, and she has built inside them for over a decade.
University of Virginia
Rebecca Gristina
Benefits Director
Rebecca Gristina came into the University of Virginia through compliance at its physicians group, moved to senior benefits specialist, and has been benefits director since 2018. A large public university's benefits population spans faculty, clinicians, researchers and facilities staff, several workforces under one plan document.
UNC Health
Janel Lancaster
System Vice President, HR Services, Technology & Total Rewards
Janel Lancaster moved from system director of compensation to system executive director of total rewards, HR data and customer experience, and since 2023 has held the system vice president seat. Putting rewards, HR technology and service delivery under one leader is a structural bet, and UNC Health has made it.
Entegris
Jacinto Vallejo
Vice President, Total Rewards
Jacinto Vallejo led executive compensation and global mobility, then total rewards, at Otis Elevator before joining Entegris in 2023. Semiconductor materials is a talent market competing directly with the chipmakers themselves, which puts unusual pressure on the rewards design.
Baylor College of Medicine
Monica G. Williams
Executive Director, Benefits
Monica Williams has been at Baylor College of Medicine since 2014, benefits team leader, then director of health, welfare and compliance, then executive director of benefits. Academic medicine sits at the intersection of the two hardest benefits populations there are: clinicians and researchers.
Amentum
Kimberly Young
Senior Vice President, Total Rewards
Kimberly Young has led total rewards at Amentum since 2018, having previously run health and wellness at Reynolds American. Her remit spans global benefits and HR technology, which is the combination most total rewards functions are still trying to assemble.
The Public Trust
Where the people function is a public institution's ability to staff itself.
Beacon Health System
Mario Ellis
Chief Human Resources Officer
Mario Ellis was vice president of total rewards at WellSpan Health, having come up through compensation, before becoming CHRO at Beacon Health System in 2023. He also teaches as an adjunct instructor at Indiana University South Bend, a rewards specialist who took the whole function and kept teaching.
YES Prep Public Schools
Jose Antonio Munoz
Chief Talent Officer
Jose Antonio Munoz was managing director of regional human assets at IDEA Public Schools and, before education, ran human resources and loss prevention at InterContinental. He has led talent at YES Prep since 2020, in a sector where the workforce shortage is the business problem.
City of Minneapolis
Nikki Odom
Chief Human Resources Officer
Nikki Odom was a labor and employment director and assistant general counsel at 3M before moving to Minnesota Community Care and then, in 2023, to the City of Minneapolis. A lawyer who chose to run a people function rather than advise one is a rare shape, and she took the seat in a city where public sector workforce questions are anything but abstract.
DC Metropolitan Police Department
Angela Simpson
Chief People Officer, Organizational Culture and Wellness Bureau
Angela Simpson has led the people function at the DC Metropolitan Police Department through three successive versions of the role, chief people officer, chief people and equity officer, and since 2024 chief people officer for the Organizational Culture and Wellness Bureau. The title changes track a department rethinking what it owes the people who work in it.
Salina Regional Health Center
Brenda Cox
VP/Chief Human Resources Officer
Brenda Cox came to Salina Regional Health Center in 2015 from North Florida Regional Medical Center, where she was vice president of human resources. Eleven years leading people at a regional health center means recruiting clinicians into a community rather than into a brand.
Gulf Coast Blood
Daniel Gandarilla
Chief Administrative & People Officer
Daniel Gandarilla became chief human resources officer at Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center and moved into the chief administrative and people officer seat in 2025. He is also an adjunct professor at Wake Forest University School of Business, and he leads the people function for an organization whose supply is entirely voluntary.
Hamilton County, Ohio
Gregory E. Muenchen
Chief Human Resources Officer
Gregory Muenchen was city administrator for Wilmington, Ohio and an assistant HR director at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development before becoming CHRO for Hamilton County in 2023. Federal, municipal and county government are three different employers, and he has now worked inside all three.
No one in the class matches that. Clear the search to see all fifty.
Where this class lives
The 2026 addition to The People & Culture Power List
The Power List is Counsel Collective’s standing record of people and culture leadership, and every name on this page now sits on it. The list holds the names. This page holds the argument.
How this list was built
Every seat was confirmed against the person’s own record in September 2026. Where our file disagreed with that record, the record won. Nobody was added for a title and nobody was left off for the lack of one: fifteen of the fifty sit one seat below chief, and they are here because of what that seat decides.
Grouped into four chapters, never ranked. One leader per organization, so no company appears twice. Recognition is unconditional: it follows the nomination, not a conversation, and anyone who would rather not be included is removed on request, same day, no explanation needed.
One petal does not open on its own. It opens when you give someone else theirs.
Nominate a leaderRecognition here is free and always will be. Nobody bought a place, nobody bought a better one, and no sponsor had a say in who is here.
