20 People and Culture Leaders in Boston to Know

Last updated: August 2026.

Boston has a deep people and culture community, spread across universities, healthcare, technology, sport, finance, professional services and community organisations. This list brings together 20 current leaders whose work touches talent, culture, belonging, organisational effectiveness or the employee experience.

The group is deliberately broad. A university, health system, technology company and community organisation each need different people practices, but all of them depend on leaders who can turn values into everyday decisions.

Use the linked organisation page as a starting point before making an introduction, invitation or connection. Roles change, and a thoughtful message will always be stronger when it explains why the person’s current work is relevant.

Boston people and culture leaders

1. Amy Molway

Associate Vice President, Talent Management at Northeastern University

Amy Molway is the Associate Vice President, Talent Management at Northeastern University, working in Boston. Her work sits at the point where talent systems become an everyday employee experience, from growth and internal movement to the conditions that help people contribute.

Talent systems are culture systems. Her role shows how shaping a workplace often sits in the design of hiring, growth and internal movement, not only in formal culture statements.

2. Amy Waryas

Executive Vice President and Chief People and Culture Officer at Boston Red Sox and Fenway Sports Management

Amy Waryas is the Executive Vice President and Chief People and Culture Officer at Boston Red Sox and Fenway Sports Management, working in Boston. Her remit spans the employee experience from development and rewards to wellbeing and engagement, showing how culture work reaches into the operating life of a major sports organisation.

Her remit covers people and culture strategy, organisational development, talent acquisition, learning and development, total rewards, wellbeing and engagement. The breadth of this remit is a useful reminder that culture is not a side project. It touches the employee experience from joining through to development, recognition and wellbeing.

3. April Castañeda

Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at MITRE

April Castañeda is the Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at MITRE, working in Bedford, Greater Boston. She leads MITRE’s People, Learning and Growth sector, connecting talent, learning and benefits with a mission-led organisation.

She leads People, Learning and Growth, including talent acquisition, talent engagement, HR business partners and benefits. Her remit links people work to a mission-led organisation. That is a strong model for leaders who want learning, talent and employee experience to reinforce the reason the organisation exists.

4. Carmel Galvin

Chief People Officer at Klaviyo

Carmel Galvin is the Chief People Officer at Klaviyo, working in Boston. She leads Klaviyo’s global people operations and human resources functions, including talent, training, inclusion and social responsibility.

Her work at Klaviyo covers the global people function. A global people role in a growing technology company calls for consistency without pretending every team or country is the same. That tension is where good people leadership becomes practical operating work.

5. Craig Beem

Interim Vice President for Human Resources at Boston University

Craig Beem is the Interim Vice President for Human Resources at Boston University, working in Boston. He leads HR operations at a large university and has worked on compensation, HR systems and pay transparency.

At Boston University, he manages HR and supports the attraction, development and retention of more than 10,000 employees. Large institutions make the scale question visible. A clear people function has to support daily needs while also building the leadership, career and training conditions that make a large community work.

6. David Cook

Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Boston Medical Center Health System

David Cook is the Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Boston Medical Center Health System, working in Boston. He oversees human resources strategy, planning and operations while helping shape workplace culture and mission-aligned talent at a health system.

At BMC Health System, he oversees HR strategy, planning and operations, workplace culture and mission-aligned talent. Healthcare organisations make the link between people and purpose unusually clear. Leaders need a culture that respects the pressure of the work and still gives people a believable way to grow and contribute.

7. Inez Alexander

Senior Director, HR Talent Engagement and Administration at Boston University

Inez Alexander is the Senior Director, HR Talent Engagement and Administration at Boston University, working in Boston. She works across talent engagement, HR administration and inclusion, bringing a community-oriented lens to the everyday employee experience.

At Boston University, her work spans talent engagement and administration, with wider HR and inclusion initiatives in view. Talent engagement is where broad culture aims become everyday systems. The practical test is whether people can understand how decisions are made, where they can grow and how the organisation listens.

8. Kelley Morse

Chief People Officer at Bullhorn

Kelley Morse is the Chief People Officer at Bullhorn, working in Boston. She oversees a global HR organisation across talent, people operations, rewards, learning, analytics and inclusion, a broad remit for a growing software company.

At Bullhorn, she oversees talent acquisition, HR business partners, people operations, compensation, learning and development, analytics and diversity, equity and inclusion. Her remit covers the infrastructure beneath culture. That matters because a strong employee experience is hard to sustain when performance, reward, development and belonging send different messages.

9. Manuel Cuevas-Trisán

Senior Vice President for People, Belonging and Culture at Boston University

Manuel Cuevas-Trisán is the Senior Vice President for People, Belonging and Culture at Boston University, working in Boston. His Boston University remit joins HR with belonging, inclusion, employee experience and organisational effectiveness.

At Boston University, he leads people, belonging and culture, following senior HR leadership at Harvard University. The title itself makes belonging part of the operating brief. It points to a useful question for every leadership team: where do people experience the values in real systems, not just in language?

10. María Fernanda Cantón

Chief People and Culture Officer at YMCA of Greater Boston

María Fernanda Cantón is the Chief People and Culture Officer at YMCA of Greater Boston, working in Greater Boston. Her role places people and culture at the centre of a community organisation where service and belonging have to work together.

At the YMCA of Greater Boston, she serves as Chief People and Culture Officer. Community organisations need people practices that honour service, belonging and practical delivery at the same time. That combination makes culture a daily responsibility shared across the organisation.

11. Mary Ellen Schopp

Chief Human Resources Officer at Mass General Brigham

Mary Ellen Schopp is the Chief Human Resources Officer at Mass General Brigham, working in Boston. She leads HR strategy across talent, leadership, organisational effectiveness, rewards, operations, employee relations and labour strategy.

At Mass General Brigham, she leads HR strategy, talent, leadership and organisational effectiveness, rewards, operations and employee and labour relations. A complex health system needs a people leader who can join up many parts of the employee experience. Her remit is a reminder that culture improves when the systems around people agree with one another.

12. Mike Gutner

Chief People Officer at Toast

Mike Gutner is the Chief People Officer at Toast, working in Boston. He leads Toast’s global People function and related workplace responsibilities in a fast-growing technology business.

At Toast, he leads the global People function and related workplace responsibilities. Fast growth can make culture feel like a moving target. The useful discipline is to make the behaviours and decisions that matter visible, then build systems that help managers repeat them.

13. Michele Grazulis

Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Northeastern University

Michele Grazulis is the Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Northeastern University, working in Boston. She leads HR for a university with a distributed community, where consistency and local context both matter.

At Northeastern University, she serves as Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer. A university spanning many locations and communities needs a shared people approach that still leaves room for local context. That is a live leadership challenge for any distributed organisation.

14. Mumtaz Badshah Brown

Assistant Vice President, Talent and Organisational Development at Boston University

Mumtaz Badshah Brown is the Assistant Vice President, Talent and Organisational Development at Boston University, working in Boston. Her focus on talent and organisational development connects learning, organisational psychology and practical culture-building.

Organisational development gives culture a practical shape. Her work connects learning, organisational psychology and shared habits that make good intentions easier to act on.

15. Nancy Lotane

Partner and Chief Human Resources Officer at Bain Capital

Nancy Lotane is the Partner and Chief Human Resources Officer at Bain Capital, working in Boston. She leads HR across recruiting, performance, leadership development, compensation, culture and inclusion at Bain Capital.

At Bain Capital, she leads the HR team across recruiting, performance, leadership development, compensation, culture and diversity, equity and inclusion. Investment firms often speak in terms of performance and results. Her remit shows that the people conditions behind those results include leadership development, fair reward and a culture people can trust.

16. Paul D'Attanasio

Principal and Global Head of Human Resources at Brown Brothers Harriman

Paul D'Attanasio is the Principal and Global Head of Human Resources at Brown Brothers Harriman, working in Boston. He leads global HR at Brown Brothers Harriman, where people practices have to travel across locations without becoming one-size-fits-all.

At Brown Brothers Harriman, he serves as Principal and Global Head of Human Resources. Global people leadership requires a strong centre and thoughtful local judgement. His role is a useful example of how culture work has to travel across places without becoming a one-size-fits-all script.

17. Ramona Allen

Vice President for Human Resources at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ramona Allen is the Vice President for Human Resources at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working in Cambridge, Greater Boston. She leads HR at MIT, a research institution where people strategy must support many kinds of work and expertise.

At MIT, she serves as Vice President for Human Resources. Research institutions bring together people with very different kinds of work. A good people strategy has to be clear enough to guide the whole community and flexible enough to respect professional expertise.

18. Rick Pagsibigan

Chief People and Culture Officer at JVS Boston

Rick Pagsibigan is the Chief People and Culture Officer at JVS Boston, working in Boston. He leads people strategy, engagement and organisational effectiveness at JVS Boston, linking internal culture with a mission of access and opportunity.

At JVS Boston, he leads people strategy, engagement and organisational effectiveness as Chief People and Culture Officer. Workforce organisations live close to questions of access, opportunity and belonging. That makes the connection between internal culture and outward mission especially important.

19. Suzanne England

Associate Vice President, Organizational Effectiveness at Northeastern University

Suzanne England is the Associate Vice President, Organizational Effectiveness at Northeastern University, working in Boston. Her work in organisational effectiveness helps connect structure, decisions, capability and collaboration at a distributed university.

Organisational effectiveness is the bridge between a good idea and a repeatable way of working. It helps leaders look at structure, decisions, capability and collaboration together.

20. Tabitha Ross

Chief Human Resources Officer at Nixon Peabody

Tabitha Ross is the Chief Human Resources Officer at Nixon Peabody, working in Boston. She leads people strategy at a professional services firm, with a remit spanning employee experience, growth, wellbeing, collaboration and diversity.

At Nixon Peabody, she leads the firm's people strategy and focuses on high performance, employee experience, growth, wellbeing, collaboration and diversity. Professional services firms rely heavily on trust, judgement and collaboration. A people leader in that setting has to make high standards and human care reinforce each other.

Conclusion

The first pattern is breadth. People and culture work can cover talent acquisition, learning, rewards, employee relations, belonging, leadership development, wellbeing and organisational effectiveness. When these parts send competing messages, employees feel the gap. When they reinforce one another, culture becomes easier to trust.

The second pattern is context. A health system, university, technology company, professional services firm and community organisation cannot use the same people playbook. Strong leaders make the principles clear, then adapt how those principles show up in the work, the systems and the habits of each setting.

Culture is practical. It appears in who gets hired, how leaders make decisions, what gets rewarded, how conflict is handled and whether people can see a future in the organisation. That is why people leaders need a voice in operating choices, not only in employee communications.

About the Author

Jonno White is the author of Step Up or Step Out and a Certified Working Genius Facilitator. Based in Brisbane, he works with schools, organisations and leadership teams around the world.

Next Read or Related Reading

If you want a practical introduction to the Working Genius framework, read the Working Genius FAQ. For leadership team work, see strategy leadership consultant.

If your people strategy needs to become practical, I help leaders turn culture, capability and team decisions into work people can use on Monday morning. You can email Jonno White with the challenge you are working through.