15 Chief People Officers Serving Atlanta Teams Now

Atlanta is full of people leaders doing the quiet work behind growth, trust and better workplaces. If you want to follow chief people officers in Atlanta, this list gives you a practical place to start.

1. Alisha Penick, YMCA of Metro Atlanta

Chief People and Culture Officer

Alisha Penick is Chief People and Culture Officer at the YMCA of Metro Atlanta. Her role sits close to the connection between mission, talent strategy and the everyday experience of a team.

She is worth following if you want to see how a purpose-led organisation can make people practices practical. Look for the link between the mission people hear and the resources, autonomy and clarity they experience at work. You can learn more about her role through the YMCA of Metro Atlanta bio and follow her on LinkedIn.

2. Camye Mackey, Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena

EVP and Chief People, Diversity and Inclusion Officer

Camye Mackey is EVP and Chief People, Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena. Her remit includes people, culture, inclusion and leadership in a highly visible local organisation.

Follow her for a useful view of how service culture and inclusion become part of an organisation's public identity and internal leadership habits. Sport also makes the connection between team performance and team experience easy to see. Her current role is described in the Atlanta Hawks bio, and her public activity is available on LinkedIn.

3. Carolyn O'Boyle, Aprio

Chief People Officer and Partner

Carolyn O'Boyle is Chief People Officer and Partner at Aprio. Her appointment is tied to the firm's next phase of growth and its need for a future-ready workforce.

She is worth following if you are interested in building people systems while an organisation is changing shape. Growth creates pressure on talent, leadership, culture and decision speed at the same time. Her appointment is covered by Aprio, and you can find her public profile on LinkedIn.

4. Cheryl Middleton Jones, Velera

EVP and Chief People Officer

Cheryl Middleton Jones is EVP and Chief People Officer at Velera. Her work brings together people leadership, transformation and change in a business serving the credit union community.

Follow her if you want to study how a people leader helps an organisation move through change without losing sight of the humans experiencing it. The best questions are often simple: what needs to stay steady, what needs to change and how will leaders explain the difference? Her role is outlined by Velera, with additional professional activity through Velera's LinkedIn page.

5. DeRetta Rhodes, Atlanta Braves

EVP and Chief People and Culture Officer

DeRetta Rhodes is Executive Vice President and Chief People and Culture Officer for the Atlanta Braves, The Battery Atlanta and Spring Training. Her portfolio covers people capital initiatives, communications and community affairs across a large public-facing ecosystem.

She is worth following because the Braves environment shows how culture operates across employees, customers, community partners and a highly visible brand. Her work is a useful reminder that people leadership is not only an internal function. Read her current role on the Atlanta Braves front-office page and follow her public work on LinkedIn.

6. Guillermo Cremer, GoTo Foods

Chief People Officer

Guillermo Cremer is Chief People Officer at GoTo Foods. His background includes work across retention, organisational change, culture and diversity, equity and inclusion.

Follow him if you want to see how people strategy works in a multi-brand food business. Retention and culture are not abstract ideas in a distributed operating environment. They show up in the quality of local leadership, the consistency of the employee experience and the organisation's ability to change without exhausting its people. His current role is described by GoTo Foods, and his public profile is on LinkedIn.

7. Jackie Perez, M2S Group

Chief People Officer

Jackie Perez is Chief People Officer at M2S Group. She brings a people-leadership perspective to a specialist group where trust, capability and clear delivery expectations need to work together.

She is worth following if you want examples from a professional-services environment rather than only the largest employers. In smaller specialist organisations, people systems have to be useful enough to support growth while still feeling human. See her current role on the M2S Group team page and her public profile on LinkedIn.

8. Jill Sutton, Oversight

Chief People Officer

Jill Sutton is Chief People Officer at Oversight. Her work connects culture, employee advocacy, talent and the signals an organisation can see in everyday operating data.

Follow her if you want to think more carefully about what expense reports, risk patterns and small operating choices can reveal about culture. Good people leadership pays attention to intent and impact, not only to formal values statements. Her role is described on the Oversight profile, and her public activity is on LinkedIn.

9. Allison Ausband, Delta Air Lines

EVP and Chief People Officer

Allison Ausband is Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer at Delta Air Lines. Delta's size and Atlanta roots make her work relevant to anyone interested in culture, service and people systems at scale.

Follow her for a view of how a major employer connects the employee experience with the customer experience. Large organisations need both clear enterprise standards and local leaders who can make those standards real for teams. Her current role and leadership background are covered by the Delta News Hub.

10. Kia Painter, Cox Communications

EVP and Chief People Officer

Kia Painter is Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer at Cox Communications. She joined Cox early in her career and later moved to Atlanta to establish work around employee experience, engagement and organisation design.

She is worth following if you want a long-view example of people leadership. Employee experience becomes more credible when it is connected to how work is designed, how leaders communicate and how people can do their best work. Read the current Cox profile on the Cox newsroom page and find her on LinkedIn.

11. Kristen Schuller, ICP

Global Chief People Officer

Kristen Schuller is Global Chief People Officer at ICP in Atlanta. Her remit includes people strategy, talent, learning and development, total rewards and the employee lifecycle.

Follow her for a view of how a global industrial organisation builds a coherent people system across different parts of the business. The practical test is whether leaders can make expectations clear while still adapting to local needs. Her role is listed on the ICP leadership page, and her public profile is on LinkedIn.

12. Malvika Jhangiani, Trimont

Chief People Officer

Malvika Jhangiani is Chief People Officer at Trimont. She leads a global people and culture function that covers talent acquisition, learning and development, inclusion, payroll, compensation, benefits and HR operations.

She is worth following if you want to see the full operating range of a modern people function. The work is not only culture language. It includes the systems, rewards, processes and leadership habits that make culture believable. Her current role is on the Trimont team page, and her public activity is on LinkedIn.

13. Tapaswee Chandele, The Coca-Cola Company

EVP and Global Chief People Officer

Tapaswee Chandele is Executive Vice President and Global Chief People Officer at The Coca-Cola Company. The role connects Atlanta to an enterprise people strategy that spans a global organisation.

Follow her if you are interested in how people leaders create clarity across scale, geography and different working cultures. A global role makes the trade-off visible: common principles matter, but the experience of work still has to make sense in each local context. Her current role is listed on the Coca-Cola leadership page, with public professional discussion available through LinkedIn.

14. Valerie Norton, Habitat for Humanity International

Chief People Officer

Valerie Norton is Chief People Officer at Habitat for Humanity International. Her work supports a global people function connected to staff, local affiliates and programmes across many countries.

She is worth following if you want to learn how mission-led organisations balance shared purpose with different local realities. The people system has to support both the centre and the people doing the work close to communities. Her current role is described on the Habitat for Humanity leadership page, and her public profile is on LinkedIn.

15. Virginia Means, United Distributors

Chief People Officer

Virginia Means is Chief People Officer at United Distributors, based in Smyrna in the Atlanta metropolitan area. A distinctive part of her leadership story is that she spent several months learning the business through a tour of duty before starting the role.

Follow her for the practical lesson that people choices get better when leaders understand the work before designing the system around it. Listening first is not a delay to people strategy. It is often the shortest path to a useful one. Her current role is shown by United Distributors, and her public profile is on LinkedIn.

What to watch for as you follow.

The best reason to follow a people leader is not to collect impressive titles. It is to notice how they make hidden tensions discussable, turn values into choices and make ownership visible.

If you are building a leadership team, you may also find the Consult Clarity ideas about people-first organisations and leadership team alignment useful. For a practical way to talk about team energy, see the Working Genius FAQ. If culture is part of your attraction and retention challenge, read about building a culture people will move cities to join.

About the author.

Jonno White is a keynote speaker, leadership consultant and author. He helps leaders build organisations people would move cities to work at, with practical ideas they can use on Monday morning.

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