20 People and Culture Directors at US Listed Firms
In 2026,
People and culture directors now sit close to the decisions that shape how large organisations work. This guide looks at 20 current leaders across US listed firms, from technology and finance to healthcare, retail, manufacturing and telecommunications. The useful question is not who is most famous, but what each role makes visible about building a workplace people can choose.
1. Amy Coleman, Microsoft
Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer
Microsoft has placed people leadership close to the centre of its company transformation. Amy Coleman leads the people function while the organisation works through changing technology, operating models and workforce expectations. That makes her a useful person to watch when the people agenda is being treated as part of business design, not only as an internal service.
2. Deirdre O'Brien, Apple
Senior Vice President, Retail and People
Deirdre O’Brien has a deliberately joined-up brief at Apple. She leads both Retail and People, linking the experience of customers, store teams and the wider employee community. The role is a reminder that culture is often shaped by the systems people touch every day, not only by statements about values.
3. Beth Galetti, Amazon
Senior Vice President, People Experience and Technology
Beth Galetti leads People Experience and Technology at Amazon. That combination speaks to a practical question many large employers are facing: how do people systems, learning, data and everyday work fit together as the organisation scales? Her remit sits at the intersection of employee experience and operating capability.
4. Donna Morris, Walmart
Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer
Donna Morris leads global people strategy at Walmart, a business where culture has to travel through stores, supply chains, offices and many different kinds of work. Her role shows why people leadership at scale needs more than a central programme. It needs clear expectations, useful tools and local ownership.
5. Melissa Kremer, Target
Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer
Melissa Kremer leads human resources at Target after building a long career inside the organisation. Her path is a useful reminder that people leadership is not only about launching new ideas. It is also about understanding the operating context deeply enough to make change practical for the people doing the work.
6. Francine Katsoudas, Cisco
Executive Vice President and Chief People, Policy and Purpose Officer
Francine Katsoudas brings People, Policy and Purpose into one senior remit at Cisco. That combination is interesting because culture, public commitments and operating choices often pull on one another. Leaders can create more trust when they are willing to make those connections visible and discuss the trade-offs.
7. Nickle LaMoreaux, IBM
Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer
Nickle LaMoreaux leads IBM’s global human resources function during a period when skills, technology and work design are moving quickly. Her role points to a useful discipline for people teams: build the capability the business will need next, while making the next step understandable for the people already inside it.
8. Gloria Chen, Adobe
Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer
Gloria Chen leads people and employee experience at Adobe. A creative technology company depends on both specialist expertise and collaboration across boundaries, so the people brief is closely tied to how work moves. Her remit is a good prompt to ask whether the employee experience supports the work the strategy actually requires.
9. Robin Leopold, JPMorganChase
Executive Vice President and Head of Human Resources
Robin Leopold leads human resources at JPMorganChase, where the people agenda has to support a large, regulated and highly varied organisation. The scale makes a simple point visible: consistency matters, but so does context. Strong people systems create a common standard without pretending every team needs the same answer.
10. Sheri Bronstein, Bank of America
Chief People Officer
Sheri Bronstein leads people work at Bank of America. In a business built on trust, risk management and relationships, the culture question is closely linked to how leaders make decisions and how teams speak up. Her role highlights the value of making expectations and responsibility clear before pressure arrives.
11. Sara Wechter, Citi
Chief Human Resources Officer
Sara Wechter leads Citi’s talent strategy across a global bank. That places workforce planning, leadership capability and employee experience in the same conversation as business change. It is a useful reminder that people leaders are often translating strategy into the conditions that make good work more likely.
12. Susan Muigai, Mastercard
Chief People Officer
Susan Muigai leads people strategy at Mastercard, a company whose work crosses markets, technology and partnerships. A role like this needs a clear view of capability and belonging, but it also needs the discipline to connect those ideas to how teams serve customers and work with one another.
13. Arden Hoffman, General Motors
Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer
Arden Hoffman leads people strategy at General Motors while the company navigates a major shift in mobility and technology. Transformation creates understandable uncertainty, which is why clear communication, honest trade-offs and visible ownership matter. People leadership is part of the work of making a new direction usable.
14. Dantaya Williams, RTX
Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer
Dantaya Williams leads human resources at RTX, where the work depends on specialised skills, safety and long time horizons. That setting makes leadership development and capability planning especially important. The people function has to help the organisation protect standards while still making room for new skills and new ways of working.
15. Kristen Mulholland, Johnson & Johnson
Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer
Kristen Mulholland leads human resources at Johnson & Johnson, a global healthcare organisation with a complex mix of science, manufacturing and commercial work. People leaders in that setting need to connect purpose to everyday choices. A value becomes useful when it changes how leaders hire, develop and make decisions.
16. Betty Larson, Merck
Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer
Betty Larson leads people strategy at Merck. In a science-led organisation, culture is not separate from performance. It shapes how people share knowledge, challenge assumptions and keep standards high. Her role is a reminder that the people brief includes the conditions that allow good judgement to travel through a business.
17. Payal Sahni Becher, Pfizer
Executive Vice President and Chief People Experience Officer
Payal Sahni Becher leads the people experience agenda at Pfizer. That phrase matters because experience is built from many small moments: how people are welcomed, supported, developed and heard. The practical test is whether the system makes it easier for people to do good work and easier for leaders to notice what gets in the way.
18. Timothy Richmond, AbbVie
Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer
Timothy Richmond leads human resources at AbbVie, a biopharmaceutical company where specialist capability and collaboration are central to the work. People strategy in that setting has to be both human and precise. It needs to make growth, accountability and development clear enough for teams to use.
19. Bryan Smith, Nasdaq
Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer
Bryan Smith leads Nasdaq's people strategy across 40 countries, with responsibility for attracting, motivating and rewarding talent. His remit brings culture, people technology and enterprise change into the same conversation, including the practical work of AI integration. That makes his role a useful example of how a people function can keep operating discipline close to cultural change.
20. Jacqui Canney, ServiceNow
Chief People and AI Enablement Officer
Jacqui Canney’s ServiceNow remit includes People and AI Enablement. That makes the role especially relevant as organisations move from talking about AI to changing how work is done. The useful question is not only what technology can automate. It is what people need to learn, decide and own as the work changes.
What these roles have in common
Across these roles, a clear pattern appears: the people brief is increasingly tied to operating choices. The strongest leaders have to make the next decision clearer, turn values into behaviour and give ownership somewhere to land. That is close to how I work with leadership teams too. Clarity comes before speed, and practical beats performative.
A people strategy only becomes real when a person can feel it in a meeting, a decision, a hire or a difficult conversation. If your organisation is growing or changing, start small: name the choice, name the owner and say what good looks like next.
Related reading
For practical follow-through, read How to develop a leadership team, How to get your leadership team aligned, strategy leadership consulting and leadership alignment consulting.
About the Author
Jonno White is the author of Step Up or Step Out and a Certified Working Genius Facilitator. He is Brisbane-based and works with schools, organisations and leadership teams around the world.
Work with Jonno
If your leadership team is working through growth or change, write to jonno@consultclarity.org about a practical keynote, workshop or facilitated session.