Our people equal
PeopleFirm was founded with the idea of creating a different kind of consulting firm: A company focused on people and grounded in our collective experiences in transforming businesses and leading strategic change. Each day we’re inspired by our great team, our client partnerships, and the opportunities before us.
Our Team
M. Tamra Chandler
Tamra is a founding partner and CEO of PeopleFirm, LLC. With 22 years of experience in guiding clients through strategic programs, she has a proven track record of successfully managing complex business transformation projects requiring a unique blend of strategic, technical, and change management skills. Her results-oriented, down-to-earth approach and unwavering focus on the human element of organizations set her apart. Tamra’s trademark is an unerring ability to see the larger picture and achieve measurable and sustainable results. Today she brings her vast experience and passion for achieving strategic value into a single focus: People.
Beth Montag-Schmaltz
Beth is a founding partner of PeopleFirm and a recognized researcher, practitioner, innovator, and thought leader in the field of adoption and change execution methodologies and tools. Throughout her 16 -year professional journey, she has designed and managed complex change management programs for strategic and high-risk corporate initiatives. Beth brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, and creative energy to guiding organizations and their leaders through a structured yet uniquely tailored process that produces concrete returns on their investments. As an author of cutting-edge articles and white papers, Beth provides companies with the unconventional wisdom to reach and often exceed their business goals through a practical approach to leading people through change.
Alan Borgida
Always a steady hand at the wheel, Alan is highly valued for his calm and pragmatic approach, honed over 20 years in consulting, industry, and non-profit. His expertise lies in program, project, and product management, and his projects have ranged from IT strategy and complex systems implementation to organizational transformation. His experience includes work at Hitachi Consulting and Arthur Andersen’s Business Strategy Practice, augmented by a combined 12 years at a Fortune 100 food manufacturer, a start-up organization, and a global non-profit.
Anita Laurence
With more than 20 years of professional business experience, much of it in talent and human capital management, Anita has a unique ability to visualize, create and successfully implement business solutions through key relationships. She has held numerous leadership positions in executive management, project management, sales, resource development, succession planning, software design, business strategy, and executive coaching, providing her a foundation of wisdom to drive successful outcomes. Anita’s broad-based career experience allows her to bring to the table hands-on knowledge on the impact of aligning people, process and technology with corporate business objectives. She has a natural ability to quickly evaluate company/client needs, and then develop a strategic solution that meets those needs.
Bethany Jensen
Bethany brings an unparalleled gusto and passion for helping clients maximize their organizational performance through her systematic, detailed and comprehensive approach. With a background in enterprise-wide technology implementations, Bethany has played instrumental roles in supporting change management efforts through design, development, communication and delivery of systems application training materials. Much of her five years of experience has been spent with clients in the federal and high-tech industries. Prior to joining the PeopleFirm team, Bethany honed her skills within Accenture’s Talent and Organizational Performance global consulting practice.
Brenda Hay
Brenda has a diverse financial background with one common theme: financial accountability through internal controls, organization, and reporting. In her 15-year career, Brenda was the Treasury Manager at a hedge fund investment firm in Seattle, provided professional financial consulting services to high-net-worth individuals, was the Controller for an internet start-up and litigation consultant for a Big Six accounting firm. Her responsibilities at PeopleFirm include accounting, internal and external financial reporting, treasury management, operations and data-driven project deliverables.
Brian Clewes
A sought-after combination of deep executive experience and years of strategic-level consulting in the construction, energy, utility, and government sectors enables Brian to help clients articulate and translate strategy into action and desired outcomes. With over 25 years’ experience, including a broad background in all disciplines of human resources, plus general management, Brian has a keen sense for workable and practical business and people solutions. As a business leader, he has designed and led successful, complex change initiatives, as well as been at the helm of a large utility. As a consultant, Brian has enjoyed working alongside clients to help drive successful Strategy, Organization Performance and Organization Alignment projects, as well as HR transformation. He is ardent about driving business strategy through deliberate investments in people and people strategies. Brian brings a systemic and outcome motivated approach to consulting with measurable results.
Brooke IllaHuston
Brooke is a dynamic senior executive with vast experience in human resources, operations, business strategy, and organizational development. Brooke is passionate about creating strong workplace cultures that drive business results. She has supported workplace transformations and advised senior executives across many industries including healthcare, utilities, manufacturing, finance, retail, high-tech, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. Brooke has the unique combination of being a strategic-thinker while able to manage all the details of large complex projects. Clients praise Brooke for her collaborative approach, analytical problem-solving, level-headed calmness in times of stress, and effective communication style. Prior to joining PeopleFirm, Brooke led the global consulting practice and was COO at Great Place to Work Institute.
Cynthia LaRowe
Cynthia is a passionate and highly-seasoned consultant and facilitator who specializes in organizational design and development, people strategy, and talent innovation. She brings over 20 years of experience managing complex organizational performance, organizational transformation, and talent management initiatives across a range of industries. She has headed projects everywhere from Fortune 500 companies to small non-profit s and worked with utilities, high-tech, financial services, retail, higher education, and governmental organizations. A former Fortune 500 executive herself, Cynthia has an intimate understanding of the diverse organizational and talent challenges leaders face, and she is valued by clients as a proven thought-leader and advisor.
Daniel Kuzmycz
For over 10 years, Daniel has been rolling up his sleeves to work collaboratively with clients across industries and hierarchies as a clinician, consultant, and trusted advisor. He is an accomplished human capital consultant with strong business acumen, technical, and applied expertise. With a Ph.D. in Consulting Psychology, Daniel is able to draw on a solid foundation of best practices in talent and change management, organizational performance, and people strategy to find new and creative solutions to old and persistent problems. He is recognized for his passion and deep working knowledge of talent management, employee engagement, coaching, and organizational surveys. Daniel believes that achieving the best results in organizational initiatives requires collaboration, trust, and transparency—as well as a little elbow grease.
Dean Warman
You never forget working with Dean—his energy, knowledge, humor, and enthusiasm define every project he leads and supports. In addition to those attributes, Dean brings to every engagement 20 years of consulting and management experience in strategic organizational change management, operations management, post M&A integration, program/project management, strategic planning, system implementation, process reengineering, IT/business alignment, communications and organizational restructuring. Dean has a particular passion for helping organizations manage change. He has led or worked on a wide variety of complex change initiatives at both an enterprise and functional level for a range of Fortune 500 companies. Clients appreciate Dean’s ability to absorb many perspectives, prioritize, take action, and keep open communication. He thrives in a fast-paced, results-oriented environment where both agility and leadership count.
Don Towner
Don is a senior leader with a record of delivering in high performance cultures and contributing directly to corporate operational and financial objectives. He is a recognized change leader with substantial experience in operations, with emphasis on organizational integration, performance management and employee engagement, process improvement and productivity initiatives. As a consultant, Don has worked within Utilities, Retail, Wholesale, Distribution and vertically integrated companies across the globe. Along with being a Harvard alumni, in 2006 he completed the Executive Human Resources Program at the University of Michigan. When engaging with clients, Don brings a passion for “solutioning,” proven thought leadership, and a commitment to outcome-focused collaboration. His motto is, “Success will be measured by what we do, not just by what we plan to do.” His approach is built upon the recognition of just how important constructive relationships are to achieving success.
Erin Daly
With over 10 years consulting experience, Erin has built a reputation as a strategic partner, trusted advisor, and a successful architect of tailored change management approaches and plans. Erin honed her collaborative style while successfully partnering with clients in the technology, retail, and financial services industries, as well as the non-profit sector. Erin’s spirited, highly dedicated, and customized approach to change management has proven successful in her work leading strategic corporate initiatives.
Frances K. Firestone
To say that Frances is passionate about the people side of change is an understatement. Throughout her thirty years in business, Frances has comfortably and skillfully navigated the waters of even the most challenging and complex change management assignments. From heading organizational transformation efforts in global organizations to ensuring that teams at small and mid-sized companies successfully accomplish their implementation, business and people readiness activities, Frances has served her clients with mastery. Frances possesses expert-level knowledge and skill in organizational change strategy, strategic planning, project and business change management, relationship management, process assessment/re-engineering and communication. Her wisdom, acumen and integrity benefits colleagues and business partners alike.
Gabrielle Mangiola
With 10 years of consulting and industry experience, Gabrielle is highly-skilled in producing change management and communication programs that inform, educate and enhance transformative initiatives while supporting an organization's mission and culture. An advocate of the “do no harm” consulting philosophy, she has led enterprise-wide technology adoption projects that range from 35 to 135,000 global end-users, has deployed change management communities of practice within organizations and has a strong background in data management to support her clients by identifying the key performance indicators to measure the success of change initiatives.
Guillaume Wiatr
Guillaume has over 12 years of experience leading company transformation initiatives. His skills and experiences represent a wide range of human, workforce, and technology programs, largely for Government and Services industry clients worldwide. Guillaume is passionate about helping organizations turn data into meaningful and actionable workforce analytics. Guillaume has received significant recognition for his work in this space, designing leading-edge approaches to help executive visualize their workforce, understand key talent risks and make strategic decisions that support their future needs. With experience leading large-scale projects, Guillaume’s unique ability to see the interdependencies between complex systems, processes, and data makes him a highly sought-after resource. Additionally, he brings significant experience in software selection and implementations.
Jenni Clark
Jenni is proud to be a founding team member at PeopleFirm. With experience both as an internal and external consultant, she is skilled at partnering with leaders and effectively engaging people at all levels within an organization to drive measureable and sustainable results. Whether leading a process improvement effort, designing a re-organization, developing and deploying company-wide assessments, facilitating leadership teams, or creating and executing a change management program, Jenni brings solid project management skills, a strong collaborative approach and years of experience delivering value through customized programs for her clients. Jenni enjoys working with leaders to tackle challenges that impede success. She holds a Master of Science in Organizational Development, and she brings a thorough understanding of organizational theories and strategies and a strong “whole systems” view.
Jill Prichard
From mom-and-pop outfits to Fortune 50 companies, Jill has managed every size of project, focusing on finding the right solution, efficiently and effectively, for each client. After years as an external consultant at Towers Perrin, Jill became Microsoft’s Director of People, Organization, Capability. Over the last two decades she has built a successful track record developing customized solutions for clients, ensuring their specific needs are met and the improvements are sustainable well past the implementation.
Joanna Horowitz
Joanna comes to PeopleFirm with more than ten years’ experience as a writer and communication strategist. Joanna started her career as a journalist with the Seattle Times, and her success with clients is rooted in her ability to ask the right questions, seek out creative solutions, and craft compelling stories that motivate change. Drawing on her expertise in marketing, public relations, graphic design, web/multimedia strategy and social media, Joanna has been able to creatively and successfully engage and prepare thousands of stakeholders in a variety of global organizations. Her clients have ranged from Fortune 500 companies to arts, culture, governmental, and academic organizations. Joanna has built a reputation as an energetic, thoughtful, deadline-oriented collaborator with an eye for both the big picture and the details of a project.
John Fike
Throughout his 20 years of professional experience, John has built a reputation as a dedicated, trusted, and collaborative change management practitioner. John has partnered with clients in a large number of industries including energy, not-for-profit, high tech, aerospace/defense, retail, finance and banking, professional services, distribution, and government. John’s leadership, energy and vast practical experience have been key factors in the success of many strategic corporate initiatives. John began his career as a biologist doing cancer research for a small pharmaceutical company. Today, that background gives John a unique ability to help clients problem-solve by thinking creatively, as well as analytically. John has learned that the path to a solution may not be perfectly clear, but if you start with the end in mind and have both patience and determination, you will exceed expectations.
Justine Thompson
Justine joined PeopleFirm with over 11 years of experience in change and program management. She possesses expertise in program design, implementation, deployment, process improvement and people development, and has used her noteworthy acumen in both internal and external roles. Justine is the first one to volunteer to work in the most ambiguous of environments and has consistently demonstrated her ability to effectively influence those around her to align thinking, resources and efforts to meet their objectives. Her most recent successes included integrating change management into the product release process for a Fortune 500 retail company, leading the change management efforts to standardize and integrate international divisions of Finance, designing and implementing a project management function for a corporate communications/public relations department, and creating a customized change management approach for implementing SAP.
Keely Killpack
Keely brings more than 12 years of consulting experience helping companies evolve, change and positively influence employee behavior and performance. With a PhD in Industrial & Organizational Psychology, Keely draws on a vast range of tools to help clients achieve their goals. Her strengths are in leadership development, change strategy and management, culture and communication, competencies, and organizational performance, as well as organizational alignment, design and development. From her tenure with a Big 4 firm and beyond, she has worked with clients in North America, Europe, Asia and South Africa in the energy, travel, government, retail, healthcare and high technology industries. She is trained in Agile Project Management Fundamentals and has enjoyed a blend of traditional and Agile projects.
Kim Bailey
With a keen sense of people, business acumen, and breadth of experience, Kim helps clients navigate from concept and discussion to tangible, results-oriented solutions that have measurable and, often, profound effects on a business. His tenures as a consultant and software executive have taken him from production lines to boardrooms and everywhere in between, giving him a unique and well-rounded perspective on business process, technology, and service delivery. More importantly, it has shaped his understanding of people, helping him bring a smart, nuanced, and strategic approach to the hotly debated world of talent management.
Kris Konopka
As a “recovering” lawyer, Kris is proficient in turning chaos into structure. More importantly, Kris’s 14 years of experience have proven to her that the best structures emerge when there is an emphasis on innovation and engagement. As such, Kris ‘s work focuses on harnessing the energy of people, applying proven approaches, and designing and implementing forward-thinking solutions to achieve needed results. Kris has led large-scale and key strategic initiatives in the US and globally. Her work includes the merger of two hospital systems, revamping and simplifying the strategic planning process for a large non-profit organization, the development of a training program for a software development firm, and the rollout of an IT system for a large insurance company. Her demonstrated strengths include strategy development, stakeholder engagement, business readiness planning, performance improvement initiative design, and program risk mitigation.
Leah Jacobs
Passionate about developing solutions that key stakeholders will want to own, Leah is known for her collaborative and creative approach to leading teams. She is quick to establish rapport and build relationships with employees at all levels of an organization. Leah's gift for successfully navigating complicated team dynamics is of great value to her clients. Her 14 years of consulting has be focused on providing strategic leadership to organizations across several industries, serving in both internal and external roles. Throughout her career, she has helped to grow businesses by playing key roles in disciplines including marketing, communications, project management, and organizational development. She excels at identifying and addressing areas in need of process improvement, better management of talent, and enhanced communication.
Marcus Scott
Marcus, founding partner of PeopleFirm, has 20 years of experience as a thought leader within companies, as well as a consultant in business strategy, product development, and operations management. Throughout his career, Marcus has maintained a passion and respect for the human element of organizations. His combination of business-and-people-development acumen has made him a highly sought-after executive in companies across industries where change and new products are crucial components to success. Business leaders find tremendous value in Marcus’s cutting-edge perspective and diverse experience.
Nicole Cain
Nicole brings a commitment to and passion for helping organizations navigate change. Throughout her five years of consulting and industry experience, she has developed communication strategies for software and technology implementations, delivered training to help organizations become more change capable, and led requirements and process documentation efforts for high-risk initiatives. Nicole enjoys a reputation as a detail-oriented collaborator with a focus on results. Prior to joining the PeopleFirm team, Nicole applied her skills within Accenture’s global management consulting practice, working primarily with high-tech and retail clients.
Nicole Holland
Nicole is committed to helping organizations solve complex issues that affect their greatest asset -- their people. Throughout her five years of consulting and industry experience, she has designed communication strategies for high-risk initiatives, led process improvement efforts aimed at eliminating inefficiencies, and built training tools for software implementations. Regardless of the program, one element Nicole knows to be true: cross-team collaboration is a key driver to success when partnering with clients to achieve desired results.
Olivia Becker
To know Olivia is to love her. Fully committed to helping organizations weather the storm of change, her teammates and clients readily count on her willingness and enthusiasm to lead the way through the most complex projects. Throughout the last seven years, Olivia has worked with clients side-by-side, leading process improvement and global organizational development efforts while minimizing disruption and impacts on efficiency. Collaboration, organization and transparency are all part of Olivia’s strengths, allowing her to build meaningful and productive partnerships. Olivia has diverse experiences across of number of industries: maritime, oil and gas, retail, and non-profit. Whether supporting domestic or international companies, she has proven her ability to quickly adapt and embrace diverse company cultures.
Paige Roberts
Paige joins PeopleFirm with nine years of experience and applied knowledge helping clients succeed in the areas of people and project management, organizational readiness, change management, organization strategy and design, communications, business process solutions and business management. Noted as someone who can skillfully untangle the stickiest of problems, Paige has successfully led various phases of organizational change initiatives, including stakeholder engagement, training, and user adoption. She has also worked side-by-side with clients to create customized solutions for a variety of business and people challenges ranging from onboarding new employees and defining mentorship programs to developing business strategies and creating personalized governance processes and frameworks.
Sam Crumley
Sam’s work and focus has long been in helping human resources be a strategic partner to the business. Prior to joining PeopleFirm, Sam served as a Global Offering Manager for HR outsourcing where he was pivotal in helping create, sell, and service people-related strategies and solutions for some of the largest companies in the world. In this role, he led external projects spanning system development, talent management and re-organization. From the client’s point of view, his commitment to balancing big picture with situational details, communication, and commitment has led to a proven track record of positive and trusting relationships. Sam’s focus and dedication to successful delivery of everything from competency models to complex organizational transformation make him an invaluable member of any project.
Sam Kanner
Sam has spent 20 years in the HR trenches having held vice-president and director-level roles at Fortune 500 & 1000 corporations around the globe. So while “been there, done that!” could be his mantra, Sam’s humble style combines his rich background and experiences with a collaborative nature and a ready smile. Sam loves partnering with clients to design solutions that fit their cultures and address their unique opportunities and challenges. Whether building talent management solutions or leading change programs, Sam has the rare capability of bringing his years of experience and a healthy curiosity to consider what could-be. Sam’s talent management experience includes a blend of strategy, process, and technology programs that have leveraged leading tools such as SuccessFactors, Taleo, SumTotal, Unicru and Oracle. Sam’s talent management repertoire also includes a number of results focused programs including competency development, succession planning design and execution, performance management and talent review program design, and a variety of leadership development initiatives.
Scott Perkins
Over the last 15 years, Scott has embraced business challenges with enthusiasm and energy. He has developed a reputation as a skillful internal and external consultant, able to “get it done” within the most complex organizations. Scott’s capabilities have contributed to the success of many projects, including, but not limited to, large-scale reorganizations, HR policy development, supply chain transformations, sales channel strategy development, and business intelligence strategy design. Scott has contributed to the successes of businesses in many industries, including technology, retail, manufacturing, forestry, and distribution. He possesses especially deep experience in the telecommunications industry, where he most recently held an HR leadership position at TELUS. Problem solving, leadership, and business acumen are all in evidence when working with Scott, who is routinely recognized for creating authentic and results-oriented partnerships.
Shelly Jones
Having spent a better part of two decades providing human resource and executive search consulting, Shelly has spent more time than most company’s have thinking through talent management implications and solutions. His extensive experience with working at the executive levels of organizations to identify, qualify, and manage all things people is a tremendous asset to our clients and projects. In addition to his extensive work experience, Shelly takes great pride in serving on the Advisory Board for the University of Washington’s Business School as well as providing sage wisdom to the PeopleFirm Leadership Team.
Tara Beckman
Tara is a recognized leader of the PeopleFirm change management team and a valued thought leader within the change management discipline. In her 15 years of consulting, Tara has developed deep expertise in change management, talent management, and deployment strategies. She has led a wide-range of change initiatives from building employee readiness for global business transformations to driving adoption of global, enterprise-wide technology implementations. During one of her more challenging engagements, Tara oversaw the implementation of a new career development program for 30,000+ employees-- resulting in significant improvements in talent acquisition, employee satisfaction, and retention. Her consulting experience is enhanced by six years as a mental health professional. Tara always smiles when telling you that her mental health background gives her a unique perspective on the human experience during change.
Terri Fincham Conner
Vibrant, flexible, intuitive and authentic are just a few of the words used to describe Terri and the work she has done in organizational development and performance improvement. With over twenty years spent helping individuals and companies diagnose the dynamics affecting productivity, Terri has worked with C-suite leaders and their teams to create and implement system-wide talent management solutions, resulting in improved performance, reduction in turn-over, increased employee engagement and expanded organizational capability. Throughout her career, Terri has held a number of internal vice president-level positions, which have enabled her to keenly understand and quickly establish credibility with clients. Terri has contributed to the success of companies in myriad industries including financial services, healthcare, insurance, high-tech, manufacturing, hospitality and retail, all of which have benefited from her engaging energy and outstanding track record in producing tangible results.
Todd Hattori
Todd has dedicated his career to helping organizations clarify and communicate business strategy, support a sense of value among employees, and develop processes and tools that employees need in order to succeed. He has gained a reputation for his ability to apply critical and strategic thinking to business challenges, and engage individuals with diverse needs and interests to collaboratively develop and implement sustainable, performance-based solutions. Prior to joining the PeopleFirm Tribe, Todd advised leaders within healthcare, technology, not-for-profit, and government organizations in communication strategy, continuous improvement, and performance management.
Todd Vician
Todd’s work as a highly regarded external consultant for nearly 14 years aptly prepared him to take the lead in building the Human Resources infrastructure within his consultancy’s practice. Having turned his talents toward his internal clients six years ago, Todd is passionate about all aspects of the employee lifecycle. He is currently serving as PeopleFirm’s point person for recruiting, staffing, onboarding, training and career development. Since joining the firm, Todd has enhanced, created, and implemented best-in-class systems, processes and methodologies to support PeopleFirm’s team members, both individually and collectively. Perceptive, approachable, articulate, dedicated and with tremendous professionalism and humor, Todd is the consummate representative of PeopleFirm.
At PeopleFirm, we believe in a simple code and set of values...
- Do what we love and love what we do.
- Think straight, talk straight, act with integrity.
- Leave each client interaction better than when we came to it.
- Celebrate individuals, capitalize on our differences, achieve as a team.
- Take our work seriously; never take ourselves too seriously.
- Engage thoughtfully in our communities.
- Do no harm.
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Puget Sound Business Journal 100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies
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