Donna M. Brown

Founder

Cultivation HR · Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Area

May 2024 – Present(2 yrs)

CEOs, founders and investors call me when growth is outpacing structure, leadership roles are unclear or contributing below their potential, or decisions are stalling execution. Typical engagements include *organizational design for scale and post-M&A integration *Leadership alignment and decision-rights clarity *Interim / fractional CHRO support during transitions *AI readiness, governance, and responsible adoption in HR and operations. Outcomes: faster execution, stronger leaders, and organizations built to grow responsibly.

Member

The Outlier Project

Oct 2025 – Present(7 mos)

A community for everyone who wants to show up differently in all aspects of their lives. Anyone can be ordinary. We choose to be extraordinary!

Fractional CHRO / CPO

StartupExperts

Apr 2025 – Present(1 yr 1 mo)

StartupExperts is a community of experienced HR, Finance, and Ops leaders who understand that while we tend to be “teams of one” or leaders of small teams at individual companies, we all regularly encounter the same business challenges and believe that collectively we are stronger when we support each other.

Senior Consultant

HR Kickstart

Oct 2024 – Nov 2025(1 yr 2 mos)

HR for Entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. We help fast growing businesses to scale quickly and sustainably by providing quick, innovative and practical HR support

Head of People & Culture

Synop · Durham, NC

Apr 2023 – Jun 2024(1 yr 3 mos)

Secured and strengthened the seed-funded startup’s foundation for current and future growth in a virtual first environment in the US and Canada. • Collaborated with the executive team to create a competitive and attractive employee value proposition, preparing for the next growth phase and capital raise • Introduced market-based compensation and benefits programs, using data to balance pay structures and partnered with third-party to provide access to large-company benefit plans while reducing costs by 18% • Established a roadmap and implemented compelling, inclusive people practices, policies, and performance management, ensuring multi-jurisdictional compliance, resulting in zero (0) issues after audit • Implemented compliant and supportive talent practices to assist in having the right people in the right roles at the right time, resulting in 25% of top performers being promoted into newly created leadership roles • Added career pathing and created a leadership structure, promoting existing staff into new roles, resulting in the average time to fill roles <40 days 100% in-house, and raised gender diversity from 15% to 33% • Completed R&D tax credit analysis, bringing $180K of tax incentives for operational year-1, with the anticipation to grow in subsequent years

Head of People & Culture, Electriphi, Inc.

Ford Pro · Virtual

Oct 2021 – Apr 2023(1 yr 7 mos)

Hired to position the company for rapid scaling and stand-alone operations aligned to the tech start-up market. • Grew company from 40 - 150 across the US and India, realizing ~$350 savings by building an in-house talent acquisition team while scaling the sales team, including the hiring, training, and compensation plan design • Created an open and inclusive culture of innovation by developing leadership capabilities, implementing global business reviews and shared goals, consistent performance practices, and blending US and India teams • Implemented employee engagement, benefits, compensation, and talent practices and platforms through PEO to simplify HR operations, ensuring multi-jurisdiction compliance and providing improved service while lowering the cost of HR delivery by 27%

Global Workforce Innovation & Organizational Development, Global Technology

MetLife, Inc · Cary, NC

2017 – 2020(3 yrs)

• Drove strategies to modernize and transform the global technology organization as a business sponsor with full financial and implementation accountability for a $25M program at the request of the CIO to assess the global IT capability • Delivered a fully integrated global operating model for three (3) regions across 40+ countries, reducing costs by 20% and improving service to mature and emerging markets • Established LatAm technology hub in Queretaro, Mexico, consolidating IT resources from six (6) countries and increasing women in leadership by 50% • Designed contractor insourcing strategy in Mexico, reducing contractor footprint by 75%, de-risking software code development and ownership • Acted as the Diversity Program Leader: US Lean In Program Leader and Women's Business Network Steering Committee, bringing programming, resources, and development opportunities to over 1K women each month • Initiated Triangle Thrive Collaboration, a network of area company D&I leaders to share practices and co-sponsor signature events, including Triangle Tech X, a 3-day virtual summit reaching 3K+ participants • Consolidated vendor footprint and deployed Build-Operate-Transfer pilot to mitigate vendor risk and establish a blueprint for further consolidation, creating a new data analytics hub in Hyderabad, India, resulting in a 30% cost-savings arbitrage

Global Organizational Change Leader

MetLife, Inc · Cary, NC / Virtual

2016 – 2017(1 yr)

Charged with the special assignment at request of CHRO to lead organizational change management initiatives for global enterprise cost reduction program. •Led the enterprise executive steering committee, approving restructuring plans, ensuring effective change management and communication, and measuring performance against $1B cost reduction run-rate target •Catalyzed cross-functional idea generation on practices to embed operational excellence based on Lean Six Sigma principles into culture, procedures, and processes across 7 corporate functions, 3 regions and 40 countries, sharing and honing tools and techniques. •Designed, developed, and curated OD I OE and change management resources, tools, and training for global HR community, and consulted to complex restructurings, resulting in standardized approaches and achieving $1B in run-rate cost reduction within the required timeframe •Implemented continuous improvement transformation programs ensuring underlying process changes to sustain the $1B run-rate savings

Global Human Resources Business Partner

MetLife, Inc · Chicago, IL / New York, NY / Cary, NC / Virtual

2007 – 2016(9 yrs)

Designed and implemented practices and adopted global initiatives to improve organizational health and business performance and guided leaders in successfully managing large-scale change events. •Drive organizational culture, creating an engaged and enabled workforce, resulting in an increase in employee survey results from the 50th to 75th percentile, improving the diversity of talent, and boosting female talent in senior roles globally, filling 60% of key roles through the internal promotion of high performing women •Ensured the right people were ready for the right roles at the right time, increasing the succession bench to 63% for top roles through progressive talent practices •Drove retention of enterprise talent by 23% at all leadership levels •Led four (4) global transformations and re-organizations post-merger integrations, including the introduction of globally aligned functions for finance, risk management, actuarial, and global technology •Implemented location strategy, migrating IK roles to a new location and completing aggressive 2-year workforce plan to include college interns and early-in-career professionals, and creating two(2) track career paths in technology •Headed operating model development, connecting countries and regions with global functions to streamline leadership and align objectives across 40 countries •Spearheaded Global Performance and Development taskforce, designing and integrating performance and development programs across 40+ countries

Managing Director Human Resources / VP Head of Human Resources

United Airlines

2000 – 2007(7 yrs)

• Head of HR for new technology subsidiary in preparation for spin-off. Scaled company from 30 seeded employees to >250 in 3-years. Created EVP and employment branding. Completed the acquisition of dot.com loyalty business, including integration of 90 employees, resulting in 97% retention rate. • Facilitated integration with United Airlines, tabling spin-off due to airline bankruptcy, while providing needed capital and talent. Led the reintegration of talent, resulting in 87% talent retention. • Requested to join United Airlines from UAL subsidiary during bankruptcy to manage strategic programs, including developing a post-bankruptcy Employee Value Proposition, rebuilding professional recruiting, and leading transformation programs (Customer Experience and US Sales). • Built talent acquisition capabilities, including engaging in workforce planning to determine talent needs as departments rebuilt, hired and trained talent acquisition team, established policies and practices to support compliant recruitment, including training managers.