Brenda Torres Email and Phone Number

Our work at HMH is the outcome of our guiding purpose, vision, and values. By learning more about us, you’ll discover what makes our products and services so exceptional. It’s not only because of our long history of innovation but also because of our people and their commitment to educators and learners. We share an understanding of what an enormous privilege it is to invite young people to become the heroes of their own narratives, to shape the arc of a story, and to change a life. That is the power of learning.We bring learning to countless students and teachers—transforming lives, supporting communities, and making our society more open, just, and inclusive for all.

Leader of North American HR Operations, HR Business Partners, and Employee Relations supporting 5K employees. Managed an onsite and remote team composed of 18 Business Partners, Employee Relations Consultants, HRIS, and HR Associates, and a multi-million dollar budget. Served as the lead HR Business partner to the C-Suite, providing guidance on human capital strategies, organizational design, and change management.• Developed, in partnership with AmTrust’s HR leadership team, a strategy to improve the employee experience resulting in a 25% reduction in voluntary turnover and a YOY increase in the company’s engagement survey score. The HR team employed focus groups, skip levels, and surveys to collect employee hiring, onboarding, training, and career development experience data. The resulting action plans guided the HR team in refreshing leadership training, developing leader talent cycle huddle guides, and launching a career progression roadmap pilot. • Automated and streamlined HR business processes leveraging Workday to improve HR response times. Worked with the HR team to develop a Chatbot Workday Assistant to provide employees faster access to employee data (e.g., remaining vacation time) and HR policy information.

Managed the Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, Employee Relations, and HR Operational COEs supporting 1.4K employees for a 4-state region. Led a team of 20 HR Managers and professionals, and managed a $2.8M budget. • Enabled data-driven decisions for bank executives by providing easy access to human capital data to conduct workforce planning, hiring, and retention decisions by creating an analytics platform (Tableau).• Assisted with an HR Transformation, working with Gartner to implement an HR business partner model, restructure the HR operations to a shared service model, and implement employee/manager self-service capabilities. o Implemented Workday, with oversight over the Compensation and Talent Acquisition modules. o Achieved a cost-neutral budget while improving the quality of service. • Increased offer acceptance rates to 96% (from 90%), achieved quality hire ratings of 4+/5, and increased qualified job applicants by 25% by redesigning the talent acquisition model to focus on the business partner role, use of data, project planning, and industry research.

Reported to the VP of Human Resources for North America. Served as the lead HR Business Partner supporting 1,500 employees and a $75M human capital budget for the Finance, Procurement, Legal, IT, Finance/HR/IT Shared Service Center, Corporate HR, Government Affairs, and Corporate Communications business areas in the US and Canada. Managed a team of 5 Senior HR Business Partners and a department budget of $840K.• Generated millions in savings by relocating shared service functions for Finance/HR/IT from the US to India. Developed the workforce plan, communication plan, severance package, and knowledge transfer. Championed an internal placement program to prioritize open positions for impacted employees resulting in 50% of the employees landing positions internal to the organization.

Managed a team of 5 Recruiters, with matrixed responsibility for 14 Field Recruiters, to deliver the North American college recruitment, passive recruitment, and executive recruitment strategies with a focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (D, E & I) for over 1,000 hourly and salaried new hires annually. • Owned the management and recruiting for 6 Graduate and Undergraduate development programs, encompassing Global Management, Sales, Marketing, Logistics, Technology, and Manufacturing Operations.o Developed the recruitment strategy, selection strategy, branding and marketing, job placement, onboarding, training, and mentorship of 75 new hires through their 12-week to 6-month programs

Led a team of 18 HR Managers over 17 branches and 8 sales regions and a budget of $2.9 million. Responsible for talent acquisition, organizational design, performance management, compensation, and M&A. • Supported 4 wholesaler acquisitions by conducting due diligence, defining a Sales total rewards strategy, onboarding 900 new hourly and salaried employees, and developing/executing a cultural change management playbook.• Introduced an interactive career mapping system to increase the transparency of opportunities within the Sales division. Listed key competencies and experience needed for each role, and the available training and development opportunities to prepare individuals for progression.

Business partner to the Marketing line of business, supporting 500 employees. Responsible for recruitment, selection, compensation, performance management, and employee relations. Managed an HR Generalist. • Delivered $7M in cost savings by redesigning the marketing organizational structure following an acquisition

Responsible for the Human Resource functions for the Western Region of Busch Agricultural Resources (subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch). Areas of responsibility included the oversight of eleven non-union facilities as well as one unionized facility.

Managed the college recruitment strategy for the Brewing Operations & Technology division of Anheuser-Busch, Inc. Led 12 breweries in college recruitment, selection, and placement of talent within the brewery system.