Gary G. Email & Phone Number

Durham, Nc, Us

Raleigh, North Carolina, Us

Serving as a strategic advisor to the CEO, the Head of People and Talent, and members of the Senior Management team at POWWR. Driving global projects focused on values and culture, employee engagement, leadership development, manager excellence, US benefits and compliance, and HR operations and process improvement.

Raleigh, North Carolina, Us

Provided People and Talent leadership to the POWWR team as the Interim Chief People Officer (while that UK-based role was being replaced following a departure). Supported the CEO and the POWWR Senior Management team to build out tangible employee values that matter most to delivering the business' vision and mission; strengthen the culture we have – and the culture we want to have – at POWWR; and document, deliver, and continuously improve people-process across the company.

In 2023, I proudly founded The Big Red Cedar Consulting Concern, LLC in Durham, North Carolina. The name “Big Red Cedar Consulting” pays homage to where I got my start on my Human Resources / People and Culture leadership journey: Cornell University (“Go Big Red!”) and Michigan State University (“On the banks of the Red Cedar...”). My mission as a consultant is to help those with whom I work build repeatable and adaptable talent strategies, strengthen organizational culture, and enable and develop leadership at all levels.

Durham, Nc, Us

Responsible for all HR M&A activities including due diligence, integration planning and execution, and providing on-going HR business partner support to new units as they are acquired through their full functional integration. Supporting Avalara's growth through acquisition strategy, I focused on building and leading a team that owned end-to-end HR deal and integration strategies and their execution for transactions of all types and sizes and in all parts of the world - in partnership with our Corporate Development leaders and cross-functional deal teams. Demonstrating a "roll-up-your sleeves" approach to getting work done, we developed scalable and repeatable HR M&A playbooks and best practices that were utilized during all M&A initiatives globally, while continuously learning and improving processes.

Durham, Nc, Us

Served as the Executive site leader for our Durham, NC "east coast headquarters" facility (which reached nearly 600 employees in the Durham office across all functions). Focused on driving "connections" across the Avalara team in Durham: connections to each other through social and engagement activities, connections to the business through communications and career mobility, and connections to the community through volunteering and outreach.

Durham, Nc, Us

Accountable for strategic human resources business partnering, organizational effectiveness, employee relations, and leadership development initiatives and championing the Avalara culture as the company has significantly and rapidly grown across the global. Built and led a global team of HR business partners in support of the business. Introduced a number of global talent strategy initiatives and HR operational programs including employee engagement, management and leadership development, performance management, talent assessment, etc. to strengthen our culture, business, and function. Participated in numerous HR M&A projects over the years in the US, India, Brazil, and Europe.

Morrisville, Nc, Us

Served in the chief human resources officer role at Extreme Networks, accountable for the global Talent & Culture (human resources) function. Part of the company's senior executive team and responsible for the facilitation of the Compensation Committee of the Board of the Directors in support of their mandate. Led effort to define and enhance the “one Extreme” culture to support a high-performance environment where team members across the globe are engaged, excel as leaders, continue to learn, and have fun. Developed, managed, and facilitated the agenda of the Extreme Networks Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors. This included executive compensation and executive talent management, design of equity compensation strategies, and the completion of the CD&A section of the annual Proxy Statement. Drove all people-related aspects of the successful acquisition of Enterasys Networks, a “merger of equals” with Extreme which resulted in revenues increasing from $300m to $650m and headcount increasing from 650 to over 1600. This global effort included due diligence, communications, process and systems consolidation, key talent identification and retention, compensation and benefit integration, and workforce planning and synergies. Accountable for the successful design and delivery of core talent management, compensation, and benefit programs globally, aligned to business needs and constraints. This included significant executive-level recruitment and on-boarding, implementation of self-service capabilities through HRIS enhancements, and restructuring of benefit programs to provide corporate cost-reductions while maintaining value to employees.

Morristown, New Jersey, Us

Directly accountable for leading all human resource activities in support of Avaya Government Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of Avaya Inc., reporting directly to the President of Avaya Government Solutions and to the SVP of HR for Avaya.

Morristown, New Jersey, Us

Globally accountable for the design and execution of global culture change and leadership initiatives to drive organizational capability, agility, and high performance.

Ca

Served as Vice President of Human Resources for Nortel’s Enterprise Solutions organization and the Americas region, reporting to the president of Enterprise Solutions and the senior vice president of Global Human Resources. As the HR leader for the Enterprise Solutions organization, directly accountable for leading all global human resource activities in support of Enterprise Solutions, including the successful divestiture of Nortel's Enterprise Solutions to Avaya in 2009. As HR leader for the Americas, accountable for the delivery of strategic HR services to all Nortel managers and employees in the United States, Canada, and Central and South America.

Ca

Reporting to the EVP-Corporate Operations and SVP-Human Resources, globally accountable for the development and design of key talent management programs and their delivery, partnering directly with the CEO, his Senior Leadership Team, and HR leaders. Also, provided HR Business Partner support to the EVP-Corporate Operations and his team (IT, HR, Knowledge Services, Real Estate, Corporate Responsibility, and the LG-Nortel JV business unit).

Ca

Provided strategic human resources support to Nortel's global Wireline Operations business unit and the Global Supply Chain business unit. Also led a global project for Nortel's Business Transformation Office focused on the creation and implementation of a global site strategy which delivered a $42M savings in 2005 and 2006 by reducing footprint by 2M sq. ft.

Ca

Led a team of 70+ HR professionals focused on the effective and efficient delivery of HR programs, data reporting and analysis, and special projects. Designed and implemented a centralized organizational model focused on process simplification, automation, and global consistency. This included processes associated with compensation planning (base, equity, incentive), rewards and recognition, talent segmentation/performance management, workforce planning and involuntary termination, succession planning, employee sensing, and HR data reporting and analysis (including the deployment of a global SAP infrastructure, data standards, reporting processes, and tool decommissioning).

Ca

Developed a model for the successful and efficient delivery of core HR programs and data reporting to the Asia Pacific region. Created and led the first HR Program Office for Asia. Represented Asia Pacific HR in a global SAP HRIS implementation effort and led change management initiatives to drive success in the region.

Ca

Joined Nortel in 1996 as a participant in its high-potential Human Resources Leadership Development Program (HRLDP). In my first 4 years at Nortel, I held a rich variety of business-facing and corporate HR roles in five locations on two continents. This included business support for Nortel’s Vice President of Human Resources for the Asia Pacific region (based in Singapore) and HR generalist and M&A accountabilities in multiple business units and corporate groups (based in Dallas, TX; Rochester, NY; and Raleigh-Durham, NC).

Milr, Human Resources Management / Industrial & Labor Relations

Business Studies

Ba, Political Economy