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Dynamic Talent Partners LLC
HIGHLY AGILE HUMAN RESOURCES EXECUTIVE
Strategic HR Leader | Talent Strategy, Culture, & Value
PE-savvy HR & Talent Strategy Leader with 20 years of experience turning complex inflection points—M&A, CEO transitions, organizational change, and hypergrowth—into catalysts for people-driven transformation. Builds scalable talent systems, high-performance cultures, and leadership pipelines that accelerate value creation and deliver measurable, sustained growth for global public, private, and PE-backed companies.
Partnering with growth-stage, PE-backed, and founder-led companies to scale through aligned people strategy, systems, and culture that lasts — all grounded in creating business value through people.
I help executive teams navigate complexity — from CEO transitions and M&A to IPO readiness, org redesign, transformation, and cultural reinvention. With 20 years of experience across public, private, and PE-backed environments, I bring both strategic rigor and operational agility to drive outcomes that matter.
Stepped into a focused role to build and scale core talent systems aligned to organizational transformation and investor expectations within a fast-paced, high-growth private equity environment. Strategically positioning our talent and organization development strategy to align with investment thesis, building a scalable talent infrastructure, and optimizing the employee experience to drive value creation. As the organization expanded and integrated M&A activity, my team led harmonization efforts and systems across an increasingly larger, complex enterprise while adapting to the evolving demands of our business.
Serve as a trusted partner with the CEO, CHRO and Council members to guide and design Cetera’s strategy and aspirations in the multiple facets of Talent Management and DEIB - within the corporate home office, financial advice profession, and community spheres of Cetera’s influence and impact.
Lead HR Center of Excellence function to rethink how Cetera delivers an experience where employees can thrive, are proud to belong and cultivates a high-performance culture.
Supported and coached managers in all aspects of hiring, onboarding, performance management, development, retention, engagement, compensation and rewards.
Recruited to build learning and development practice aligned to business strategy, as part of a complete re-build and revitalization of the HR function.
Asked to serve in a newly created role, as 1 of 4 incumbents serving the 15,000+ person enterprise, focused on developing organizational effectiveness.
Selected to assume a newly created role to build a Center of Excellence (CoE) during a period of organizational transformation and globalization.
As part of new global strategy, built and led the eLearning function during early stages of operations center in India to support Global Talent Development organization.
Led recruitment for enterprise leadership program in addition to manage other early career programs (college internship, INROADS and high school cooperative education programs).
Enterprise High-Potential Leadership Rotational Program:
Global Compensation, Office of Diversity, London HR (Expat Assignment) and Talent Acquisition.
Performed audits of client's financial statements and prepared 5500 tax schedules for multi-national corporations, with ERISA qualified plans.
Managing Global Diversity, Strategic Staffing, Strategic Compensation
HR Information Systems, Strategic Staffing, Training and Organizational Development, Compensation and Benefits, Human Resource Management
Graduate School of Business
North Park University
College of Business Administration
University of Illinois at Chicago
Private Equity CHRO Accelerator
Artificial Intelligence (AI) for HR
Strategic Workforce Planning
Certified Diversity Executive (CDE)
Diversity and Inclusion Yellow Belt
Master Performance Consultant; Master Trainer; Leading Training Programs
Certified Facilitator: Speed of Trust; 4DX, 4 Essential Roles of Leadership, 6 Critical Practices, Unconscious Bias
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®, Certified Coach and Facilitator
Prosci Change Management, Certified Change Manager
I have known Elissa for five years and know her to be an outstanding professional.
She joined the Global Learning and Development team in 2010 for an expat assignment in Bangalore to launch the eLearning team. She fully embraced the opportunity both professionally and personally and became a strong liaison between Chicago andBangalore.
Working in India, hiring the eLearning team, and developing the implementation of our strategy were all new to Elissa and yet she dove in with enthusiasm and managed numerous obstacles with a vibrant spirit of "can-do".
Elissa has several qualities that are highly valuable to any team. She is both strategic and detail-oriented. When faced with a problem, Elissa attacks the challenge on multiple fronts - using her own experience and intelligence, reaching out to people across the organization with expertise and asking the right questions. She does this independently but always stays connected to the project sponsor. Elissa can be relied upon completely to deliver outstanding results on time and often exceeding even high expectations.
Elissa is a warm and generous colleague, always ready to take on more work, help her colleagues and develop her skills. As she returns to Chicago, I look forward to working with her again to drive critical business initiatives forward. I know withElissa, I have a colleague I can trust to execute and deliver on her commitments.
If you’re looking for someone who can cut through chaos like a hot knife through ambiguity, Elissa is your person. During a particularly complex implementation that was veering dangerously off track, Elissa brought the clarity we desperately needed. While others were circling the problem, she dove in, diagnosed the issues, and—most importantly—pivoted the strategy to realign both sides of the effort.
Her ability to solve problems isn’t just impressive—it’s surgical. Elissa doesn’t just put out fires; she builds fireproof systems. If you need someone to bring calm to the storm and progress to the plan, she’s the one you want in the room.
Elissa has been both a treasured colleague and a trusted client. I had the privilege of working with her as she developed her DEI and talent strategy and transformed the culture within her organizations. She brings both care and brilliance to every people practice she implements, making a lasting impact on those around her. I’ve greatly valued working alongside her and am grateful to call her a friend. Elissa is not only an exceptional HR leader but also a true gem of a person.
I've worked with Elissa for over a year as a Sr. HRIS Manager supporting the technology behind the Center of Excellence (COE) she oversees.
Elissa is a key member in Cetera’s HR executive leadership team and is responsible for leading the company’s talent management solutions including, learning and development, performance management, professional development, leadership development, and driving Cetera’s diversity, inclusion, and belonging initiative.
As a part of past cross functional collaborations, I’ve benefited from the valuable skill mix and industry knowledge that Elissa uses to direct and monitor strategies that empower a healthy workplace culture. These strategies include programs and initiatives related to employee communications, forward-thinking organizational and individual effectiveness, and most recently spearheading the charge to strategically use culture as a differentiator through diversity and inclusion in a manner consistent with Cetera’s values.
Elissa has proven herself to be a high-performing, results-driven HR leader who both supports Cetera’s strategic short and long-term business objectives while demonstrating effective listening, communication, and presentation skills to build relationships with employees at all levels.
I highly recommend Elissa as a leader in HR.
