Heidrick & Struggles appoints Sarah Payne as new CHRO
Executive search, leadership, and culture consultancy Heidrick & Struggles has appointed Sarah Payne as its new Chief Human Resources Officer. Rick Greene, who served as CHRO for four years, will rejoin the company’s Consulting business as a Partner.
Founded into 1953 by two Booz Allen Hamilton alumni, Chicago-based Heidrick & Struggles was among the first executive search firms in the US. Since then, the company has expanded across the globe, while adding leadership consulting services and culture shaping services to its core executive recruiting function. Some of the firm’s high-profile placements over the years include Eric Schmidt – Google CEO (2001); Charles E. Haldeman, Jr. – Freddie Mac CEO (2009); and Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO (2014).
Heidrick & Struggles has annual revenues in excess of $500 million, and over 1,500 employees across offices in the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
The consulting firm recently announced that it will appoint Sarah Payne as its Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), effective January 1. Meanwhile, former CHRO Rick Green will become a Partner in the firm’s Consulting business.
Payne brings two decades of human resources experience to the role. Most recently, she was VP of Human Resources, Global Executive search at Heidrick & Struggles, where she helped create employee-focused solutions that supported the company during a period of significant growth. Before that, Payne served as VP of Global Compensation & HR Americas at the firm.
Prior to joining H&S almost four years ago, Payne spent nearly eight years at global agribusiness firm Bunge, rising from the role of Compensation Consultant to Director of Global Executive Compensation. As director, she was responsible for leading the firm’s executive and board compensation risk management, global equity incentive plan, and compensation benchmarking and intelligence, among other areas.
Before her time at Bunge, Payne spent eight years at satellite communications firm PanAmSat, where she served as Global Director of Compensation and Benefits. She holds a bachelor’s in philosophy and fine art from St. Lawrence University.
"As Heidrick & Struggles continues to grow and evolve into a data-driven leadership advisor and people solutions provider, strong leadership and collaboration with our Human Resources teams will remain integral to our success," commented the firm’s President and CEO Krishnan Rajagopalan. "Sarah's proven leadership record and experience with total rewards, employee engagement and development, talent management and acquisition will be critical in the ongoing growth and development of our global workforce."
Former CHRO Rick Greene will rejoin Heidrick Consulting as a Partner, helping to drive the growth of the firm’s solutions in leadership development and culture shaping. Greene served as CHRO for four years, leading the firm’s global talent strategy and promoting new diversity initiatives as well as changes to compensation and performance management programs.
Before that, he spent three years as Director of Global Talent Management at Bunge. From 2006-2011, Greene had his initial stint at Heidrick & Struggles, serving as Americas Managing Partner in the Leadership Consulting practice.
"In his role as CHRO, Rick has been a valued member of the executive leadership team, as well as a trusted mentor to many throughout our firm," said Rajagopalan. "We are excited to see Rick move into his next role at our firm as he will bring a wealth of global, cross-functional experience to our growing Heidrick Consulting business."
