Open to opportunities

Erin Donovan

@erindonovan

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Experienced talent and people strategy leader driving leadership hiring and organizational transformation.

United States

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What I'm looking for

I'm seeking a senior people leadership role partnering with founders or investment teams in high-growth or PE/VC-backed companies to scale leadership teams, drive cultural transformation, and tie talent strategy to measurable value creation in a collaborative, data-driven environment.

I am an innovative, data-driven talent leader with 20+ years of experience leading talent effectiveness, executive search, and people strategy across public, venture capital and private-equity-backed environments.

I have built in-house executive search functions that eliminated $1.5M+ in annual external search costs and delivered measurable outcomes, including reducing executive time-to-fill by 30% and increasing quality-of-hire scores by 25%. I drove a 25x MOIC and $96M in incremental enterprise value by assembling a leadership team that enabled a $100M exit within 12 months of a $4M seed investment.

I partner with founders, deal teams, and operating partners to align people strategy with investment theses, modernize hiring through behavioral assessments and AI-powered screening, and quantify the EBITDA impact of leadership changes to accelerate value creation and operational efficiency.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Vice President, Talent & People Strategy

Elevation Capital

Apr 2024 - Apr 2025 (1 year)

Served as strategic talent partner across a 30+ entity portfolio, modernizing hiring practices and linking talent decisions to EBITDA impact; reduced executive time-to-fill by 30% and increased quality-of-hire by 25%.

Executive Search Performance Management Workforce Planning Change Management

Director, Executive Talent Acquisition

Redesign Health

Nov 2021 - Apr 2024 (2 years 5 months)

Built an in-house executive search function that eliminated $1.5M+ in annual external search costs and drove executive hires that produced a 25x MOIC and $96M incremental enterprise value for a portfolio exit.

Executive Search Recruiting Operations Performance Management Stakeholder Management Succession Planning

Management Consultant

Korn Ferry International

Jul 2016 - Apr 2020 (3 years 9 months)

Led retained executive search and talent strategy engagements for CPG clients across North America, scaling cross-functional teams to deliver end-to-end executive hiring and talent solutions.

Executive Search CPG Recruitment Marketing Stakeholder Management DEI Compensation Team Leadership

Manager, Global Talent Management

Yum! Restaurants International

Jun 2011 - Jan 2014 (2 years 7 months)

Managed bench-building, succession planning, employer branding, and global development programs to improve recruiting effectiveness and cultural integration across international operations.

Succession Planning Leadership Development Employer Branding Onboarding Employee Engagement

Director, Corporate & Exec Recruiting

Xerox Corporation

Jan 2007 - Jun 2011 (4 years 5 months)

Led corporate and executive recruiting, directly hiring key executives who supported the $13B acquisition by Xerox and drove succession planning for the top 250 leadership roles.

Executive Recruitment Succession Planning Stakeholder Management Talent Development