Open to opportunities

Lynette Barksdale

@lynettebarksdale

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People executive and Scale Architect, scaling HR strategy, inclusion, and operating models for global tech teams.

United States

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What I'm looking for

I’m looking to lead People strategy that scales global, distributed teams—pairing People Operations with inclusion, culture, and measurable performance systems (OKRs/KPIs) to drive enterprise outcomes and build durable leadership capability.

I’m a multi-disciplinary People executive with 15+ years leading HR strategy, People Operations, and organizational design for global tech companies, including Google, Visa, and Epic Games. I bring deep expertise across the full People lifecycle—talent acquisition, total rewards, performance management, HRBP partnerships, and OKR frameworks—while combining data-driven rigor with empathetic leadership.

I’ve repeatedly scaled distributed, remote-first organizations from high-growth startup energy to enterprise maturity, building the operational infrastructure that helps both people and business thrive. As a fractional CHRO/VP People and principal consultant, I partner with founders and CEOs to design multi-year People strategies aligned to talent infrastructure, org structure, and operating budgets.

Most recently, I’ve led inclusion, culture, and workforce strategy for global organizations—stewarding enterprise KPIs, learning and leadership development, and leadership accountability. I’ve also engineered measurable talent and engagement improvements, including building an employee engagement function from the ground up and creating a high-volume talent acquisition engine that increased placement efficiency by 189%.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Co-Founder & Principal Consultant

Current

ElleBe LLC

Jan 2023 - Present (3 years 5 months)

Partner with founders and CEOs to design multi-year people strategies aligning talent infrastructure, org structure, and operating budgets to growth and profitability targets. Provide fractional CHRO/VP People advisory and coach C-suite leaders on leadership effectiveness, feedback culture, and organizational health.

People & Strategy Organizational Design Workforce Planning Leadership Coaching Leadership Development Programs Talent Acquisition

VP Inclusion & Diversity

Visa

Jan 2023 - Jan 2025 (2 years)

Led culture and organizational health strategy for 26,000+ employees globally, advising the CEO and C-suite on workforce strategy, leadership accountability, and enterprise KPIs. Managed a 21-person global team and partnered with People Analytics to track engagement, retention, and leadership effectiveness for Board-level reporting.

People Analytics Change Management Team Leadership Leadership Accountability Employee Engagement Workforce Strategy

Head of Inclusion & Culture

Epic Games

Jan 2020 - Jan 2023 (3 years)

Built and led the employee engagement function (38 people) from the ground up during rapid global headcount growth, owning culture programming and lifecycle experience. Designed performance management systems and OKR frameworks in partnership with HRBPs and senior business leaders to strengthen people leadership and organizational change.

Employee Engagement Organizational Culture Performance Management OKRs Executive Coaching Workforce Planning HRBP Program Management

VP Inclusion & Culture (Regional)

Goldman Sachs

Jan 2019 - Jan 2020 (1 year)

Led people and culture strategy for high-growth regional centers anticipating 50%+ YoY headcount expansion by embedding people practices into divisional operating plans. Developed employer branding and onboarding infrastructure and partnered with HR Business Partners to align workforce planning and talent pipeline strategies to business targets.

HR strategy Employer Branding Onboarding Workforce Planning Talent Strategy Stakeholder Management

Head of Inclusion & Culture

Alphabet

Jan 2017 - Jan 2019 (2 years)

Led inclusion and culture strategy for Google Cloud’s 35,000+ employee organization, partnering with HRBPs, L&D, and Talent Acquisition to execute global OKRs. Built people analytics partnerships to surface engagement and retention risks and managed 16 people across multi-regional culture and employee experience initiatives.

OKRs People Analytics Employee Engagement Retention Management HRBP Program Management

Head of Inclusion Strategy & Culture

Access (Google Fiber)

Jan 2016 - Jan 2017 (1 year)

Advised the CEO and senior executives on people strategy, culture programming, and organizational effectiveness. Led employee engagement strategy and ERG expansion, managing a $200K annual programming and partnerships budget.

Employee Engagement Organizational Effectiveness Budget Management Partnerships Management