CHROs2Go Partner

Donna leads the Board Governance Practice Group. She brings fresh solutions to solve all sorts of people challenges.

Using her core competencies of listening, imagination, strategic thinking, and understanding about how people think, she helps clients with creative ways to build competency, resolve issues and be successful.

Examples of her work include: facilitating strategic planning retreats for senior executive teams in more than thirty companies spanning two dozen industries, coaching senior executives to help them exercise thought leadership and improve personal performance, developing marketing and global positioning plans for corporate and product brands, and redesigning human resource functions to meet strategic shifts of companies. She’s designed and managed major culture change processes for many corporate mergers and expansion plans.

As the first of seven children in her family, Donna learned the importance of people dynamics right from the crib. Her interest grew as she became the high school president of the student council and vice-president of the Siena College Student Council, where she developed skills to negotiate with administrators to implement new programs that students both needed and wanted. Her entry into corporate roles included a rich cultural context, with work in Asia, Europe, and North America. This expanded her sensitive understanding of different ways to address people and performance issues in ways that fit within a culture. Today, she works with executives and employees to design smarter, more effective operations and work cultures and to continually improve the competencies of employees in all roles.

Prior to her CHROs role, she founded and managed Hamlin Harkins, Ltd., an international consulting firm with a successful track record for client support in strategy, change management, and human performance management for companies in more than 54 countries. In the past, Donna served as Senior Vice President of Strategic Change, Executive Planning and Leadership Development for Citigroup’s Associates First Capital Corporation, and as Vice President for Human and Organizational Performance for Texaco, Inc. As the senior executive strategist there, she was responsible for the design and deployment of systems and strategies to improve individual and team performance within key business units for 27,000 employees.

Dedicated to continuous learning, she teaches graduate level students in management, marketing, and entrepreneurship, as her passion is to prepare students for real world roles at work. With one foot in academics, she is the recipient of awards from the International Communication Association and General Electric for her research in organizational communication. A published author, she writes management articles in the area of human performance management.

Active in corporate governance, she is certified in global governance by Harvard University and the National Association of Corporate Directors and serves as an advisor and alum board director at DailyPay, Inc. and is an independent board director for SkyMirr, Inc. She is a member of Women Corporate Directors and Board Prospects. Donna Hamlin discussed board effectiveness and employee brand ambassadorship on GoalSpan's Human Capital podcast.

Donna supports communities, serving and contributing on non-profit boards including Girls Inc., Lead-Women, iAngel, and volunteer consultant for the Center for Citizen Initiatives.