FRM: President and Chief Executive Officer;
CEO ABC Technologies; Air International Thermal Systems
Toronto, Canada
Over the past 3 years as President and CEO of ABC Technologies, I have had the great pleasure of working with Dennis Donovan in his role as Advisor to our Board of Directors, the Compensation Committee and to my Senior Leadership team. Dennis has been a hands-on partner in the business while helping me and my team through many business, people and process related challenges we faced during our transition from a family-owned business to a public company capable enterprise. In more than 35 years in the automotive industry, and working for companies such as General Motors, Delphi, Ford, Visteon and others, I have run across few business leaders with such an extensive background, diverse experiences and proven toolbox of solutions. Dennis is not only a world class Human Resources Professional; he is also a savvy business leader who has faced and overcome some of the most complex business issues in the global marketplace. If you need advice or direction on a critical business issue that is impacting your business, it is almost a certainty that Dennis not only understands your issue, but has already taken on a similar challenge in his career, has a detailed thought process to step through the minefields around the issue and can offer sage advice on potential pitfalls to watch for during implementation. While I have been extremely impressed with his overall business and HR professionalism, it is his compassion, empathy and interpersonal dynamics that set him apart from others. My only regret is that our paths had not crossed earlier in my career, for I could have been a better leader from it.
FRM: Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resource Officer
NCR Corporation
It is not often that you meet someone who dramatically impacts your career and challenges you to be a better leader. Dennis Donovan is someone who has done just that, for me. I first worked for Dennis at Raytheon Company. As the CHRO, Dennis was charged to create a new culture, upgrade talent, and install consistency in HR operations. This was my first exposure to a true HR professional. Dennis was respected as a business leader who happened to be responsible for Human Resources. He challenged the status quo, implemented programs and processes that are still in place; even though many years have passed. As I reflect on my time working for Dennis, he was intensely focused on achievement and pushed me to be thorough in my preparation, to know the business, to think systemically, and to have an opinion. For every initiative, process and project, he had a vision of success and was relentless in leading the team to achieve it. Everything Dennis touches represents excellence.
FRM: President and CEO
Blue Bird Corporation
As President and CEO of Blue Bird Corporation, it has been my pleasure to have known Dennis Donovan for more than eleven years, beginning with his role as member of our Board of Directors and Compensation Committee. With annual sales of over $1 billion, Blue Bird is a publicly-listed company trading on Nasdaq since 2015, specializing in the design, manufacture and distribution of school buses, with its headquarters located in Macon, Georgia. While Dennis has extensive experience in Human Resources that covers every aspect of the function, he has unique overall operational and business skills that helped us through a transformational turnaround. In addition to offering guidance on upgrading and professionalizing Blue Bird’s personnel-management processes, he provided important feedback to me on our plans to restructure our organization and plant footprint, while minimizing the risks of such actions. His advice was instrumental in improving ongoing profitability and ensuring a seamless transition to becoming a publicly-listed company. Dennis went well beyond his role as Board and Compensation Committee member – independently visiting our facilities multiple times a year to meet and help mentor our senior leadership team. Dennis can always be counted on when needed and intuitively knows the degree to which he should be involved in helping a company address its issues and improve its capabilities.
President & Chief Executive Officer
Hexion, Inc.
Frm: President & Chief Executive Officer
Cyanco
I am grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from and be inspired by Dennis Donovan. Dennis is an adept business leader with exceptional skills in the areas of people, process, metrics and growth strategies. He not only has a strategic mindset, but also the ability to quickly grasp the complexities and challenges of a business and to translate that understanding into a realistic action plan to effect positive change. Dennis strikes the right balance between coaching, mentoring and challenging and he has helped me, and my executive team, grow as a cohesive unit. He has also helped me to personally elevate my leadership capability, credibility and results. I recommend Dennis highly to any organization or executive who is looking to become a better version of themselves.
Senior Managing Director, Lone Star Funds
Former: Senior Managing Director, Cerberus Capital Management, L.P.; Carlyle Group; Donaldson, Lufkin & Jennett
Dennis and I have worked together for the past 13 years. He has been a partner of mine on many successful acquisitions, turnarounds, and monetizations of domestic and international businesses. What sets Dennis apart from others is his unique blend of business knowledge, multi-functional competence and leadership. He has been a key contributor on the Board of Directors and Compensation Committees of many of these companies – providing a thoughtful, pragmatic and actionable perspective. He has a wealth of knowledge, experience and expertise – assisting portfolio company CEOs, executive teams and management with comprehensive planning and focused execution of operating and human capital initiatives. In this regard, Dennis is recognized as one of the top human resource executives in industry. And, with his legal background, he has been on point with international law firms dealing with complex transactions – bringing them to successful closure. Bottom line – Dennis adds significant value and is widely respected by those who work with him.
Vice President, Business Development at Wisq.
Former: Global Head of Glint Strategy & Business Development, LinkedIn; Managing Director, Corporate Executive Board
I had the life-changing opportunity to work for Dennis at The Home Depot and have been fortunate to continue our collaboration for the last 20+ years. Dennis is widely viewed as one of the very best Human Resources leaders in the world, but the reality is he is one of the best business executives in the world. Under Dennis’ leadership at The Home Depot, we executed over 100 highly successful HR initiatives that transformed the culture and business performance of the organization. Dennis challenged all of us to not only build high-quality human capital platforms, but also ensure initiatives had demonstrable impact on the metrics that mattered most to the business, including sales-per-labor-hour, operating margin, shrink, and same-store-sales. This impact on financial and operating performance made certain these were not just world class HR initiatives, but more importantly, were embraced by leaders across Home Depot as important levers they could pull to manage the business. Perhaps most significantly, Dennis created the most meaningful development experience of my career – just like he has done for dozens of others. His guidance, leadership and mentoring has allowed me to help build three businesses valued in the billions of dollars, and I continue to rely on his expertise and global perspective to this day.
Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resource Officer
Johnson Controls
Former: Senior Vice President – Human Resources
Delta Airlines
After several years as a business consultant with McKinsey & Company, I had the pleasure of working with Dennis Donovan at Home Depot in several leadership capacities, including Senior Director Staffing reporting to him. From the first time I met Dennis, he left a lasting impression in many respects. The combination of his leadership style, results orientation, functional expertise, and networking was and remains quite impressive.
Dennis always saw more in his leaders than many saw in themselves. He challenged us all to think bigger. He stretched us with increased scope and complexity of work. He coached, mentored, encouraged and developed us. We all became better leaders and cultivated engaged teams because of him.
Annually, Dennis set ambitious targets which often seemed insurmountable. Yet his structured thinking and formulaic execution always provided a clear path to dissect the issue, leverage analytics and define a course of action leading to successful outcomes.
Having earned a J.D. degree, Dennis’ depth of expertise in industrial relations and executive compensation was world class. This was complemented by his proven years of global experience in training, executive development, succession planning, executive search and business human resources.
His HR experience, strategic thinking and strong business acumen often earned him a seat at the table and the ability to influence C-Suite peers and the CEO alike. The combination of these skills and experiences enabled Dennis to be a change agent, empowering the workforce to sustainably grow the business.
During his time at Home Depot, Dennis led many new, high impact initiatives, such as: ensuring all 2,000 stores had an HR leader, hiring more than 150,000 seasonal works via Mass Hiring Events, partnering with the DOL to hire JMOs to build store leadership pipeline, and optimizing a workforce of 350,000+ via staffing utilization models.
Those of us who have had the opportunity to work with Dennis are better leaders and HR professionals because of it. It is no surprise that many of us have had success professionally and personally in part due to his impact.
Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resource Officer
RAC/ACIMA
I have been a direct report and mentee to Dennis and I can attest that he is among the most influential leaders that I have worked with. He creates a learning environment for team members and consistently shares his knowledge and expertise. Dennis also creates a common mindset around continuous improvement and expects the same from all serving in a leadership capacity. Known for his ability to think beyond HR, Dennis is a strategic, business focused executive who has the ability to lead in complex environments.
Dennis offers value-add insights beyond HR and consistently displays business, financial and operating acumen more reflective of a CEO. His diverse background across industries translates into broad business knowledge used to optimize productivity, drive business results and ultimately shareholder return. He also possesses a keen understanding of how to enable international expansion and drive profitable growth. This rare combination of attributes result in his ability to navigate and influence global organizations in a highly effective manner.
In closing, Dennis is one of those rare leaders who is naturally inspiring and can serve as the “profile of leadership” for any organization.
Managing Director and Co-Founder
Staple Street Capital
I have known Dennis for over 13 years, since working with him at Cerberus Capital Management and now at Staple Street Capital, a private equity firm with over $750 M of capital under management that I co-founded over 10 years ago. He is a member of our firm’s Executive Board. Dennis is not your typical Human Resources professional. He serves as a true strategic partner for private equity sponsors and CEOs in helping them navigate highly complex operational issues which led to his appointment as Senior Executive, Director and Co-Lead at Cerberus Operations & Advisory Company prior to assuming the role of Vice Chairman. Whether it’s redesigning an organizational structure, or developing a comprehensive system to attract and retain best-in-class talent, to dealing with thorny labor related issues, to helping management teams identify and improve their blindspots, Dennis is second to none. Not only does he have great business and operational acumen, he has the innate ability to build trust within teams and get the most out of them in change intensive environments where he commonly operates. His relationships with seasoned executives have been built over the years from both Fortune 50 companies and high performing private equity firms. He intuitively understands value creation and how to help teams optimize it in a sustainable way.
Board Member, Nominating and Governance Committee, Algoma Steel Inc.
Former: President, CEO and Vice-Chairman of ABC Technologies Inc.; Director and Audit Committee , ACPS Automotive Inc.
Dennis is one of the most effective strategic business partners and leaders that I have ever had the privilege to work with. I met Dennis 6 years ago when he was advising a leading New York based private equity group on the acquisition of ABC Technologies Inc, a global tier 1 thermoplastic automotive parts supplier that had been family owned for 45 years. Always a straight shooter, with a laser focus on working with executive management to accomplish multidisciplinary business imperatives, Dennis very quickly became an invaluable thought partner to me as the CEO in terms of working together to assess, evaluate and drive necessary positive changes throughout the global organization in a way that valued our culture, our employee loyalty and dedication, and our team mentality to always drive for success. His skills and expertise prioritized the values we placed on our employees safety and professional development and also our focus on the value of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. Dennis always led with integrity and a lens towards sustainable business profitability by creating and developing the right teams from the plant floor to the C-Suite. Dennis started as a human capital management and business change expert providing our organization with the necessary expertise to navigate the change to private equity ownership and developing people, process, metrics and systems necessary to become a publicly traded company … he continues to be a valued colleague, mentor and friend.
Head of Health Equity and Business Development
Amazon Pharmacy
Long before the words “HR Business Partner “ were in vogue, Dennis Donovan was operationalizing and connecting business outcomes with human resources. As the consummate intrapreneur and entrepreneur, Dennis has the unique ability to “look around corners” and implement strategies that create new channels in the marketplace while also supporting human capital initiatives. I had the privilege to work with Dennis in launching the first of its kind hiring partnership designed to increase the number of bilingual Spanish speaking associates at The Home Depot. This partnership entitled Unidos Podemos (“United We Can”) not only enabled the company to effectively staff its stores in response to customers’ needs, it also provided the company with a channel to new customer insights, products and services that still impact the company’s operations almost two decades later.
President of GW Enterprises LLC.
Managing Director of SMG Management
Former: President & CEO of GE Power and Industrial Systems
Dennis and I worked together directly for about a decade in my role as President and CEO of GE’s Electrical Power and Industrial Businesses. When Jack Welch asked me to take on this role the business had been in survival mode for a number of years following the severe downturn resulting from the Arab Oil Embargo. The mission was to completely rejuvenate this world leading global business and take advantage of a surging market. Dennis was my VP of HR, but played a much larger role, from my personal coach and right hand to Congressional and Community communications. His responsibilities covered our people around the globe, and he created and leveraged our HR processes as a sales tool with customers. In our time together at GE the Business revenue more than doubled. There were obviously many dramatic changes and improvements required to achieve this and Dennis played a key role, directly or indirectly, in all of them. He is clearly a giant of the HR world, but his talent and contributions go way beyond that, as his subsequent career has shown. I will have to say that of all the people I have worked with, Dennis was the most valuable. His ability to put theory into practice and “execute” is extraordinary. Since our time working together, he went on to become one of the most highly regarded Business Executives in the nation. I would add that people who have worked for, or with, Dennis over the years remain devoted to him.
Principal, J Harvey & Associates, LLC
Former: Chief Labor Counsel, US Senate Labor & Human Resources Committee Chairman;
Senior Partner-McGuiness & Yager; VP: Coca-Cola; Raytheon; and, Owens Corning. GE Corporate
I have had the privilege to work for and with a variety of extraordinary companies, including GE, Raytheon, and Cerberus –through which I met Dennis Donovan and embarked on a 30 year journey. It began as a recruit, developed as a direct report, deepened as a mentee, and further evolved as a consultant, colleague and friend. Aside from the significant and sometimes stunning subject matter expertise across multiple functions, Dennis provided three great lessons for me and I believe is the source of the rich value he provides companies and clients. First, he starts at the top – what are the critical business problems to be solved, and everything from there is focused on solving those. He can simultaneous design and build down and up – but always with a laser focus on the business problems to be solved. Secondly, disciplined processes and tools are important to measure and calibrate, but not in and of themselves – only insofar as they make progress towards solving the business goals. He is not afraid to redesign, rebuild, refocus the processes and tools to constantly gain ground on the critical business issues. And lastly and perhaps most importantly, imbedding an embrace of constant and sustainable change into the culture is the surest and maybe only path to sustainable competitive advantage.
Senior Vice President, People and Health Services
Chemours
Having known and worked with Dennis for almost twenty years, I can attest to the future focus, strategic leadership and the process discipline he brings to every situation. Everything I have learned and use today regarding global business transformation and talent management, I learned from Dennis. He is a master at launching and executing multiple change initiatives and bringing them all to bear in order to drive business to the next level. He sets an aggressive pace and inspires others to keep up.
Chairman of the Board of Directors, Delta Airlines
Member of the Board of Directors, Macy’s; Procter and Gamble
Former Chairman and CEO, The Home Depot
Dennis is a business leader of great insight into people, process and how to make effective change happen. I have known him for 30 years, working with him for a decade at GE and then several more years at The Home Depot, where I retired as CEO. He relishes taking on big challenges and rarely (I’m not sure if ever) fails. Everyone who is connected with Dennis benefits from this association.
Founder, XLR-8 LLC; and Former:
Chairman and CEO, Chrysler Corporation;
Chairman and CEO, The Home Depot;
President and CEO, GE Power Systems
I have had the pleasure and benefit of working with Dennis Donovan for over a decade in a variety of businesses. Dennis was our CHRO at GE Power Systems and then again at Home Depot, from heavy industrial to retail. He is among the best in his field and has been recognized time and again by his peers and the media. Dennis brings a proven discipline and process to every business. He is metrics driven and quantitively links process-based initiatives to business outcomes. His passion and focus was immeasurable with extraordinary impact in multi-functional areas including organizational effectiveness, acquisitions, leadership selection & development, change management, labor relations, compensation, international relations, learning, external affairs and performance management, just to name a few. The added benefit is the business and global acumen he brings to the business. His theme of functionally aligned and operationally assigned is an indicator of Dennis’ total business approach and contribution. Many refer to Dennis as a “Chief Change Officer” with his mantra “if competitive advantage is the end game, change is the common denominator – organizations that change effectively win, and those that don’t lose.” At both GE Power Systems and Home Depot we more than doubled the size of the business and became a leader in each sector we served.
Co-Founder of Icon Blue
Board of Directors: Banc of California; Rand Corporation;
Former: Home Depot Lead Director and Compensation Committee Chair
As a former Director and Chair of the Leadership Development and Compensation Committee of Home Depot I had the good fortune of working with Dennis Donovan. Dennis was the EVP of Human Capital Management and Organizational Effectiveness for over 380,000 associates. His unusual combination of expertise in Operations, Human Resources, and Law was invaluable to me as a director, and to the Company as a whole. The many awards he has received, and the articles written about him are not overstated. He had a significant impact at Home Depot, and I am grateful to him for helping me become a more knowledgeable and effective Committee Chair.
Senior Vice President – Human Resources
The Home Depot
I first met Dennis at the Home Depot in 2002, when I was a manager, Organizational Effectiveness, responsible for designing assessments for individual selection and organizational development. While my formal training was extensive, I credit Dennis with exposing me to how to transform my work into impactful solutions to drive change across the business. Dennis was skillful at ensuring that human resources practitioners had a seat at the table to influence business partner outcomes. Likewise, I developed an incredible ability to utilize data to paint a picture needed for business case development and to secure financial investment in the HR strategy. After many process tollgate reviews, the standard of excellence driven by Dennis truly differentiated the deliverables we produced for the organization. In addition to what I learned about “how” to get work done, it was Dennis who first identified my potential to one day lead as a senior human resources generalist, and he regularly nudged me about my capability and capacity to evolve beyond a specialist in I-O psychology. Today, I serve as the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for the Home Depot and I am grateful for the seeds he planted and watered so many years ago. Today several of my HR colleagues comment on graduating from the “school of Arlette Guthrie” when referencing their ability to present human capital information in a succinct and impactful way. Though he may have been before their time, what they really mean is they’ve actually graduated from the “school of Dennis Donovan” because I continue to apply and share those learnings today.
Chief Human Resource Officer
Asbury Automotive Group
Dennis hired me to join the Cerberus Operations and Advisory Company (“COAC”) as Practice Lead for portfolio company executive staffing. Dennis was COAC’s Chief HR Officer at that time. The breadth and depth of Dennis’ hands-on multi-industry leadership experience in operations and human resources, coupled with his incomparable ability to mentor others resulted in extraordinary growth for me as a professional during the 5 years that we worked together. In addition, my career path to becoming the Chief HR Officer at a Fortune 500 company was accelerated. Cerberus’ Founder and Sr. Managing Directors utilized Dennis’ operating expertise on the firm’s most challenging projects. And Dennis gave his team the opportunity to support those projects as well. He utilized a cadence of workstreams with multi-functional teams across Cerberus to unlock the value of its investments. Dennis’ high level of value-creating achievements led to his appointment to Vice Chairman, Senior Executive and Director, and Co-Lead of Cerberus Operations and Advisory Company, Cerberus Capital Management.
Chief People Officer
Workday
I had the pleasure of working with Dennis for six years at The Home Depot. Having now led HR organizations at a number of companies, including Ventana Medical Systems, Polycom and Workday, I can say with confidence that leaders like Dennis are rare. When he joined the The Home Depot, no one could have predicted the HR transformation he would bring to the function, as he redefined the talent strategy and brought a high level of executional rigor to the organization. He has extensive global business experience and is skilled in navigating highly complex situations. Few leaders are as disciplined as Dennis, with high standards, clear accountability and an eye for talent. He’s passionate about developing others and there are many CHROs today, such as myself, who recognize the substantial impact his leadership had on our careers.
Executive Vice President and CHRO, International Market Centers
Former: Chief Executive Officer and Partner, ISHR Group
Dennis is one of the most strategic, laser-focused, hard-working executives I know. Dennis hired me into my first role at GE, and subsequently brought in my firm, ISHR Group, to provide executive assessment and leadership development services at Home Depot and Cerberus Capital Management. What makes Dennis unique from other Human Resource leaders is his ability to always see the strategic impact of his decisions across the entire business equation. He views his role as business advisor, as opposed to a functional leader. He desires to effect real change, always searching for ways to improve the current state. His ability to focus on long-term goals, and then execute plans to accomplish those goals, is always fascinating to watch. Dennis brings an operating mindset that encompasses the entire enterprise and does not operate in silos. He has a mind like a steel-trap, tremendous energy, and a work-ethic like no other. He builds strong relationships, and is inspired by doing what is right for the greater good. Dennis is also a wonderful mentor who makes it a priority to develop talent. He is the consummate professor, always ensuring that he is teaching and leading.
Senior Partner, HR Officers Practice
KornFerry International
Dennis is one of the founding fathers of modern HR and one of the 2-3 best to ever carry the CHRO title. He’s been a stellar CEO consigliere, a turnaround expert, a thought leader and a renowned HR operator. He was one of the early pioneers in using meaningful people analytics to directly drive business outcomes and has long been considered a master at working through complex Labor issues. Along the way, Dennis mentored and developed countless HR professionals into leading CHROs and had a meaningful imprint on today’s HR landscape. I’ve been fortunate to call Dennis a friend, mentor, and thought partner for the past 15 years!
Chief People Officer
Twilio
Dennis Donovan is one of those rare leaders who possess both serious business chops and an understanding of how to motivate and manage teams. Having worked with Dennis during his time at The Home Depot, I had a front seat to his exceptional ability to develop and drive a people strategy that lifts up every part of an organization. Dennis brings both vision and operational excellence to his work, thinking carefully through the most detailed of project plans while balancing the overall strategic objectives of any initiative. He brings out the best in his team by bringing everyone around the table – balancing open discussion with a coaching orientation – which always results in a stronger finished product. Dennis has been a great mentor and a leader in our field, working to advance the practice of Human Capital and the development of the next generation of leaders.
Attorney – Labor and Employment Law
Former Chief Counsel to Chairman, United States National Labor Relations Board
Positions: Law Clerk, Unites States Court of Appeals – 7th Circuit; Foley, Hoag & Eliot – Boston; Jenner & Block – Chicago; and, partner in other Chicago firms
Faculty: Illinois College of Law; Northwestern University School of Law; University of Chicago Law School; University of Virginia Law School; Charleston Law School; and, Stetson University College of Law
My experience with Dennis started years ago when he was Labor Counsel, Area Labor Relations Manager and Chief Negotiator for GE’s operations in Pittsfield, Massachusetts which included the Plastics, Transformer and Defense businesses. I was a Labor and Employment lawyer with the Boston firm of Foley, Hoag & Elliott working with him on litigations and cases before the National Labor Relations Board. What impressed me about Dennis was the combination of two faculties he possessed in more than ample measure. The first was his studied focus on what I call a motivational search—i.e., what is driving the other side’s behavior. The second was his astute appreciation of what kinds of compromises are tolerable and what kinds are not due to their potential for constraining the company’s flexibility to respond to changed circumstances down the road. Dennis’ ability to hypothesize changed scenarios was quite impressive. When it comes to formulating possible resolutions, Dennis characteristically would think out of the box. It was clear to me early on that Dennis’ career would take the impressive trajectory it has over the years.
President, BFU Consulting
Former Chief Executive Officer, Reydel
Paris, France
As Chief Executive Officer of Reydel, I had the privilege to work with Dennis Donovan who was member of the Board of Directors and Compensation Committee – and served as an Advisor to the management team. Reydel is a $1B automotive interior systems business headquartered in France with 27 manufacturing facilities, just-in-time assembly sites and technical centers in Europe, South America and Asia.
Dennis and I worked together directly in many areas of the business. As a Board Director and Member of the Compensation Committee, his expertise and experience significantly contributed to creating an effective stand-alone company from a complicated carve-out from Visteon. As an Advisor, Dennis always provided sound advice and counsel in any situation. His operational, human resource and international skills were clearly evident and leveraged to successfully launch multiple business initiatives to achieve Reydel’s successful turnaround. He also partnered with me and the CHRO to put in place human capital platforms including new organizational designs, critical C-level staffing, performance management process, various compensation plans, labor relations initiatives and leadership assessment and development. During our interactions we could mix practical items (he was always keen on visiting our factories) with theoretical approaches which was key to effective problem solving and decision making. These are examples of his contribution, but Dennis offered much more since he not only strongly supported the business, he was part of it – and his guidance was invaluable.
Managing Director
White Wolf Capital, LLC
I have known Dennis Donovan for over three decades and have had the good fortune of working with—and learning from—him at various times and in various settings over that period. From Fortune 50 public companies at the top of their games to distressed privately held lower middle-market firms struggling to survive, I have watched Dennis time and again cut through numbing complexity and tactical disarray to lead management teams down a path to stellar results.
Dennis’s expertise spans vast latitude and longitude. Few, if any, have attained the level of profound knowledge and experience across all facets of human resources that Dennis has mastered over his career. Dennis literally “wrote the book” on many of the HR best practices found today in the most admired global companies (as is reflected in the numerous awards and recognitions he has received from virtually every professional organization of consequence). Moreover no one has served as a mentor to so many currently sitting in CHRO chairs across every sector of the economy, leaders who attribute no small measure of their success to Dennis’ generativity and wise counsel. As a former Donovan protégé once said to me, “Whenever my back is up against the wall, I pause and ask myself, ‘What would Dennis do?’” But Dennis is more than a HR guru with few peers; his comprehensive business acumen and strategic wisdom make him a much sought-after counselor and director to CEOs and board chairs across today’s global business landscape.
Simply put, Dennis has an uncanny nose for sniffing out potential value and a singular gift for rallying teams around a plan for realizing that potential.
Avocat à la Cour – Partner
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Paris, France
I have been a French qualified lawyer in Paris for over twenty years, leading the employment practice of Ashurst LLP for more than ten years and now Partner in charge of the employment practice in France of GIBSON DUNN. I have had the chance to work with Dennis Donovan as I was advising one of the top clients of my firm, for whom Dennis was leading this project. Our client needed us to advise, prepare and implement critical employment transactions. Needless to say, this project required comprehensive planning and flawless execution to assure all client objectives were met. I have been very impressed by the way Dennis was heavily involved in the daily preparation of this case and how vital this was in getting things done on schedule. I was also very impressed to see how fast he grasped the complexities of French employment law requirements, known as one of the most complex employment legislations worldwide. Dennis managed to get this done quickly, in both a cost and time effective manner for our client. In achieving this, he adeptly managed the expectations of all parties concerned and treated everyone in the most respectful and amicable manner, which was key to ensure that the desired results were achieved with no adverse reputational consequences. On top of that, it is a great pleasure working with Dennis who is a consummate professional with a very pragmatic approach.
Senior Partner, HR Officers Practice
KornFerry International
Dennis is one of the founding fathers of modern HR and one of the 2-3 best to ever carry the CHRO title. He’s been a stellar CEO consigliere, a turnaround expert, a thought leader and a renowned HR operator. He was one of the early pioneers in using meaningful people analytics to directly drive business outcomes and has long been considered a master at working through complex Labor issues. Along the way, Dennis mentored and developed countless HR professionals into leading CHROs and had a meaningful imprint on today’s HR landscape. I’ve been fortunate to call Dennis a friend, mentor, and thought partner for the past 15 years!
Dennis is one of the founding fathers of modern HR and one of the 2-3 best to ever carry the CHRO title. He’s been a stellar CEO consigliere, a turnaround expert, a thought leader and a renowned HR operator. He was one of the early pioneers in using meaningful people analytics to directly drive business outcomes and has long been considered a master at working through complex Labor issues. Along the way, Dennis mentored and developed countless HR professionals into leading CHROs and had a meaningful imprint on today’s HR landscape. I’ve been fortunate to call Dennis a friend, mentor, and thought partner for the past 15 years!