Laura Woolford

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT LAURA WOOLFORD

Finding purpose or meaning in life/work is essential to our mental health and our happiness. When we don’t have it, we often feel that something is missing. Once we find that purpose, however, we get into a groove where work no longer feels so much like W-O-R-K. My role as an executive HR leader is to help others find THEIR purpose and lead empathetically while also assisting leaders and employees in realizing their strengths. As a result, I allow them to utilize those qualities to discover their career’s meaning. I find great joy in supporting others, whether I am coaching/counseling leaders, translating business strategy into an easy-to-understand people strategy, or building teams of diverse individuals with complementary skills. Even if it means rolling up my sleeves and digging in to create developmental tools and content, guiding the team towards success is my primary motivation.Over the past 20+ years, my employers have included some of the biggest names in their respective industries – Shell Oil, Corning Inc, four separate divisions of GE, Tesla, and GoDaddy. They are all very different businesses, but that combination has helped me grow and develop my leadership and HR skills. I have supported teams from all areas, including Global Engineering (in both Technology and Industrial businesses), Manufacturing (both part-production and assembly teams), Inside & Outside Sales, Customer Service & Support, and Six Sigma quality organizations. I have grown functional depth in leadership development, executive coaching, employee engagement, talent recruitment & acquisition, union avoidance, performance management & development, employee relations, sales incentive compensation plans, workforce planning, and technical capability model development.I obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and History from Purdue University and a Master’s degree in Labor and Industrial relations and Human Resource Management from Michigan State University.