Claudia Kelly founded Spencer Stuart’s Human Resources Practice more than 20 years ago. As a long-tenured leader in the world of HR, she knows the critical importance of getting the right talent into the right roles. For the past two decades, boards, CEOs and CHROs have turned to Claudia for guidance on issues including CHRO succession and search, the development of the CHRO’s team, and leadership assessment and development.

Claudia has witnessed the evolution of the HR function from a largely administrative one to an integral part of company strategy and leadership. As the board of directors focuses more on their critical responsibility for ensuring that CEO succession and overall top leadership bench is in place, the role of the CHRO has increased in importance. The issues of managing executive compensation wisely, creating high-performance cultures and avoiding reputational risk are all critical responsibilities of the CHRO. Claudia and the HR team have recruited chief human resources officers for organizations from startups to Fortune 20 companies across all industries. She also has recruited many CHROs to sit on public company boards. In her succession work, Claudia leads assessments of both internal and external HR leaders, and helps to create development plans and coaching interventions.

In addition to her client work, Claudia has held many firm leadership roles, including chairman of the strategy committee, chief of staff to the CEO, manager of the Stamford office and Global leader of both the Financial Services and Human Resources Practices.

Expertise

Claudia has specialized experience in:

  • CHRO executive search
  • CHRO succession
  • Talent assessment
  • Leadership development
  • Coaching
  • Board director search

 

Recent work

  • Led more than 200 CHRO search assignments over the last 20 years across all industries and geographies
  • Developed and supported the execution of multiple CHRO succession plans
  • Coached multiple succession candidates on their development strategies and action plans
  • Advised on board searches in cases where the target board member was a CHRO
  • Recruited numerous heads of diversity and inclusion, talent, total rewards and divisional human resources business partners

Previous Experience

  • Senior engagement manager with McKinsey & Company, specializing in strategy and marketing for financial services and consumer companies
  • Worked in the White House for President Gerald Ford and in the United States Senate on the staff of Senator Jacob K. Javits

Education

  • B.A. with honors from University of Virginia
  • M.B.A. from Columbia University, where she was the Colgate-Palmolive Fellow

Practice Areas