Experience & Recognition | Chris Courneen

Focus Areas

Broad expertise. One throughline: margin.

AI, HR, modernization, sales, operations, leadership, and technology: a unique toolset built to see across the entire business and drive margin.

Focus Area

Enterprise Integration

Aligning strategy, leadership, human capital, culture, operations, and AI into one system built for sustainable margin expansion.

Focus Area

AI-Driven Enterprise Transformation

From recruitment automation to predictive analytics that cut cost-per-hire and shrink time-to-productivity.

Focus Area

HR Modernization

Modernizing how HR creates business value: systems and decisions built to expand margin, not just headcount efficiency.

Focus Area

Organizational Design

Structuring the org to eliminate redundant cost and support growth without adding headcount.

Focus Area

Leadership Development

Building leaders around durable skills, judgment, adaptability, and follow-through, who protect margin, retention, and productivity, not just morale scores.

Focus Area

Workforce Transformation

Moving from a traditional cost-center model to a lean, tech-enabled function that pays for itself.

Core Leadership Expertise

Built for the boardroom, not just the HR org chart.

A CHRO who also ran sales operations and a warehouse floor: not a career HR generalist.

Trusted CEO & Executive Advisor, with deep operating expertise across:

Cross-Functional Business Partnership

Workforce & Succession Strategy

Compensation & Total Rewards

AI-Enabled HR Transformation

Culture, Engagement & Change

Employee Relations, Litigation & Risk

Manufacturing & Distribution Environments

Commissioned Sales & B2B Environments

SG&A & Cost Structure Optimization

Operational Excellence & Productivity

Benefits & Workers' Compensation Strategy

Enterprise Risk Advisory

The Path

An enterprise operator, built from the floor up.

Every role built the same muscle: turning workforce strategy into SG&A savings, margin, and measurable business outcomes. Click any role to expand it.

Senior Vice President, Global Head of HR (CHRO)

MS International (MSI) · March 2025 – Present

Enterprise HR executive for a multi-billion dollar global building materials distributor and one of the largest importers of goods in the United States, with integrated manufacturing, import, sales, and distribution operations. Owns global HR strategy across every region and two manufacturing businesses.

Vice President, Global Head of HR (CHRO)

MS International (MSI) · March 2021 – March 2025

Architected MSI's global COVID-19 workforce response. Designed AI-enabled HR operating models that reduced time-to-hire by three weeks and lifted HR operations and L&D productivity 250%. Re-engineered wellness and medical benefits strategy, avoiding $3.5M in projected cost increases.

Senior Director, North America Head of HR

MS International (MSI) · June 2019 – March 2021

Stabilized high-volume warehouse operations by reducing attrition from 53% to a sustained 20%, generating $4.5M in annualized savings. Partnered with IT to build an in-house applicant tracking system, HRIS, and time & attendance system.

HR Regional Manager / Employee Relations Manager / Talent Acquisition Manager

McMaster-Carr Supply Company · HR Leadership Roles

Led regional HR across a multi-site, multi-billion dollar B2B industrial supply company. Built succession planning and leadership development frameworks. Restructured Talent Acquisition, lifting offer-acceptance rates 15%.

Sales Manager / Inventory Control and Replenishment Manager / Inbound Supply Manager

McMaster-Carr Supply Company · Operations & Commercial Leadership

Held multiple managerial roles across sales, operations, and logistics. Managed sales for the largest orders and largest accounts at a multi-billion dollar industrial supply company, including major relationships with SpaceX, Tesla, Boeing, Raytheon, and Disney. Managed receiving for 500,000 SKUs, oversaw inventory accuracy across an 800,000 sq. ft. facility, and led order, expedite, and logistics teams, reducing error rates 20% and improving customer outcomes 85%.

Board, Advisory & Startup Roles

Building and advising beyond the operating role.

Concurrent with his enterprise role, Chris advises at board level and builds at the ground floor of early-stage companies. Click any role to expand it.

Advisory Board Member, SHRM Executive Council

The Strategic Advisory Board for SHRM · 2026 – 2028

Selected to the SHRM Executive Council, the strategic advisory board for SHRM. The council is made up of Fortune 250 CHROs, senior business leaders, and academics who advise SHRM on the workforce issues shaping the profession, and whose guidance shapes SHRM's research, priorities, and direction.

Fellow members represent some of the world's most influential organizations, including Microsoft, Delta Air Lines, FedEx, Bank of America, Merck, Carnival Corporation, Illinois Tool Works, The Hertz Corporation, and H&M Americas, alongside academic leaders from Harvard Business School and Yale University.

See the SHRM announcement →

Founding Advisor, AI Startup

Agentic AI for the Future of Work · 2026 – Present

Founding advisor to an AI startup, on board before its first round of funding and through its commercialization phases, as it builds agentic systems for the future of work: digital teammates that take on real work alongside people. Its founders are four-time founders with a significant exit at every prior company, now building their fourth, this AI company. Ground-floor experience building an AI company from the earliest stage.

Founding Member & HR Lead, Forge Prep

Next-Generation School · 2025 – Present

A founding member of Forge Prep, building the organization from the ground up: designing the software and workflows that run the school, standing up its business-creation and operating formalities, and building and leading the HR function. Hands-on startup experience at the foundational level.

Awards & Recognition