HR Consultants in San Francisco to Watch for in 2025

San Francisco & The Bay Area HR Experts to Know in 2025

In the Bay Area, transformation isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a constant state of motion. From startups in SoMa to social enterprises in Berkeley, and biotech labs in Emeryville to nonprofits in Oakland, organizations are evolving fast—and they need people systems that can evolve just as quickly.

That’s where the region’s HR consultants come in. These are the builders, fixers, advisors, and coaches who help companies navigate scale, stabilize operations, build equitable cultures, and unlock leadership potential. They’re working behind the scenes, solving problems no tech stack can fix alone.

We’ve curated this list of standout HR professionals working in San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley. Whether they operate solo, run boutique firms, or lead consulting divisions, each one is helping organizations adapt to the future of work—with heart, strategy, and results.

How We Built This List

At Digital Reference, we take pride in spotlighting the real operators—the people actually doing the work behind thriving teams and sustainable culture. Our methodology includes:

• 🌉 Regional research and ecosystem analysis across SF, Oakland, and Berkeley
  
  
• 📣 Reviews of public work, case studies, and testimonials
  
  
• 🧠 Alignment with future-of-work trends, including DEI, trauma-informed systems, founder coaching, and flexible org design
  
  
• 🤝 Values-driven evaluation, emphasizing human-first practices over buzzwords
  
  

Want to know how we think about HR excellence? Check out:
👉 HR Consultants in the USA to Watch
👉 What Do HR Consultants Really Do?

Let’s meet the people building the backbone of Bay Area workplaces.

Featured HR Consultants in SF & The Bay Area

Lisa Johnson

Founder, Corporate Cowgirl
LinkedIn | Website

Lisa Johnson brings boldness, business savvy, and a deep understanding of emotional intelligence to her HR practice, Corporate Cowgirl. With over two decades of experience, she’s helped Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, and fast-moving startups navigate leadership transitions, culture dysfunction, and compliance gray areas.

Lisa’s approach is no-nonsense but deeply human. She doesn’t just offer templates—she partners with organizations to design people systems that actually work in real life.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 🤠 Authentic executive coaching and conflict resolution
  
  
• 📘 People policies that bridge legal structure with cultural fit
  
  
• 💬 Leadership retreats, trainings, and team diagnostics
  
  
• ⚖️ Expertise in Title IX, EEO, and workplace investigations
  
  

Her clients often describe her as a “straight shooter with soul.” She’s especially powerful in moments when organizations need to confront hard truths and move forward with integrity.

Rima Hopkins

Founder, Business Partner Pro
LinkedIn | Website

With over 25 years of HR experience—including major roles in finance, tech, and education—Rima Hopkins is the steady hand behind Business Partner Pro. Her practice focuses on end-to-end HR for early-stage and mid-size businesses that want real strategy without the corporate bloat.

Rima blends operations, leadership coaching, and compliance into tailored solutions that actually stick. She’s known for walking clients through the messy middle of organizational growth—hiring, restructuring, performance issues, and more.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 🛠️ Fractional CHRO services for growing companies
  
  
• 🧭 Leadership coaching grounded in EQ and accountability
  
  
• 📈 HR audits that identify hidden friction points
  
  
• 💼 Small business HR infrastructure with big-picture results
  
  

Her motto? “Good people practices create great companies.” She helps make that happen.

Aaron Slater

Senior Consultant, Beauchaine Consulting
LinkedIn | Website

Aaron Slater is an HR and operations leader with deep experience supporting mission-driven organizations and scaling nonprofits. At Beauchaine Consulting, he delivers HR transformation strategy that’s both empathetic and effective.

Aaron is especially skilled in helping organizations untangle complex people challenges—like reorgs, turnover, and burnout—while supporting leaders in becoming more inclusive, self-aware, and courageous.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 🌍 People ops strategy for nonprofits and social enterprises
  
  
• 🧠 Trauma-informed org design and change management
  
  
• 📑 Policy development with a justice lens
  
  
• 🎯 DEI-focused coaching for leadership teams
  
  

Clients value his calm, clarity, and compassion. Aaron’s not just building systems—he’s healing broken ones.

Dale D.

Founder, Human First HR Consulting
LinkedIn | Website

Dale Dadoy created Human First HR Consulting to help organizations put people at the center of everything. A self-described "employee experience architect," Dale focuses on equity-driven policies, inclusive onboarding, and leadership development—especially for BIPOC- and LGBTQIA+-led organizations.

With a background in both nonprofit and corporate HR, Dale is fluent in systems—and knows when they need rethinking. Their coaching and facilitation work is particularly valued during times of high tension or transition.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 🌈 Inclusive policy creation and culture building
  
  
• 🎓 People-first onboarding and learning programs
  
  
• ✊ Advocacy-based founder and manager coaching
  
  
• 🧰 Equity audits and feedback system redesign
  
  

Dale is the kind of consultant who makes your team feel seen—and ready to lead.

Emily Nelson Ramos

Founder, The Catch Consulting
LinkedIn | Website

Emily Nelson Ramos brings a mix of organizational development, coaching, and facilitation to her consultancy, The Catch. She works at the intersection of culture, leadership, and equity—partnering with clients to co-create structures that support trust, joy, and justice.

Emily’s clients are often navigating big internal questions: how to shift culture, lead through change, or manage burnout. She offers not just tools, but perspective—helping teams slow down to move forward.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 🧭 Facilitating value-alignment in leadership and teams
  
  
• 💬 Culture diagnostics and repair
  
  
• 🌿 Coaching for high-impact women and BIPOC leaders
  
  
• 🔁 Organizational rhythm mapping for sustainability
  
  

She’s a coach, a strategist, and a deeply thoughtful presence for growing orgs.

Lani Marsden

HR Consultant and Executive Coach
LinkedIn | Website

With over 30 years of experience, Lani Marsden is a go-to HR strategist for companies navigating leadership conflict, culture change, and compliance refreshes. Her clients range from VC-backed startups to nonprofit boards—and they call her when they need honest answers and sustainable fixes.

Lani’s magic lies in her ability to balance structure with soul. She builds strong HR frameworks while helping leaders build their own internal clarity.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 🧠 Organizational diagnostics and strategy
  
  
• 🧰 Interim HR leadership for restructuring orgs
  
  
• 🤝 Founder coaching and partnership development
  
  
• ⚖️ Audit-based compliance and risk mitigation
  
  

Lani is practical, patient, and one of the Bay Area’s most trusted HR minds.

(Continued in next message with remaining consultants and final sections.)

Here’s the rest of the blog, including the remaining consultant profiles and the final recap:

Bernadette Jones

Founder, Visionova HR
LinkedIn | Website

Bernadette Jones brings a future-forward lens to HR, helping organizations design talent systems that promote resilience, adaptability, and performance. At Visionova HR, she partners with high-growth companies to build cultures that are inclusive by design—not as an afterthought.

She’s especially focused on equipping leaders with tools for strategic decision-making, equitable hiring, and talent sustainability. Her frameworks help orgs stop reacting to people problems—and start preventing them.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 📈 Scaling people strategy with clarity and efficiency
  
  
• 🤖 Leveraging HR tech for better outcomes
  
  
• 🌍 DEI and anti-racism integration
  
  
• 📊 Workforce planning and performance systems
  
  

Bernadette is a strategist, a technologist, and a powerful ally to values-aligned leaders.

Joe Farris

Partner, Nua Group
LinkedIn | Website

Joe Farris is a compensation expert, benefits strategist, and a go-to resource for startups navigating growth-stage complexity. At Nua Group, he helps clients design total rewards systems that make sense—financially, legally, and culturally.

Joe’s consulting combines analytics with storytelling. He explains compensation strategy not as a spreadsheet, but as a narrative of what a company values. His work helps orgs attract top talent, retain key contributors, and stay compliant in multiple states or countries.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 💰 Compensation architecture and benchmarking
  
  
• 🌍 Global benefits design for distributed teams
  
  
• 📈 Equity and incentive planning
  
  
• 🧠 Founder advisory for people strategy alignment
  
  

Joe helps HR and finance teams speak the same language—and build smarter systems.

Jane Kow

Founder, HR Law Consultants
LinkedIn | Website

Jane Kow is both an employment attorney and an HR advisor, making her an essential asset for companies navigating the legal complexities of modern work. Through HR Law Consultants, Jane partners with organizations to prevent problems before they start—offering compliance guidance, training, and proactive policy development.

She is particularly skilled at helping companies address disability accommodations, wage/hour compliance, and internal investigations—always with a lens of care and respect.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• ⚖️ Employment law compliance across jurisdictions
  
  
• 🧩 Accommodations, leave laws, and return-to-work planning
  
  
• 📚 Legal training for managers and leadership
  
  
• 🛡️ Support during investigations or audits
  
  

Jane brings both precision and humanity to the table. She protects people and the business.

Julie Chendes

Principal, Next Level Strategies HR
LinkedIn | Website

Julie Chendes is a startup whisperer and culture architect who helps early- and mid-stage companies set up HR from the ground up. At Next Level Strategies HR, she provides everything from compliance audits to exec coaching—always tailored, never templated.

With decades of HR experience across tech, healthcare, and professional services, Julie understands that fast-moving companies need just-right support: not too much, not too little.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 📋 End-to-end HR buildouts for founder-led orgs
  
  
• 🧠 C-level coaching and succession planning
  
  
• 🌿 DEI and values integration in early-stage teams
  
  
• 🧭 Interim and fractional HR leadership
  
  

Julie makes scaling smoother—and helps founders avoid the most common growing pains.

Nancy Connery

Founder, Connery Consulting
LinkedIn | Website

Nancy Connery was Salesforce’s first VP of HR—and she’s been shaping the Bay Area’s people landscape ever since. At Connery Consulting, she leads a team that delivers executive search, organizational design, and HR strategy for startups and established tech firms alike.

Nancy’s superpower? Aligning people with scale. She knows how to take a founder’s vision and turn it into a thriving, high-performance org with the right leadership in place.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 🔎 Executive search + succession planning
  
  
• 🏗️ Org design for scale-ups and IPO-bound companies
  
  
• 🧠 People strategy during high-growth phases
  
  
• 🧬 Deep insight into the Bay’s unique hiring landscape
  
  

If you’re building something big, Nancy helps you get the people side right.

Richard Rossignol

Founder, Expert HR Consulting
Website

With decades of experience and a calm, strategic approach, Richard Rossignol founded Expert HR Consulting to serve small and mid-sized businesses navigating tough HR challenges. His clients rely on him for compliance, handbooks, performance systems, and investigations—all delivered with patience, clarity, and professionalism.

He understands that in growing companies, HR can’t be an afterthought—and he helps them build infrastructure that’s legally sound, scalable, and respectful.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 📘 Custom HR policy and compliance
  
  
• 📈 Performance management with clear frameworks
  
  
• ⚖️ Workplace investigations and legal support
  
  
• 🧠 Small business HR for founders and managers
  
  

Richard offers peace of mind—and the kind of stability you can grow on.

Bay Area HR: Big Thinking, Quiet Power

The Bay Area is home to some of the most innovative companies in the world. But behind the apps, code, and investor decks, there are HR consultants building something just as important: teams that work, cultures that last, and systems that scale.

From Oakland to Berkeley to San Francisco, these professionals are teaching managers, coaching founders, rewriting outdated policies, and making compliance feel human. They’re leading quietly—but their impact is loud.

A Note from Digital Reference

At Digital Reference, we’re not just here to spotlight talent—we’re here to connect the dots across the people ecosystem. We research, map, and surface the operators doing the real work—HR professionals, culture architects, and organizational coaches—so that founders, managers, and investors can make smarter people decisions.

We’re building a different kind of platform:

• 🧭 One that centers the middle layer—not just the C-suite
  
  
• 🤝 One that values clarity over buzz
  
  
• 📈 One that tracks talent by impact, not just job titles
  
  

Want to know more about our mission?
👉 About Digital Reference
👉 What Are Human Resource Professionals?

We’ll be updating this Bay Area list regularly—so if you know a consultant doing exceptional work, send them our way.

And if you are that consultant?
You’re already in the right place.

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