Lizabeth Murphy

Operating executive with 10+ years building and scaling People, Recruiting, and Operations functions inside high-growth, venture-backed startups — with direct, hands-on ownership of talent acquisition, compensation, performance management, and succession planning. Has built People functions from zero across 13+ organizations, reporting directly to founders and CEOs and sitting on leadership teams through inflection points from lean founding teams to 100+ person orgs. Reduced voluntary attrition by up to 22%, cut time-to-fill by 30%, and improved candidate conversion by 28% by building disciplined recruiting engines and total rewards strategy.

Comfortable operating without a playbook — staying close to the floor on sourcing and employee sentiment while shaping company-level strategy at the leadership table. Increasingly leverages AI-enabled research and reporting workflows to operate with the leverage of a larger team.

Chief of Staff - Gesture - New York, NY

(2026-05)

Operate as strategic partner to the CEO and executive team, translating high-level company strategy into structured execution plans and driving cross-functional alignment across Sales, Engineering, and Operations.

• Designed and implemented the company's core operating cadence, meeting structures, decision-flow systems, and prioritization frameworks — reducing dependency on founder bandwidth while improving accountability and response time.
• Built communication and workflow frameworks that shifted the organization from reactive task management to proactive strategic planning, increasing execution speed and cross-departmental visibility.
• Serve as connective tissue across functions, stepping in as owner-operator on cross-functional initiatives — including people operations and hiring support — without an existing home.

Fractional Chief of Staff / Head of People - Advise Me - New York, NY

(2019-01 - 2026-01)

Embedded strategic and People partner delivered concurrently across 40+ venture-backed startups (25–250 employees); selected concurrent engagements below. Served as fractional Chief of Staff and Head of People for 40+ venture-backed startups, building the full People operating infrastructure — recruiting engines, performance systems, workforce forecasting, and total rewards — needed to scale.

• Built hiring and resourcing roadmaps aligned to revenue and fundraising milestones, partnering directly with founders and executive teams on org design and strategic workforce planning.
• Reduced voluntary attrition by up to 22% and decreased average time-to-fill by 30% through structured performance systems, compensation calibration, and process redesign.
• Applied AI-enabled research and reporting tools to accelerate market analysis, compensation benchmarking, and executive-ready deliverables across concurrent engagements.
• Director, Sales & Revenue Strategy — Bougie Executive Agency (11/2024–03/2026): integrated performance metrics with revenue operations, aligning compensation strategy to pipeline performance and increasing close rates by 17%; built KPI dashboards and forecasting models for executive and sales leadership.
• Employee Experience & Recruiting Strategy — Paige AI (10/2024–10/2025): partnered with engineering leadership to align headcount forecasting and hiring strategy with product roadmap delivery; built structured hiring frameworks improving candidate conversion by 28% and internal satisfaction scores by 18%.
• Entrepreneur Growth Consultant — NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center (10/2025–03/2026): advised growth-stage founders on org design, workforce planning, and leadership capability from Seed to Series B; ran talent risk audits and succession mapping for 15+ founder-led organizations.
• Global Head of People & Recruiting — DFNS, Paris, France (01/2020–10/2021): built global recruiting and operating function across the U.S. and Europe, scaling the team from 15 to 70 employees; implemented compliance and payroll processes across multiple jurisdictions.
• Head of People & Talent — I Solv Risk (01/2023–01/2024) and Organizational Development Consultant — Techstars Global (02/2023–02/2024): built People and operating infrastructure from zero for two high-growth risk-tech startups (0–75 employees), reducing time-to-hire by 35% and implementing performance management and compensation strategy aligned to growth stage.
• Director, People & Organizational Development — SilkRoll (01/2021–05/2023): supported the transition from founder-led to structured management model, building internal career ladders and a company-wide leadership curriculum.

Global Head of People - Dripos - New York, NY

(2024-01 - 2024-10)

Led strategic planning and execution during Series A growth, supporting 3x headcount expansion across distributed U.S. teams.

• Partnered directly with executives to integrate People KPIs into company OKRs and board-level reporting.
• Managed full performance review cycles, promotions, and compensation calibration for 100+ employees.

COO & Head of People - Solospace - New York, NY

(2022-01 - 2023-01)

Owned global operations and People strategy across 3 countries, improving operational efficiency by 20% during a period of rapid product pivot.

• Led organizational restructuring, translating strategic priorities into headcount and resourcing decisions.
• Introduced AI-driven analytics to guide leadership development investment and inform executive decision-making.

Chief of Staff - Fuzzy - New York, NY

(2018-10 - 2019-11)

Partnered directly with executive leadership to support rapid scale in a venture-backed environment ($80M raised), aligning cross-functional strategic initiatives across product, operations, and customer experience.

• Built executive operating rhythms, leadership meeting cadences, KPI dashboards, and board-ready materials to improve decision velocity during hyper-growth.
• Owned high-priority strategic projects end-to-end, reducing coordination drag and strengthening internal communication across distributed teams.

Head of People & Client Relationships - Slope Vintage - New York, NY

(2013-01 - 2019-11)

Founded and scaled the company's first People and client-relationship operating systems as the company grew from 10 to 40 employees across multiple retail locations.

• Owned recruiting, onboarding, and employee relations end-to-end as the company's first dedicated People function.

Doctor of Business Leadership - University of Phoenix (2020 - 2026)

M.S. - Special Education & Psychology - Brooklyn College (2009 - 2010)

B.A. - Education & Psychology - Pratt Institute (2004 - 2008)