Robyn Arville

Chief People Officer with 20+ years building and scaling people functions in fast-moving, high-growth organizations — from a venture-backed startup to the global technology organization behind Wikipedia, scaling its Talent and Culture function 2.5x during rapid growth.

Thrives in ambiguity and change: building HR from zero, standing up new functions quickly, and putting in the systems, data, and technology a company needs to scale without losing its culture. Deep expertise in org design, talent acquisition at scale, total rewards, HR technology and AI integration, people analytics, and leadership development across globally distributed teams.

Core belief: people are not a resource — people are the mission.

Chief People and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer - NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) - Various Offices

(2022-04)

Environmental advocacy.

• Rebuilt NRDC's HR and DEI functions from the ground up, designing and launching an HR Business Partner model that had no prior precedent at the organization — directly increasing HR strategic partnership capacity across a 700+ person global workforce.
• Improved talent lifecycle outcomes — including retention of high performers and reduction in time-to-hire — by mandating inclusive hiring practices, rubric-based evaluation, and bias-mitigation frameworks across all hiring panels.
• Redesigned the employee onboarding experience from ad hoc, team-level approaches to a centralized institutional framework, establishing a consistent and mission-aligned entry point for every new hire.
• Overhauled the performance assessment, promotions, and rewards programs, creating a transparent, equity-informed structure that replaced subjective processes with accountability-grounded frameworks.
• Served as executive sponsor of NRDC's first organization-wide restructure, redesigning silos and improving cross-functional workflow efficiency — in parallel with a strategic audit to ensure alignment between organizational design and mission impact.
• Substantially elevated people analytics infrastructure, building qualitative and quantitative data systems that now inform HR, DEI, and institutional decision-making at the executive level.
• Led HR technology modernization — overseeing the transition to Dayforce as the core HRIS, running the ATS selection process, and partnering closely with IT on AI integration into people operations.
• Led NRDC's first-ever Values Refresh in decades, producing a suite of specific behavioral expectations and leadership competencies to anchor culture accountability across the institution.
• Conducted a complete overhaul of NRDC’s compensation structure — including a new compensation philosophy and pay principles —establishing measurable pay equity benchmarks across the organization.
• Serve as a fiduciary committee member for NRDC’s 403(b) plan (previously 401(k) fiduciary at Wikimedia Foundation, PLOS, and Humanity United), continuously redesigning benefits to balance cost effectiveness with meaningful, equitable coverage.
• Launched NRDC's Talent Management function — including ASPIRE and LEAP leadership programs, Dignity and Belonging workshops, Anti-racism and Equity principles, and Non-Violent Communication training — building institutional learning infrastructure that did not previously exist.
• Scaled NRDC's ERG ecosystem from 2 to 7 Employee Resource Groups, rechartering each with enhanced governance and clear mandates to serve as active culture-builders and belonging anchors.
• Created a clear, institution-wide set of DEI principles and leadership behavioral competencies, embedding equity accountability into performance systems rather than treating it as a standalone program.
• Key member of NRDC management's bargaining team during staff unionization, modeling a collaborative and constructive partnership approach that preserved organizational culture and institutional trust.

Chief Talent and Culture Officer - Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia) - Remote / Global

(2019-09 - 2022-04)

Global technology nonprofit behind Wikipedia, one of the world’s most-visited websites; globally distributed, remote-first workforce.

• Scaled the Talent and Culture department from 16 to 42 team members in under three years — building out Recruiting, People Operations, People Experience, Learning & Development, and Global DEI to keep pace with rapid organizational growth.
• Raised employee engagement scores by 20+ points in year one by rebuilding trust in leadership, redesigning people programs, and establishing a culture of transparency across 500+ staff in 50+ countries.
• Built career architecture for a global workforce for the first time — Promotions and Compensation methodology, Leadership and Career Path framework, and Learning and Development offerings.
• Led the move to Greenhouse ATS, modernizing recruiting infrastructure to support fast, consistent, global hiring.
• Served as a key member of the Transition Executive Team during a nearly 9-month CEO absence, providing steady people leadership and maintaining organizational continuity through senior leadership transitions including a new CEO and board.
• Led Global DEI reporting function, producing clear programs, accountability frameworks, and metrics to measure improvement — and ensuring a DEI lens was applied to every strategic and people decision made.

Head of People and Culture - PLOS (Public Library of Science) - San Francisco, CA / Cambridge, UK

(2018-08 - 2019-08)

Drive open science forward by making scientific research freely available.

• Served on the executive leadership team of a leading nonprofit open-access publisher of peer-reviewed science and medicine research, integrating the People function as a strategic partner across all business functions and acting as chief advisor to leadership on all people and culture matters.
• Delivered a cohesive people strategy across two international office locations (San Francisco, CA and Cambridge, UK), ensuring continuity of culture, practices, and programs while honoring local context.
• Pushed organizational boundaries on employee experience — recommending bold, values-aligned approaches that disrupted legacy HR norms no longer serving staff or the mission.

Chief of People - Humanity United - San Francisco, CA

(2012-11 - 2018-08)

Human rights philanthropy foundation.

• Led all HR functions — compensation and benefits, full-cycle recruiting, employee relations, workforce planning, and DEI — for a human rights philanthropic foundation, serving as a key member of the executive leadership team across a period of dynamic growth and leadership transition.
• Navigated rapid organizational growth including new board members, executive leadership changes, and a major structural reorganization — while sustaining a healthy, values-aligned culture throughout.
• Traveled extensively to the organization’s program regions — including Africa, Nepal, Thailand, the UK, and Washington, D.C. — keeping HR and DEI strategy grounded in the realities of the communities served.

Senior HR Business Partner - Philips Healthcare - Foster City, CA

(2010-06 - 2012-11)

Digital health and clinical informatics business delivering vendor-neutral data platforms that unify medical images, patient records, and diagnostics across health systems.

• Embedded HR partner to leaders and staff in the digital health and clinical informatics business, building high-performing teams and culture in a complex, matrixed global organization.
• Partnered with managers to raise employee engagement scores and trust — coaching them to understand their teams’ results and lead visible, sustained improvement.
• Coached executives and people leaders as a trusted advisor, strengthening leadership skills and team performance.
• Led and facilitated leadership development programs for people leaders across the business.
• Strategically supported workforce and succession planning, and worked directly with executives to build people programs that are fair, consistent, and human-centered.

Director, Corporate Administration and Human Resources - Pelikan Technologies, Inc. - Palo Alto, CA

(2001-10 - 2009-06)

Venture-backed medical device company developing blood glucose monitoring technology for diabetes.

• Joined as the 7th employee and built the HR and corporate administration functions from scratch, scaling them alongside the company’s growth from startup to 200+ employees with operations in the US, UK, and Germany — recruiting, onboarding, performance management, compensation, compliance, and benefits.
• Played a key role in the acquisition and integration of a German subsidiary — establishing corporate operations, HR programs, and business processes for the new entity.

M.B.A. - Human Resource Management (with honors) - Ashford University

B.A. - Organizational Management (with honors) - Ashford University

Executive Education Program