Chief People Officer · CHRO
Building the people function a business actually needs.
Twenty-five years designing organizations, integrating acquisitions, and building the infrastructure that lets companies grow without breaking.
- $6.1M
- Workforce synergies delivered
- 23
- Acquisitions integrated in under 10 months
- 44%
- Reduction in time-to-hire
- 4
- People functions built from the ground up
- 9,500+
- Employees across 11 states
Strategic People Leadership
Joseph Varner, CPMI
I'm a senior people executive who partners with leadership teams to turn people strategy into business performance.
I've built and rebuilt people functions across senior living, homebuilding, technology, CPG, spirits, and beauty, under private equity ownership, foreign-parent governance, and founder-led growth. Different industries, different owners, same problem: a business outgrowing the function that's supposed to hold it together. My work is organizational design, post-merger integration, talent strategy, total rewards, and executive coaching, and the through-line is helping companies scale without losing what made them work in the first place.
I think like an operator, not just an HR leader. The function exists to make the business stronger, and I've spent my career building it that way.
Leadership Experience
25 years in senior HR roles
Global Perspective
Teams and operations across multiple regions
Strategic Vision
Business-aligned people strategy
Change Leadership
Growth, integration, and transformation
Sectors I'm drawn to
Sectors of interest for a next role; not a list of past employers.
- Homebuilding
- Tech
- CPG
- Beauty
- Spirits
- Manufacturing
- Healthcare
- Education
- Aerospace
- AdTech
Beyond the work
There's more to me than the work. I'm a husband, a devoted fur parent, and a lifelong collector of vinyl. I came up playing drums, and I still think like a drummer. The drummer isn't always the one people watch, but if he loses the tempo, everyone feels it. Rugby, football, and track taught me different versions of the same lesson: know your role, trust the people around you, and do your part well. These days, photography and gardening are where I go to think. Photography forces me to slow down and really see what's in front of me. Gardening teaches patience. You can do everything right and still have to give something time to grow.
If I had to name what guides me, it would be two words: intentional and deliberate.
Intentional means knowing why I'm doing something before I do it. Deliberate means being willing to choose the harder path when I know it will teach me something. Most of the decisions I'm proudest of came from choosing growth over convenience.
Going back to school after thirty years was one of them.
I earned my Global Executive MBA from Alliance Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester, and I chose the program very deliberately. I was the only American in my cohort, which was exactly the point. I didn't want to learn global business from a textbook. I wanted to learn it alongside people living and leading it, in rooms where my perspective wasn't the default.
That mindset hasn't changed. I'm continuing my studies in AI for HR Professionals at Arizona State University, and I hold the CPMI certification in post-merger integration through IMAA. I believe twenty-five years into a career should make you more curious, not less.
Iron sharpens iron. But only if you keep putting yourself in rooms with people who know things you don't.
“I think like an operator, not just an HR leader; using HR as a driver of the business, not a support function.”
Joseph Varner
Professional Journey
Experience & Achievements
A career built across industries, ownership structures, and operating conditions; from private equity to foreign-parent governance to founder-led growth. Company names are deliberately absent; the work speaks for itself.
Independent Practice · 2026–Present
Advisory & Board Service
Advising operators, founders, and sponsors on organizational design, talent and total-rewards architecture, culture and change, and the people side of transactions. Current engagements include counsel to a founder and CEO on human-capital strategy and commercial growth. Board director for a national nonprofit supporting LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs; governance oversight on strategy, executive compensation, and leadership succession.
Senior Living · Homebuilding · Technology · 2021–2026
Chief People Officer & SVP, HR
Led the people function across three organizations under very different pressures: a senior-living operator absorbing rapid acquisition growth, a $1.4B homebuilder under Japanese parent ownership, and a PE-backed technology business moving through a divestiture.
In senior living, I led the HR integration of 23 acquired communities in under ten months, scaling from 8,100 to 9,500+ employees across 11 states without operational disruption. In homebuilding, I built four functions from the ground up: the company's first leadership-competency framework, its first L&D capability, its first total-rewards team, and its first dedicated talent-acquisition function. I also designed the long-term incentive architecture underneath that growth. In technology, I held the organization intact through a divestiture and a full shift to remote work during COVID.
- 44% faster time-to-hire
- 12% lower turnover
- 23 communities integrated
- 8,100 → 9,500+ employees
Spirits · 2017–2021
Head of HR, North America Sales
Directed HR strategy for a $7B North American spirits business; talent development, workforce planning, leadership growth, and engagement for a team of 630+. Led a route-to-consumer sales reorganization, designed succession plans that strengthened leadership pipelines, and served as North America Diversity & Inclusion Officer, embedding inclusion work into commercial partnerships with distributors, suppliers, and agencies.
- $6.1M in efficiencies unlocked
- 630+ team supported
Personal Care & Beauty · 2010–2017
HR Site Leader & Senior Global Director
Progressed through four HR leadership roles to Senior Global Director, overseeing site leadership, corporate HR, and North America retail operations for a global personal-care leader. Served as talent-selection owner and organizational architect through a corporate acquisition, partnering with legal, finance, and R&D to redesign structures and align critical roles across the combined organization. Revamped performance management to link compensation to market.
- +67% high-potential representation in key roles
Media & Entertainment · 2000–2010
Human Resources Leadership
Began my career in film and publishing, leading full-cycle recruiting and HR business support across business development, legal affairs, licensing, global marketing, and editorial; including work on an Academy Award-winning film franchise. Later moved into brand and retail HR for a global apparel and licensing group.
Areas of Expertise
Strategic HR Leadership
Specialized expertise across the disciplines that determine whether an organization scales, holds together, and performs.
Organizational Design
Designing structures that align with business strategy and optimize performance; not org charts inherited by accident.
Talent Strategy
Talent acquisition, management, and succession programs that ensure the organization has the capability its strategy demands.
Cultural Transformation
Building and evolving culture to support business objectives and hold organizations together through change.
Performance Management
Performance systems that drive accountability, recognize achievement, and foster continuous improvement.
Total Rewards & Compensation
Pay structures, long-term incentives, and recognition architecture that reward the behavior a business actually needs.
Executive Coaching
Targeted coaching for senior leaders to sharpen effectiveness and their impact on organizational success.
M&A & Post-Merger Integration
HR due diligence, synergy modeling, and post-close integration; the org design, compliance architecture, and leadership retention that decide whether a deal delivers.
CPMI-certified · IMAAHR Analytics & Technology
Leveraging data, AI, and emerging technology to sharpen decision-making and optimize how the function operates.
Interactive Diagnostic
How strategic is your people function?
Six questions, two minutes. This is the same lens I bring to a leadership team; a fast read on where your people function is strong, where it's exposed, and what to work on next. No email required to see your results.
Varner Advisory
Selective advisory work
A practice run by one person; not a firm. The restraint is the point.
Alongside executive roles, I advise operators, founders, and sponsors on organizational design, talent and total-rewards architecture, culture and change, and the people side of transactions.
Most engagements involve a business that has outgrown the people function it has; whether the pressure comes from an acquisition, a new owner, a growth stage, or a leadership transition. I design the structure, build the capability, and install the discipline the business needs to hold together while it scales.
- HR due diligence and synergy modeling
- Post-close integration, from diligence through day 100
- Organizational and total-rewards design for scaling companies
Get in Touch
Let's connect
Always glad to talk about the work; how people strategy drives business performance, what makes organizations hold together through change, or where an opportunity might fit.
- Calendly
- Let's Connect
- Phone
- 917.455.9081
- Joseph Varner, CPMI
- Location
- Greater Phoenix, Arizona