Brett Appleberg
Executive Snapshot
Chief Human Resources Officer and workforce transformation executive with 25+ years of leadership experience (15+ at VP/CHRO level) across Fortune 100, healthcare, private equity‑backed, and high‑growth organizations, leading workforces from 1,600 to 150,000+ employees and $100B+ in combined revenue.
Brett believes that organizations perform at their highest level when business strategy, leadership, culture, and operational execution work together. His leadership philosophy combines accountability, servant leadership, data-driven decision making, and continuous improvement to create environments where both people and businesses thrive.
Leadership Philosophy
Executive Biography
Brett Appleberg is a Chief Human Resources Officer and workforce transformation executive with more than 25 years of leadership experience, including over 15 years at the Vice President and CHRO levels. Throughout his career, he has partnered with CEOs and executive leadership teams to align workforce strategy with business objectives across Fortune 100 enterprises, healthcare systems, private equity-backed organizations, and high-growth companies.
He has led workforce strategies supporting organizations ranging from 1,600 to more than 150,000 employees and representing over $100 billion in combined annual revenue. His experience spans healthcare, ambulatory care, food distribution and logistics, airline catering, contract services, Medicare sales, and other complex, multi-site operations. Brett has successfully guided organizations through rapid growth, multi-state expansion, mergers and acquisitions, IPO and public-company transitions, organizational redesign, and enterprise-wide culture transformation.
As CHRO for a regional health system and a senior HR executive for organizations including McDonald’s, US Foods, Aramark, Sysco, Gate Gourmet, and GoHealth, Brett has rebuilt HR organizations, modernized compensation strategies, strengthened employee engagement and retention, and implemented workforce initiatives that generated measurable improvements in operational performance, financial performance, and leadership effectiveness.
Known for bridging the gap between people strategy and business performance, Brett helps organizations transform complexity into measurable, sustainable results. His leadership philosophy combines operational excellence, strategic workforce planning, data-driven decision-making, and servant leadership to create organizations where people, culture, and business performance thrive together.
Today, Brett is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Appleworx Consulting and the Founder and Chief Product Architect of the P-Factor Performance Intelligence Platform, a patent-pending framework that connects workforce, operational, customer, and financial performance into a unified intelligence model. By combining executive leadership with workforce analytics, AI-enabled strategy, KPI frameworks, and performance intelligence, Brett helps organizations strengthen leadership accountability, accelerate decision-making, and drive sustainable business results.
Please view Brett’s full executive resume.
TRANSFORMS organizations
Leads enterprise transformation by aligning organizational design, workforce strategy, operational excellence, and change leadership to build agile organizations positioned for sustainable growth.
Builds agile organizations positioned for sustainable growth.
The Leadership Advantage
Executive Leadership in Action
A leadership philosophy that aligns people, strategy, and performance to transform organizations, develop exceptional leaders, and deliver measurable business results.
The Leadership Advantage
Executive Leadership in Action
A leadership philosophy that aligns people, strategy, and performance to transform organizations, develop exceptional leaders, and deliver measurable business results.
DEVELOPS
Leaders
Builds confident, accountable leadership teams through executive coaching, succession planning, culture transformation, and talent development, creating leaders who inspire performance throughout the organization.
Cultivates leaders who inspire performance and lasting culture.
Leadership drives performance.
DELIVERS
Performance
Connects people, operations, analytics, AI, and performance intelligence through executive dashboards, KPI frameworks, and continuous improvement to accelerate decisions and deliver measurable business results.
Turns strategy into measurable business results.
Leadership drives performance.
Education & Professional Credentials
Education
- Master of Arts, Organizational Management
University of Phoenix - Bachelor of Arts, Communications/Advertising
Rowan University
Affiliations & Recognition
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Performance Excellence Award – Aramark Corporation
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Eagle Award - Top 1% – McDonald’s Corporation
- Society for Human Resource Management
1998 – Present, Professional Member - Family Shelter Services Women’s Shelter & Advocacy
2009 – 2010, Board Member - Ronald McDonald’s House Children’s Charity
1999 – Present, Volunteer - World Isshinryu Karate Association, Okinawa, Japan
1986, Certified Instructor – Black Belt
AI & Technology
- Advanced Artificial Intelligence Consulting Program
Prompt Engineering, Generative AI, Agentic AI, Multi-Agent Systems & AI Entrepreneurship - AI for Work & Life Certificate – University of North Florida
- Enterprise Platforms: Workday, UKG, SuccessFactors, PeopleSoft, Tableau, Power BI, Visier, HR Bench
Operational Excellence & Methodologies
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Lean Six Sigma Black Belt
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Lean & Kaizen Methodologies
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Continuous Improvement & Process Optimization