Ian Ziskin

Ian Ziskin is President of EXec EXcel Group LLC, a consulting and coaching firm he founded following a highly successful 28-year career as a business executive. EXec EXcel Group builds individual and organizational credibility through human capital strategy, leadership & talent development, and organizational transformation.

His consulting, coaching, teaching, speaking, writing, board advising, and corporate work spans the aerospace and defense, automotive, consumer products, education, electronic components, energy, information services, and telecommunications industries, among others, in high technology, service, and manufacturing environments. As part of his consulting practice, Ian serves as an Executive in Residence with the Center for Effective Organizations (CEO) at USC’s Marshall School of Business, and he has played a similar role in the past at the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) at Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He also is a Special Advisor to World 50, Inc., where he consults for its HR50 and Next HR50 programs.

Ian’s global leadership experience includes serving in Chief Human Resources Officer and other senior leadership roles with three Fortune 100 corporations—Northrop Grumman, Qwest Communications, and TRW—where he had a track record of designing and implementing innovative business and human capital solutions for complex businesses with combined revenues of $68 billion and 300,000 employees in over 25 countries.

Ian has been a leader of transformational change initiatives including acquisition integrations, executive compensation redesigns, human capital strategy implementations, leadership development and talent management upgrades, reorganizations, operating performance improvements, and people cost management plans.

As an integral part of his leadership and CHRO experience, Ian Ziskin has partnered with CEOs, Presidents, COOs, operating and staff executives, and Boards of Directors. His portfolio of responsibilities has extended beyond core Human Resources functions to include oversight of diversity and inclusion; employee communications; environmental, health, safety, and sustainability; ethics; facilities, flight operations, and security.
Over the course of his career, Ian has been fortunate to lead, coach, and develop thousands of incredibly talented individuals.

Ian is an author and speaker on subjects including acquisition integration, career management, executive compensation, globalization, HR strategies and competencies, HR public policy issues, leadership and talent development, and the workforce/workplace of the future, among other things. His writings and commentaries have been featured in books by authors such as John Boudreau, Ed Lawler, Dave Ulrich, Pat Wright, and others, as well as in periodicals and web sites including BNA Reporter, Career Lab, Directors and Boards magazine, HR Executive magazine, HR Management magazine, SHRM magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and Organizational Dynamics Journal. He speaks regularly at companies, universities, and professional association meetings.

Most recently, Ian wrote WillBe: 13 Reasons WillBe’s are Luckier than WannaBe’s (2011), now available; and he is a contributing author to The Chief HR Officer: Defining the New Role of Human Resource Leaders, edited by Pat Wright, et.al. (2011), from Wiley Publishing. He also co-authored the article “The Future of HR and Effective Organizations” with John Boudreau of USC. It appears in the November 2011 issue of Organizational Dynamics Journal [read here].

Ian Ziskin is a current and past member of multiple Boards and Executive Committees, including Chairman, USC Marshall School of Business Corporate Advisory Board; Vice Chairman, HR Policy Association; USC Center for Effective Organizations; Cornell University Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies; Personnel Round Table; and Human Resource People and Strategy. He is a founding member of the HR50 and the CHRO/Board Academy.

Ian has a Master of Industrial and Labor Relations degree from Cornell University, where he held a research and teaching assistantship based on scholastic achievement; and a Bachelor of Science degree in Management from Binghamton University, where he graduated magna cum laude.

In 1988, Human Resource Executive magazine named Ian one of twelve “Up and Comers in HR.” In 2007, he was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources, considered to be the highest honor in the HR profession.  To book coaching/mentoring speaker Ian Ziskin call Executive Speakers Bureau 901-754-9404.