Lever Talent, Inc.

Head of Professional Services

At Lever Talent, our mission is to help leaders realize they are capable of more than they could ever imagine. We believe individuals make a business, not the other way around, and all business is personal.

The employee-employer relationship is broken. Thankfully, employees are gaining leverage, and the power dynamic with employers is shifting. We’re flipping the script by helping businesses lean into this shift - bringing humanity back to business.

We help leaders find leverage in themselves, their teams, and their strategies.

We help companies find leverage by identifying their superpowers and developing complementary processes to spur growth at scale.

We help with:

Talent Strategy: We help leaders align their people strategy to their business strategy and accelerate growth with talent optimization.

Career Development: We give people the training and coaching they need crush their current job and achieve their goals.

Leadership Communities: We bring growth-minded leaders together to share ideas, learn from each other, and grow.

Detailed Services Overview:
- Team Design & Strategy Alignment Consulting
- Hiring Process and Strategy Consulting
- Management Training
- Leadership Coaching
- Team Building Workshops
- Career Development Communities
- Employee Engagement / Performance 
- The Predictive Index Software sales and client service - we are a PI Certified Partner.

Talent Optimization Consultant

The Predictive Index

Senior Consultant, Professional Services

Massage Envy

Senior Director, Learning & Development

DriveTime

Director Organizational Development

Banner Health

Director, Learning & Assessment

Director of Training & Learning Solutions

Axon

Director, Axon Academy (Learning & Development)

Jack in the Box

Director, Jack's University

St. Jude Medical Center - Community Health Clinics

Performance Consultant

California State University, Fullerton

Teaching Associate

Academic Advisor

University of Hawaii at Manoa

Faculty Evaluator

Leverage Seeker. Talent Concierge. Executive Coach.

I am Head of Professional Services at Lever Talent, a talent strategy agency. We help people find their leverage so they can achieve more than they could have ever imagined for themselves.

Meg Patel

OptIn, Inc.

Provide strategic advisory support to CEO/Founder. OptIn provides a Worker Engagement Cloud that enables workers and enterprises to more effectively interact and engage with one another.”

Advisor

BIG, LLC

- Board adviser to start-up and early growth organizations in the areas of strategy, structure and talent.
- Leadership mentor and coach to c-suite executives.
- Angel and early series investor in tech, ad-tech, online retail and charity companies.

Managing Director

Member of the executive leadership team whose primary responsibility was to support the CEO in shaping strategy to drive achievement of brand and financial objectives, while ensuring horizontal organization and leadership alignment on long-term strategic initiatives. Oversaw Human Resources and Supply Chain teams.

- Led transformation efforts of Jack in the Box to stand alone business post sale of Qdoba brand and completion of refranchising initiative. Facilitated restructure/structural change to asset light model, resulting in $40M in G&A savings. During the full transformation period from 2013 through 2019 the total G&A reduction was $91M on a base of $147M for an overall savings of over 50%. 
- Partnered with executive team to define and activate digital, operational and corporate initiatives to achieve business objectives. Ensured strategic alignment and effective execution of strategy.
- Actively engaged with the Board of Directors during committee and full board sessions. Participated with the CEO during executive session to discuss any strategic, people, franchise or culture issues.
- Provided coaching to executive team members as needed and mentoring to more junior executives on the team.
- Partnered with Chief Supply Chain Officer and franchise operators during consideration of cooperative formation.
- Tasked to deliver Interim leadership for Marketing Communications during maternity leave of Marketing VP.

EVP, Chief of Staff & Strategy

Oversaw the execution of ongoing business operations aligned with brand strategy and growth objectives. Led day-to-day operations of all company and franchise restaurants, financial and operational performance, field initiatives and franchise relationships. Maintained leadership responsibilities of prior position during this assignment.

- Operational leadership during transformation year while driving improved performance: same-store sales increased 0.1%, restaurant-level operating margin increased 260 basis points to 22.7% for company stores, and operating earnings per share increased over 9% from prior year.
- Primary interface with franchise owners and their association leadership team to ensure alignment on key initiatives, accountabilities, brand standards and support from corporate to operations.
- Drove alignment of staff on transformation to “ops first” culture by partnering with leadership across the business. This meant creating a balance between sales generating initiatives with operational capacity to implement them.  
- Created a strategic framework for Franchise Business Consultants that directed focus on critical performance elements connected to guest expectations and brand standards resulting in higher owner satisfaction.
- Led comprehensive leadership development effort for Franchise Business Consultants. Multi-rater assessment process in addition to connecting each consultant with a personal internal leadership coach, improving individual and team performance.
- Streamlined the Franchise Business Review process to facilitate strategic conversations between consultants and franchise owners, resulting in greater attention to operational execution and same store sales growth.
- Oversaw refranchising efforts from 88% toward desired end-state of 90% plus.

Chief Operating Officer (interim)

Provided strategic thought leadership to the executive team, employees, franchisees and the Board of Directors.  Responsible for determining and providing leadership in developing and executing the human resources strategy in support of the overall business plan and strategic corporate direction of areas such as succession planning, talent acquisition/management, change management, organization/performance management, training and development and total rewards. Responsible for consumer insights, sales analytics, guest feedback and pricing functions. Led strategic planning for both Qdoba and Jack in the Box brands.  Successfully developed and promoted internal CHRO successor.

- Oversaw corporate strategy for Jack in the box Inc. to maximize total shareholder return. In partnership with executive team, facilitated development of strategy and operating framework for Jack in the Box Inc. to grow the business.
- Integrated consumer insights, sales analytics, pricing and guest feedback into a single Consumer Insights and Analytics function, resulting in greater synergy and stronger support to the brands (marketing and operations) and corporate.
- Led talent analytics efforts, demonstrating people drivers of restaurant and business performance. Received the 2016 Human Resource Management Impact Award from SIOP and SHRM for exemplary, evidenced-based HR based on these efforts.
- Oversaw relocation and integration of Qdoba Mexican Eats from Denver, CO to San Diego, CA and creation of a shared services organization structure to maximize staff function support of both brands and corporate while reducing overall G&A expense by roughly $50M on a base of $147M.
- Led organization restructure and transformation to an asset light business model post sale of Qdoba, which involved providing Qdoba with contracted support during separation and retention of workforce during downsizing of G&A. Reduced corporate headcount 25-30% depending on corporate function.

EVP, Chief People, Culture & Corporate Strategy Officer

Broad staff function leadership position as part of executive team. Responsible for human resources, information technology, operational services and field facility services departments. Ensured that staff function structures and initiatives align with corporate goals and objectives. Provided leadership support to company and franchise operations. 

- Led culture transformation with executive leadership team, aligned company culture with business strategy, drove process reengineering efforts post restructure and built the executive team. Outcomes included stronger alignment and collaboration at the C-suite, improved employee engagement and industry leading average annual TSR of 23% for that period. 
- Ensured that human resources and total rewards processes and initiatives aligned with organization strategy. Conducted conjoint analysis to quantify what employees wanted in total rewards and how that translated to engagement relative to cost, allowing for a stronger return on benefits investments.
- Led execution of research and development restaurants through operational services function to accelerate rapid test and learn on products, equipment and people initiatives.
- Overall responsibility for field facility services function supporting over 900 company restaurants.

SVP, Chief Administrative Officer

- Led the development and execution of people analytics utilizing the service profit chain model to understand the key drivers of employee engagement, leadership excellence, guest satisfaction and operational execution. Reduced turnover at all levels, improved food and labor costs and increased store performance (10% higher sales and 30% improved profit, on average). 
- Reduced operational training expense 67% ($8M) annually by implementing computer-based training within each restaurant which eliminated the need for classroom training and facilitated 24/7 on-demand delivery of training content.
- Centralized field human resources and training which resulted in greater consistency of services, increased operational satisfaction, and greater flexibility in staff deployment.
- Fully integrated the people organization (corporate and field).  Developed human resources organization (150 headcount) into strong business partners utilizing the Ulrich model as basis for building business competencies within the team.

Various Human Resources Executive Roles

Mitchell International

VP, Human Resouces

Competency Management, Inc

Sr. Project Manager

HRStrategies, Inc.

County of San Diego

Personnel Research Psychologist

Navy Personnel Research and Development Center

Highly accomplished, versatile executive whose broad leadership background spans restaurants, technology, consulting and research business sectors. Proven ability to partner with boards, CEOs and executive teams to create strategy, align key stakeholders and drive business outcomes. Significant experience executing business strategy, merger and acquisition analysis, executive compensation and related governance, and staff function leadership. A strategist and team player with a reputation for engaging across stakeholder groups to achieve positive outcomes. Balanced and open leadership style that has been effective on both executive teams and boards.

Mark Blankenship, Ph.D.

taplio

The Battle

Meg Patel

Mark Blankenship, Ph.D.

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?