Grounded in the work.
We believe the people advising you should understand what it's like to own the outcome.
Grounded brings together experienced practitioners who have spent their careers inside the work we help clients solve: leading teams, running operations, implementing technology, managing vendors, navigating change, and being accountable for what happens next.
That experience shapes how we work today.
Practitioners first.
We look for people who have done the work.
When we build our team, practitioner experience is one of the first things we look for.
People who have owned the function. Led the team. Managed the vendor. Implemented the system. Worked through the change. Fixed the process. Or been accountable when something didn't go as planned.
Because doing the work changes how you approach it.
You know what should happen. More importantly, you know what it takes to make it happen inside a real organization.
Experience that started long before Grounded.
Grounded may be a newer firm. The experience behind it isn't.
We bring experienced practitioners and specialists together around each engagement: corporate-side operating experience, functional depth, geographic and in-country expertise where the work requires it, and the capacity to move the work forward alongside your team.
The team can change as the work changes. The accountability doesn't.
Senior operators at the front.
Grounded was founded by Ingrid Williams and Heather Haynes-O'Brien after careers leading HR inside large, complex organizations. Today, they remain at the front of Grounded, working with clients, shaping the work and bringing in additional expertise when the problem calls for it.
The experience below is what they bring to Grounded, not a record of Grounded's own client work.
Over two decades leading HR inside a global aerospace manufacturer, including delivery teams and operational transformations supporting more than 150,000 employees worldwide.
Today, she works alongside executive and HR leadership teams to strengthen operations, solve complex people and organizational challenges, and make change work in the real world.
Book time with Ingrid →
Haynes-O'Brien
More than two decades in global HR leadership at Fortune 100 manufacturing, retail and technology employers, running large-scale HR operations, M&A integrations and organizational transformations across workforces of 100,000 and up.
Today, she partners with CHROs on HR strategy, operational excellence and leadership development, with an emphasis on decisions the data actually supports.
Book time with Heather →Grounded is LGBTQ+ owned, a certified Women-Owned Small Business, and rooted in the Arizona business community.
Credentials & Community →