About
Strategic when you need direction. Hands-on when you need execution.
I partner with founders, executives, managers and HR teams - across U.S. companies and global organizations - as an advisor when the thinking needs sharpening, and as an operator when the work needs doing.
Meet the founder
Meet Susanne
I've spent more than fifteen years in People leadership - inside fast-growing startups, established companies and organizations somewhere messily in between. I've built People functions from nothing, coached founders through decisions they didn't want to make, and sat in the rooms where the hard conversations actually happen.
Most of my work lives in the space between strategy and execution. Some weeks that looks like organizational design, compensation architecture or preparing a leadership team for a board conversation. Other weeks it looks like leading a sensitive investigation, coaching a manager through a performance issue, or quietly rebuilding a process that's been broken for two years.
I work with founders, executives, managers and HR teams who want a thought partner with judgment - someone who will tell them the truth, help them decide, and then help them do it.
Chief Pawficer
Meet Bernie
Bernie joined the practice with no HR experience and an unshakable belief that every meeting should end earlier. He has since become essential.
The name
Why “Don't Tell HR”?
Because someone has to tell you.
Early in my HR career, I worked in an organization where employees would lower their voices and say, “don't tell HR.”
The irony was that I was HR.
People had learned that talking to HR could mean information traveling straight back to leadership. So they stopped talking. And when people stop raising problems while they're still small, those problems don't disappear. They usually become bigger, messier, and much harder to solve.
That experience shaped how I practice HR. Good HR shouldn't operate as surveillance, and it shouldn't be the department everyone avoids until something has already gone wrong. It should be close enough to the business and trusted enough by its people to understand what's happening early - and experienced enough to help do something about it.
That's why the name stayed. Don't Tell HR is a reminder that the things people don't feel comfortable telling HR are often exactly the things HR needs to understand.
Experience & Credentials
Credentials & Certifications
I believe experience is the best teacher - but I also believe in continually investing in my own development. As workplace dynamics evolve, so should the way we support leaders and organizations.
Trusted Network
Great work rarely happens alone.
Over the years I've built relationships with specialists I trust and confidently recommend when clients need expertise beyond my own practice.
Bring me the messy part.
Strategy, coaching, an investigation, a compensation rebuild, or the hands-on work nobody has time for - start wherever it actually hurts.