Lodestone People Consulting
Human Capital Science for discerning private equity firms and their companies
lodestonehr.com · Business Consulting and Services · Dallas, TX, Texas
Lodestone assists discerning private equity firms and their portfolio companies with accelerating value creation through human capital science. We assess individuals and organizations, align teams for effectiveness, and advise and develop leaders. Welcome to data-driven people decisions. Welcome to Lodestone.
Led HR Integration of 400-Employee, 6-Entity Automotive Aftermarket Acquisition
I joined as an HR executive advisor to the investor group acquiring six family-owned entities tied together through joint-venture partnerships and supply agreements for branded automotive service products and equipment. The deal was complicated by the fact that all six sellers had operated independently before close, each running its own payroll and benefits, and ranging in size from about 20 to 200 employees. The post-close leadership team was made up of representatives from the former owners. I reviewed and oversaw the HR and Organization diligence completed by outside counsel and the M&A team from the HR benefits broker, then stayed on through close as the interim HR and integration management lead. The deal closed in December 2025 bringing together roughly 400 employees. Over the following months we recruited and hired a permanent HR director and reorganized the combined enterprise into a regional commercial business model, aligning the HR and finance functions to the new structure. All six entities moved to a single integrated benefits design, expanding coverage to a market-competitive level across regions and bringing everyone into a shared 401(k), short-term and long-term disability, and life insurance plans. I also led the selection and rollout of a single payroll and HR system of record across all entities, harmonizing pay cycles for exempt, non-exempt, and commission-based employees. We used the new system to run open enrollment into the integrated national benefits plan, effective July 1, 2026, extending coverage to every employee across the country with less than a 1% increase in run-rate cost from Q2 into Q3. Revenue growth has followed the vertical integration of the six businesses, validating the deal thesis. As of December 2026, roughly a year after close, we are still building the operating rhythms, shared processes, and technology the combined company needs to run as one team at scale.
Built the People Foundation to Scale a Venture Studio Startup
A founder came to us with an ambitious vision: a venture studio designed to launch an ecosystem of integrated companies tackling major global problems, beginning with healthcare. When I began working with the founding team in March 2026, they had the vision but little of the HR infrastructure needed to hire, pay, or manage people. As Executive Advisor and fractional HR executive to the founder and founding team, I worked with the team to implement employment and contractor agreements for each person, then partnered with Sequoia's Peopleloop PEO to employ staff compliantly across 8 states while offering benefits and retirement programs competitive enough to attract talent used to the financial services industry. We designed roles, policies, and practices for assessment, selection, and hiring, and put in place onboarding, goal setting, performance management, and employee relations support — the fundamentals a fast-growing startup needs but rarely has time to build. Alongside Lodestone colleagues, we led the founding leadership through executive assessments and Executive Team Effectiveness facilitation using our Knowing Me Knowing You Human Capital Science framework, aligning them around a shared purpose, objectives, operating rhythms, and ways of working. Six months into the engagement, the company has a functioning executive team operating from that shared framework, a PEO partnership employing people compliantly and competitively across 8 states, and HR fundamentals running end to end, from assessment-driven selection through onboarding and performance management. The company now has the people foundation to scale into the multi-company studio its founder envisioned.