About
His accomplishments included launching the company’s cultural transformation strategy, NMG Way; publishing NMG’s inaugural ESG and People Reports; strengthening key policies including Paid Parental Leave; and introducing nine new Associate Community Networks. Under his leadership, NMG was widely recognized as a “Best Place to Work” by Forbes, Newsweek, the Human Rights Campaign, Prospanica, Disability Equality Index, and the National Diversity Council.
Prior to NMG, Eric served as Chief People Officer at DaVita Inc., overseeing a $40M budget and a nationwide team of nearly 400. He also spent more than a decade at Gap Inc., where he ultimately became Co-CHRO, responsible for a $40M budget, a global HR organization of 550, and the people strategy supporting more than 140,000 employees across 90+ countries. In addition, he was appointed to the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship under the U.S. Department of Commerce, advising on national strategies to foster innovation, economic growth, and a globally competitive workforce.
Eric holds a master’s degree in English Language and Literature from Arizona State University and a B.A. in English Language and Literature from Penn State University. Over the past 20 years, he has served on numerous boards, including the Society for Human Resource Management Executive Council, The Felton Institute, the La Napoule Art Foundation Advisory Board, and the IM Human Advisory Board.
A sought-after subject matter expert on human capital management and the future of work, Eric has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, Vogue Business, Business Insider, The Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, HR Magazine, ESG Dive, Sourcing Journal, and more. He has also been profiled in several leadership and management books, including Future Work, The Diversity Advantage, and Pull: The Power of Magnetic Leadership, to name a few.
Eric resides in Indian Wells, California.
Eric Severson, CEO, Severson & Associates
Eric Severson is a seasoned executive, certified coach, and thought-leader with more than 30 years of experience helping public and private companies—and the people who power them—grow, evolve, and perform at their highest potential across the luxury fashion, retail, and healthcare industries.
Today, Eric leads Severson & Associates Coaching and Consulting, where he leverages his background as a three-time CHRO and Hudson Institute–certified Executive Coach to guide senior leaders, CEOs, founders, and high-potential talent through modern challenges in leadership, culture, strategy, and organizational transformation. He also serves as Adjunct Faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Executive Education, teaching the HR & People Strategy in the C-Suite course within the Chief Human Resources Officer Executive Development Program.
Previously, Eric served as Chief People, ESG, and Belonging Officer at Neiman Marcus Group (NMG), where over the course of 5 years, he helped lead the company and its 10,000+ associates from bankruptcy to a successful acquisition by Saks Global. At NMG, he became known for designing and implementing evidence-based talent and organizational systems that elevated performance.
About
Lacey Rhoades, Principal, Severson & Associates
Lacey Rhoades is an accomplished organizational development and transformation leader with 18+ years of experience driving strategy and transformation, organization design, change enablement, talent strategy, leadership development, and executive coaching. She partners with executive teams to align structure, culture, and talent to business strategy, delivering measurable performance and sustainable growth through post-merger integration, operating model design, and large-scale enterprise transformation.
Most recently, Lacey served on the Transformation and People teams at Saks Global ($8B revenue, 18,000 employees), where she led Organization Design & Transformation, Change Enablement, Culture Integration, Executive Development & Coaching, Learning and Talent Management. Her work included designing the post-merger organizational structure delivering $150M+ in first-year synergies, partnering directly with the CEO on executive assessment and succession planning, and leading a year-long executive effectiveness initiative to strengthen leadership performance.
In her role at Neiman Marcus Group ($4B+ revenue, 10,000 employees), Lacey led the Organization Consulting & People Development function, overseeing a team of 50+ practitioners focused on organization design/effectiveness, talent development, people strategy, people analytics and talent
acquisition. She also served as Chief of Staff to the Chief People Officer for over 5 years, and achieved +$100M in cost reduction of labor synergies while preserving critical capabilities and revenue growth. Lacey also served as the enterprise integration leader representing NMG pre-close as part of the Saks Global acquisition.
Earlier in her career, Lacey spent over eight years in management consulting at PwC, where she advised Fortune 500 clients on organization strategy, operating model design, and post-merger integration. She led large-scale organization design, performance improvement, and change enablement efforts tied to $100M+ capital and operational initiatives, supporting enterprise strategy execution across multiple industries. Most notably, she served as the human capital integration leader for a two-year, multi-company merger, responsible for end-to-end post-merger integration including leadership alignment, organization design, talent strategy, governance, and change adoption, delivering a unified operating model and sustainable performance improvements.
Lacey is certified as an advanced practitioner in the Enneagram (individual and teams) (a comprehensive self-awareness tool and instrument) and is a certified executive coach through the Hudson Institute of Coaching and is an ICF Certified ACC coach. Lacey also serves as a formal coach and mentor to more junior coaches and has trained over 20 coaches as part of her coaching practice. Lacey has a MS in Organization Development from Pepperdine University and a BA in Psychology from the University of North Texas.
Lacey resides in Dallas, Texas.