Solange Charas, PhD

Dr. Solange Charas is a senior-level human resources expert with 36+ years of experience as a consultant, practice leader, top corporate executive, and board director across all industry sectors. She was the chief human resources officer at Havas Worldwide, Benfield Group, and Praetorian Financial Services Group, and held senior-level positions at Ernst & Young, Arthur Andersen, and Towers Watson. She served on the boards of two public companies, chairing both the Audit and Remuneration Committees. Dr. Charas is a member of the Technical Committee of the International Standardization Organization (ISO) responsible for developing and managing global human capital standards. She is a Distinguished Principal Research Fellow with The Conference Board (TCB) and serves as an Advisory Board Member for TCB.

Dr. Charas is the founder and CEO of two organizations: Charas Consulting (2000) and HCMoneyball (2018). An internationally recognized expert in human capital analytics, Dr. Charas developed proprietary approaches for quantifying the return on investment of human capital (HCROI). Her academic research focuses on the relationship between human capital management and financial performance, with applications across industries, including healthcare. 

She earned a PhD in Designing Sustainable Systems with a focus on corporate governance from Case Western Reserve University, an MBA in Accounting and Finance from Cornell University, and a BA in International Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. 

Dr. Charas has authored or been cited in more than 300 practitioner articles, including the widely recognized Why Men Have More Help Getting to the C-Suite published in Harvard Business Review. Her research has been cited in more than 200 academic publications. She has contributed chapters to The Handbook of Board Governance (Volumes I, II, and III, edited by Richard LeBlanc) and is currently authoring an updated chapter for Volume IV. She also contributed to Coaching the Team at Work Case Book by David Clutterbuck and has a chapter in his forthcoming book, Beyond Team Coaching. Dr. Charas is the co-author of Humanizing Human Capital: Invest in Your People for Optimal Business Returns and is currently co-authoring a book on effectively managing human capital in professional services firms, to be published by Columbia University Press. Her pro bono consulting focuses on advancing gender equity through organizations including PowHer New York, Invest Ahead, and Lift Our Voices. Dr. Charas has extensive international experience and is proficient in five languages.