Michael L. Kent, SPHR

VP and Executive Consultant

Jeitosa Group International

Michael L. Kent, SPHR, is the Vice President and Executive Consultant of Jeitosa Group International (www.jeitosa.com), a worldwide strategic business consultancy focused on solutions for global success.

At Jeitosa, Mike provides strategy consulting in all people-related functions for global clients and he coordinates Jeitosa’s strategic partnership program. He brings his experience as an HR professional, with broad and deep expertise in virtually every function of HR and Administration, to assist Jeitosa clients with their strategic challenges in areas including change management, talent management, business ethics, global diversity, mergers and acquisitions, organization effectiveness, metrics, HR alignment and strategy, process design and service delivery. He also coordinates Jeitosa's partnership program, and coordinates all interactions and joint endeavors with Jeitosa's numerous strategy, deployment and communities partners.

Mike is a lifelong HR practitioner, having headed HR at leading companies, including salesforce.com, Farmers Insurance Group, Zurich Personal Insurance and Empire Blue Cross & Blue Shield. While at Farmers, his department won first place in the large company category of the National HR Service Excellence Survey. Mike started his career at ITT Corporation, then the largest conglomerate in the world.

He has lived and worked overseas on several occasions and is conversant in French, German and Portuguese. In 2005, Mike authored the chapter on Business Partnering in The Successful HR Executive, published by Aspatore Press. He is certified by SHRM as a Senior Professional in Human Resources and by UC Berkeley in Mediation for Dispute Resolution. He is a member of the Boards of Directors of the HR Strategy Forum and the Hale Foundation.

Mike has an MBA in International Business from Columbia and a BA in Psychology from Yale. He and his wife reside in Oakland, CA, named by Rand McNally as the city with the best weather in the US.