Lorne Needle:
Experience, expertise, and energy

Lorne has completed successful projects for a range of clients and organizations. Examples:

 

• Set up and led people operations for startup. Created and managed people strategy for emerging biotech startup. Impact: Grew team by 30% in 9 months, and significantly strengthened approaches to recruiting, performance management, compensation, employee engagement, and leadership & development.

• Built popular e-learning course series. For a top tech company, led the creation and operation of two sets of online courses in software engineering. Impact: Scaled to enrollment by more than 2 million learners in 150 countries, with excellent user ratings. 

• Transformed delivery of surgical care. Worked with major university hospital system to analyze and reshape its in-patient surgical programs. Examined profitability of procedures and utilization patterns of surgeons. Impact: Developed and implemented new processes that significantly increased profits and improved quality of care and customer experience for patients.

• Elevated company to become a leader in disability inclusion. For a Fortune 500 company, constructed and led global strategy that vaulted it from losing talent opportunities to becoming a recognized leader in disability inclusion. Included creation of major new assets and partnerships for marketing and recruiting. Impact: Hiring goals exceeded, talent pipeline increased by thousands, and company recognized publicly as a leader in this space.

• Led higher education partnership to include diverse talent. For tech company seeking to increase representation of Latino talent, formed a partnership with a consortium of outstanding universities. Co-developed and delivered three one-unit on-campus courses on “problem solving like an engineer,” that excited students and enabled them to build crucial real-world skills. Impact: Courses were scaled to 12 universities, and the project significantly increased the diverse pipeline of applicants and hires for the company.

• Designed successful pilot program to include autistic people. Made the case to executives at a tech leader to invest in program to increase hiring of autistic people. Built bespoke model based on benchmarking other best-in-class corporate initiatives. In six weeks created and launched training suite to prepare >1,000 recruiters, engineers, and managers to effectively hire and work with autistic talent. Impact: Program resulted in new hiring and generated excellent positive media and other recognition; training rated highly by participants.

 

Projects delivered for nonprofit and government:

 

• Managed operations and events for national philanthropic funders group. Staffed affinity group of 30+ top foundations focused on employment, the unhoused, and foster care. Facilitated discussions to develop shared strategy and action plan, influencing investment of >$100 million. Organized and managed national convenings of member foundations.

• Designed best-in-class youth jobs program that served 26,000 young people over 5 years. Launched 3 months after forming a partnership between United Way Bay Area and the mayor of San Francisco. Engaged >150 employers and 30 nonprofits.

• Developed comprehensive children’s policy for city of San Francisco. Wrote the city’s official policy goals and plan for services to children, used to direct the work of departments and prioritize investment of >$200 million annually. Conducted research on community needs and proven developmental strategies that informed the plan.

• Authored guide to excellence for AmeriCorps programs. Wrote the definitive playbook to guide federal grantees to set up and operate successful AmeriCorps national service programs. Widely praised and used by top organizations around the country.

 

Lorne has extensive background working in business, nonprofit, and government.

For details, please visit his LinkedIn page.