Ayesha Whyte
Chief People officer
Ayesha J. Whyte is an innovative human capital executive and employment attorney with 20 years of experience assisting public and private companies drive business growth by developing their People & Culture functions. Ayesha provides specialized guidance to CEOs and Boards regarding potential acquisitions, executive compensation and employee stock share. Ayesha's ability to think strategically and steer company-wide priority initiatives has made her a recognized subject matter expert and sought after Chief People Officer.
As a trusted advisor, Ayesha helps leaders navigate change and build brands with purpose. Currently, Ayesha serves as a fractional Chief People Officer for Roller Rabbit, a niche upscale fashion brand with an annual revenue of $26M and Upflex, a Series-A digital platform revolutionizing the future of work, while simultaneously being the Interim Chief Human Resources Officer for Digital Media Solutions, a publicly traded mar-tech company (NYSE: DMS). Additionally, Ayesha is an Advisory Board member of VirgilHR, a SaaS product that allows organizations to make employment and labor law decisions in the moment, without need to research regulatory requirements.
Prior to her CPO roles, Ayesha was Director of People, Partners and Global Employee Relations at WeWork, the world's largest coworking company with a $47B valuation and over 10,000 employees (at the time). Ayesha scaled WeWork's employee relations department from 1 to 19 globally. During her tenure, Ayesha enjoyed expansion assignments in Italy, France, Canada and Israel. Additionally, as part of WeWork's M&A team, Ayesha successfully integrated four (4) different company cultures and also launched WeWork's global Diversity & Inclusion strategy.
Preceding her role at WeWork, Ayesha was the Corporate Director of Employee Relations at The Walt Disney Company, the world’s largest entertainment company with an annual revenue of $55 billion and approximately 250,000 employees. As the Chair of the Employee Relations Community of Practice for all Disney brands including Disney Parks, ESPN, Walt Disney Studios, Marvel, ABC Television Group & Lucas Films, Ayesha influenced widespread change by focusing on ESG and corporate integrity initiatives, aligning teams across the brand to leverage the full power of the business to impact a range of relevant global issues, including economic opportunity, community resilience, racial and transgender equality.
In addition to her leadership roles in People & Culture, Ayesha enjoyed a successful legal career. While an attorney at Mayer Brown LLP, a large global law firm, Ayesha handled complex executive compensation, risk mitigation and M&A matters for Fortune 500 companies. She also served as Special Counsel for the District of Columbia.
Ayesha received a Bachelor of Arts (summa cum laude) from the University of Florida and a Juris Doctorate (cum laude) from Howard University School of Law. She is also a licensed attorney in Illinois and the District of Columbia and has served as a pro-bono voting rights attorney for the last twelve years.
You can hear from Ayesha at WIN Summit 2022 on June 1, 2022.
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