R15ADVISORY

RUTH HENDRICKSON · FOUNDER, R15 ADVISORY

A business mind.
A human lens.

I help organizations launch, scale, and transform—connecting business strategy with the leadership, talent, and capabilities needed to deliver on their mission.

Explore advisory services Meet Ruth

A strategic partner to CEOs, boards, founders, and people leaders.

A winding trail through golden California hills beside a mature oak, looking toward distant mountains
PERSPECTIVE CHANGES WHAT’S POSSIBLE.A clear path forward.
Aligning strategy and leadership.Business strategy. People expertise.

01 / HOW I CAN HELP

Business priorities.
Practical execution.

Advisory, consulting, and coaching for organizations navigating growth, leadership transitions, and transformation.

01

Business & talent strategy

Connect where the business is going with the people, structure, and leadership it needs to get there.

  • Translate business priorities into a focused people strategy.
  • Clarify organization design, roles, and critical capabilities.
  • Connect workforce investment to business outcomes.

A useful starting point: Your strategy has evolved. Your organization needs to catch up.

02

AI adoption & change enablement

Help leaders turn technology ambition into changes people can understand, adopt, and sustain.

  • Understand the implications for workflows, roles, and skills.
  • Equip leaders to communicate clearly and build trust.
  • Create a practical adoption and change approach.

A useful starting point: You are transforming HR while helping the whole business navigate AI.

03

Leadership & team performance

Give leaders honest insight and help executive teams work together with greater clarity, trust, and accountability.

  • Gather useful, development focused leadership feedback.
  • Strengthen delegation, decision making, and team effectiveness.
  • Coach leaders through transitions and consequential choices.

A useful starting point: A strong leader or team is ready for its next level of effectiveness.

04

Start-up, scale-up & integration

Build the organizational foundation for growth—and keep people and execution aligned as the business changes.

  • Sequence the organization and talent decisions that matter.
  • Build leadership capacity and operating clarity as you scale.
  • Plan and lead the people side of acquisitions and integration.

A useful starting point: You are building, acquiring, or expanding—and need a clearer path through the complexity.

02 / EXPERIENCE THAT TRAVELS WITH ME

I’ve been inside
the change.

More than 25 years of executive leadership across healthcare, insurance, retail, and technology-enabled services. From company formation to global operations.

BUILDING AN ENTERPRISE

Building a healthcare enterprise from the ground up

As a founding executive, played a central role in launching and scaling Altais into a statewide healthcare enterprise spanning a provider network, owned clinical operations, and large institutional customer contracts. Led the people strategy and integration of three acquisitions, supported new clinic openings, and built the organizational platform for employee growth across California and beyond.

BRINGING ORGANIZATIONS TOGETHER

Integration with purpose.

Led the people integration of approximately 900 Care1st employees at Blue Shield of California, supporting expansion into Medi-Cal.

GROWING GLOBAL CAPABILITY

A foundation for growth.

Helped establish UnitedHealth Group’s inaugural campus in India, reaching approximately 2,000 employees in the first two years.

SCALING A NONPROFIT MISSION

From local roots to national reach.

Served on the Board of Directors of Jeremiah Program, a mission-oriented nonprofit, during its expansion from a local program into a national organization.

LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE ACROSS

Altais · Blue Shield of California · Levi Strauss & Co. · UnitedHealth Group · Deloitte

03 / MEET RUTH

A business mind.
A human lens.

I work at the intersection of business strategy and the human condition.

My career began in social work and grew into global HR and executive leadership across for-profit and nonprofit organizations. I understand the financial, operational, and organizational levers needed to launch, scale, and transform—and the people strategies that turn ambition into results.

As the founder of R15 Advisory, I partner with CEOs, boards, founders, and people leaders navigating growth, transitions, and transformation. I bring a strong mission orientation, candor, compassion, and a bias toward getting meaningful work done.

I also study acting and performance—a creative counterpoint to my executive work and an ongoing interest in how people communicate and connect.

Strategic enough to see the whole picture.
Practical enough to help you move.
More about my experience on LinkedIn

04 / ORGANIZATIONS I WORK WITH

Advisory &
Consulting Partners

A selection of organizations I advise and collaborate with—bringing business perspective, people expertise, and practical support to the work.

TenYour

Financial resilience through job instability and career transitions.

Nua Group

HR strategy, rewards, and organizational effectiveness.

PeopleTech Partners

Connecting people leaders with innovators shaping the future of work.

Interested in working together?

If you’re interested in engaging Ruth for advisory or consulting services, please contact info@r15advisory.com.

Start a conversation

05 / PERSPECTIVES

Ideas I keep
coming back to.

A few principles that shape how I think about leadership, people, and change.

LET’S START A CONVERSATION

What does your organization
need to achieve?

Let’s talk about the business priorities—and what it will take to deliver.

Start a conversation

info@r15advisory.com

LEADING THROUGH UNCERTAINTY

You don’t need all the answers to lead.

What if we admitted that we don’t have all the answers—and planned for that?

People leaders need teams that are both operationally and strategically capable. That has always been true. What has changed is how confidently we can predict the work ahead.

AI, business shifts, and external pressures make precision harder. Waiting until we can map every requirement creates its own risk. A useful approach is to get clear about the roughly 70% we can see, while deliberately building the capacity to respond to the 30% we cannot.

Those numbers are a planning mindset, rather than a formula. The work is to know your priorities, be honest about your team’s gaps, and decide in advance how you will get support, learn, and adjust.

Three questions to bring to your team

Talk about the work ahead

AI & THE WORKFORCE

AI transformation is a people strategy.

The tool is only one part of the change.

AI changes how work gets done, which capabilities matter, who makes decisions, and what people need from their leaders. That puts people strategy at the heart of the transformation.

For a Chief People Officer, the challenge is often twofold: transform HR itself while helping the business navigate changes across the enterprise. It takes business context, partnership with technology leaders, and a clear view of the workforce implications.

A useful starting point is the work itself. Where is there friction? What could improve? Which responsibilities will change? How will we equip people, explain the decisions, and know whether adoption is creating value?

Three questions worth asking early

Talk about leading change

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Honest feedback. A stronger way forward.

Make feedback useful enough that a leader wants to hear it.

Leadership feedback is most valuable when it helps someone understand the effect of their choices and behaviors. A label or a score rarely gives them enough to work with.

Begin with a shared development purpose. Listen for strengths as well as friction. Ask for specific examples. Look for patterns across perspectives, and consider the context before drawing conclusions.

Then give the leader space to reflect, add context, and choose a small number of practical commitments. The aim is greater self-awareness and stronger leadership—not simply a report that records what others think.

Three questions that make feedback more useful

Talk about leadership development