Micheline Grace Lewis is an accomplished global human resources executive, strategic advisor, and organizational transformation leader with more than 30 years of experience helping businesses navigate complexity, accelerate growth, and build high-performing cultures. Recognized for her ability to connect human capital strategy with enterprise objectives, she has built a distinguished career spanning advertising, marketing, media, financial services, technology, healthcare, and professional services. Her leadership philosophy centers on the belief that an organization’s greatest competitive advantage lies in its people, and that sustainable business success requires thoughtful alignment between talent, culture, leadership, and strategy. Through her extensive executive experience and commitment to meaningful governance, Micheline brings a sophisticated perspective to organizations seeking to strengthen performance, manage transformation, and create lasting value.
Throughout her career, Micheline has held influential leadership positions with globally recognized organizations, including Omnicom’s TBWA and DDB advertising networks, Mother Industries, JPMorgan Chase, Ernst & Young (EY), eBay Enterprise, Experian, and Interpublic Group. Her professional journey reflects a consistent progression from specialized talent acquisition and human resources leadership into enterprise-wide executive responsibility, strategic consulting, and board governance. Working across both highly creative organizations and complex corporate environments, she has developed an exceptional ability to understand diverse business models, anticipate organizational challenges, and translate strategic priorities into actionable people initiatives. Her leadership combines commercial awareness, operational discipline, emotional intelligence, and a deep understanding of how organizational culture influences financial and business outcomes.
As Global Chief People Officer of TBWA\Worldwide and Chief People Officer Americas at DDB, Micheline operated at the intersection of creativity, business strategy, and global organizational leadership. Across the Omnicom Advertising agency portfolios, her responsibilities encompassed 49 globally award-winning creative agencies, requiring an understanding of different markets, leadership structures, talent ecosystems, and organizational cultures. She helped guide people strategy within businesses where innovation, collaboration, and exceptional creative talent were fundamental to competitive differentiation. Her work involved executive partnership, organizational effectiveness, leadership development, talent planning, and navigating the complexities of large, internationally connected agency networks. These experiences strengthened her ability to balance the needs of individual businesses with broader enterprise priorities while supporting environments where creative excellence and commercial performance could flourish.
Before her leadership at Omnicom Advertising, Micheline served as Chief People Officer at Mother Industries, overseeing human resources strategy across a multi-brand United States portfolio. In this capacity, she advanced initiatives designed to strengthen organizational performance while preserving the distinctive cultures that made each business successful. She introduced a compensation approach focused on attracting and retaining exceptional creative talent and championed improvements in performance management, management development, internal career mobility, and inclusion. Her approach reflected an understanding that successful organizations must simultaneously cultivate individual potential and maintain the operational structures necessary for long-term growth. By aligning workforce practices with business objectives, she helped create conditions for stronger leadership, improved employee experiences, and organizational resilience.
Micheline’s tenure at JPMorgan Chase further demonstrated her ability to lead transformational initiatives at significant enterprise scale. Serving as Executive Director of Talent Development and Readiness, she supported talent management and leadership development across the Consumer and Community Banking business, representing approximately 140,000 employees. She introduced a quarterly talent review process encompassing more than 500 Managing Directors and 3,000 senior leaders, strengthening the organization’s approach to leadership assessment, succession readiness, and strategic talent planning. She also developed a skills competency framework and created manager-development resources supporting more than 13,000 people managers. Additionally, she contributed to improved executive onboarding and resources supporting nearly 50,000 new hires annually. These initiatives demonstrate her ability to design and implement scalable systems that strengthen leadership capability, promote organizational consistency, and prepare complex enterprises for future workforce demands.
Earlier in her career, Micheline developed substantial expertise in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and organizational integration through her leadership at eBay Enterprise. As a senior human resources executive, she led HR workstreams associated with the $925 million separation of eBay Enterprise from eBay, Inc., while supporting additional acquisitions and divestitures. Her responsibilities required navigating workforce transitions, integrating organizational structures, managing cultural change, and maintaining employee engagement during periods of significant uncertainty. Through focused people strategies and organizational improvements, her work contributed to reducing annual attrition from more than 30% to 8%, representing an approximately 73% reduction. This achievement illustrates her ability to translate complex organizational challenges into measurable business results while recognizing the human dimensions of major corporate transactions.
Micheline’s broader professional foundation includes leadership roles at EY, Experian Marketing Services, and Interpublic Group, where she gained extensive experience in People Advisory Services, talent acquisition, business partnering, and organizational development. At EY, she contributed to people advisory engagements that strengthened her consulting perspective and understanding of organizational challenges. At Experian, she supported human resources initiatives across Consumer Insights and Global Product Development business units, further expanding her experience with data-driven, technology-oriented businesses. Earlier, as Vice President of Recruitment within Interpublic Group’s Constituency Management Group, she led talent acquisition efforts for prominent public relations, marketing, and communications firms, including Weber Shandwick, Golin Harris, Octagon, and Rogers & Cowan. These formative experiences established her understanding of competitive talent markets, executive recruitment, organizational capability, and the strategic importance of building effective leadership teams.
Building upon her extensive corporate leadership experience, Micheline established The Grace Lewis Collective, where she serves as a Fractional Chief Human Resources Officer, Executive Advisor, and People & Culture Consultant. Through this work, she partners with organizations seeking experienced executive guidance without necessarily requiring a traditional full-time leadership structure. Her advisory approach focuses on helping businesses navigate growth, organizational transformation, leadership challenges, and evolving workforce priorities. She brings practical expertise in global human resources strategy, executive advising, succession planning, organizational design, compensation, employee relations, performance management, talent acquisition, and leadership effectiveness. Her ability to evaluate organizational challenges from both a strategic and operational perspective makes her a valuable partner to executives seeking to build adaptable, resilient, and high-performing enterprises.
Beyond her corporate accomplishments, Micheline has demonstrated a meaningful commitment to governance, education, arts, community development, and social impact. Her board experience includes serving as Vice Chair and Board Trustee of Hudson Pride Center, President and Board Trustee of Educational Arts Team, an elected member of the Jersey City Board of Education, and Board Trustee of The Ethical Community Charter School. These positions have provided opportunities to contribute to organizational oversight, mission-driven leadership, stakeholder engagement, and decisions affecting diverse communities. Her involvement reflects a longstanding dedication to expanding opportunity, supporting educational development, and strengthening organizations that serve the public good. Through these governance experiences, she has developed an appreciation for the responsibility of board members to balance strategic ambition, accountability, organizational sustainability, and the interests of the communities they serve.
Micheline’s international exposure further enhances her ability to contribute to organizations operating across cultural and geographic boundaries. Her professional and personal experiences extend across North Africa, France, the United Kingdom, Central and South America, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Malaysia and the Caribbean. These experiences have broadened her understanding of cultural differences, international perspectives, and the importance of adapting leadership approaches to diverse environments. With conversational French language skills and experience working within globally connected organizations, she brings cultural awareness and adaptability to executive discussions. Her international perspective is particularly relevant to organizations navigating geographic expansion, multinational workforce challenges, cross-border collaboration, and evolving global business dynamics.
Academically, Micheline earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Arts from Salisbury University and completed an Executive Coaching Intensive Certification from Columbia University. She has continued her professional development through studies and training in systemic team coaching, leadership assessment, organizational development, and talent management. A longstanding member of the Society for Human Resource Management, she remains connected to the evolving practices and challenges shaping the human resources profession. Her educational foundation, combined with decades of executive experience, supports a leadership style grounded in thoughtful analysis, practical problem-solving, and effective communication. She has also contributed written articles throughout her career, reflecting her engagement with professional ideas and the broader exchange of knowledge.
Micheline’s personal values are closely connected to her professional identity. She is passionate about travel, education, the arts, allyship for LGBTQ+ inclusion, family, and the well-being of her community. Her children and dog are important parts of her personal life, while her appreciation for different cultures and experiences reinforces her curiosity and openness to new perspectives. She believes that strong leadership requires empathy, integrity, and a willingness to understand the experiences of others. These values are reflected in her commitment to creating inclusive environments, developing emerging leaders, and supporting organizations whose work contributes to positive social outcomes. Her interests outside the corporate environment provide additional perspective on the broader responsibilities of leadership and the importance of building organizations that serve both business and societal needs.
As she continues expanding her involvement in corporate board and advisory opportunities, Micheline offers a compelling combination of executive leadership, enterprise transformation experience, and established governance service. She is open to opportunities across a broad range of industries and organizational sizes, with particular interest in contributing to businesses where her strategic insight can help address complex challenges and unlock long-term potential. Her areas of greatest value include executive succession, human capital oversight, organizational risk, leadership effectiveness, mergers and acquisitions, corporate culture, and business transformation. Having advised senior executives and led people strategies within organizations ranging from creative agencies to major financial institutions, she understands how to connect board-level priorities with operational realities.
Micheline Grace Lewis ultimately represents the kind of leadership that recognizes organizational success as both a strategic and human endeavor. Her career demonstrates that effective transformation requires more than structural change; it demands clear direction, capable leadership, strong governance, and a culture that enables people to perform at their best. With a proven record of navigating complex business environments, supporting large-scale organizational initiatives, and contributing to community governance, she is well positioned to provide thoughtful oversight and informed counsel to boards and executive teams. Her enduring professional purpose is to help organizations solve difficult problems, strengthen their leadership foundations, and create sustainable value through the power of people, strategy, and purposeful action.
Character:
Micheline demonstrates integrity, empathy, and a strong commitment to responsible leadership through her dedication to organizational excellence, educational advancement, and community service. Her longstanding involvement in nonprofit and educational governance reflects a values-driven approach grounded in accountability, inclusion, and a genuine desire to create meaningful opportunities for others.
Knowledge:
With more than three decades of experience across global advertising, financial services, technology, and professional services, Micheline possesses extensive knowledge of human capital strategy, organizational transformation, executive development, and corporate governance. Her leadership at organizations such as JPMorgan Chase, Omnicom, Mother Industries, and eBay Enterprise provides a foundation for understanding complex enterprise operations and the relationship between workforce effectiveness and business performance.
Strategic:
Micheline excels at identifying organizational priorities, anticipating workforce challenges, and translating complex business objectives into practical strategies that support sustainable growth. Her experience guiding large-scale talent initiatives, supporting mergers and acquisitions, strengthening succession processes, and advising senior executives positions her to contribute meaningful strategic insight to boardroom discussions and enterprise decision-making.
Communication:
An effective executive advisor who brings clarity, collaboration, and thoughtful perspective to conversations involving complex organizational and leadership challenges. Her background in communications, international business environments, executive coaching, and stakeholder engagement enables her to connect with diverse audiences, build trust, and facilitate constructive dialogue that supports informed decisions.
