Dave Norton is CEO of NortonHR, LLC, a US-based consultancy specializing in creating high impact Human Resources organizations and developing strong HR leaders.
Drawing on over 40 years of experience leading high performing HR teams, Dave helps CEOs and Chief HR Officers establish leading HR strategies and practices, develop exceptional HR leaders, and successfully manage through significant change events such as mergers, acquisitions, or critical transition periods between CHROs.
Prior to founding NortonHR, Dave served as the Chief Human Resources Officer for several top tier national and global corporations in the Consumer Products, Hospitality, Media, and Banking industries. While leading the HR function at PepsiCo, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, The New York Times, and most recently, People’s United Bank, he placed a premium on developing a strong vision for the function and extraordinary HR talent capable of operationalizing that vision across the enterprise, working in close partnership with business leaders. Today, over 30 CHROs of prominent corporations worked under Dave’s leadership, over half of whom are leading the function for Fortune 500 companies.
While serving as CHRO, Dave led the transformation of the HR function into a business focused, high impact, high talent organization and developed strong bench including a “ready now” HR executive prepared to step into his position when the need arose. Though each role and corporation had its unique opportunities and challenges, the journey in all began with a business-focused strategy and multi-phase plans for execution. Dave’s experience in mergers and acquisitions cuts across all the companies and industries in his background. At People's United Bank alone, the bank tripled in size in just 10 years, largely through acquisition. From due diligence to merger agreement development to transition planning to post-close culture assimilation, Dave has helped even the most complex companies manage through the most difficult organizational changes.
In addition to his experience as a senior corporate executive, Dave has served on several governing boards. He previously served on the boards of The University of Bridgeport, Public Square, and Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo. He is also a past President of The Cardinal Shehan Center. Additionally, Dave was one of five appointees asked by the Governor of Connecticut to serve on Bridgeport CT’s School Board of Directors in 2011-12 when it was necessary for the State to intervene to help turn around the public school system in Bridgeport CT.
Dave and his wife Sue live in Ridgefield, CT and have six grown children.