Peter Ackerson is a Research Fellow for HfS Research where he contributes research and thought leadership in the Human Resources area.

After many years in the corporate world, Pete is now leading his own independent practice with a focus on HR Outsourcing Advisory and HR Shared Service Centers. Having designed and operated mega HR shared services operations, both internal and commercial, as well as having been a consultant with a Big-4 professional services firm; Pete brings practical and theoretical experience to his clients.

Having been in the HR arena back to when it was “Personnel”…which it really still is… regardless of the desire of HR wonks to appear more important, Pete has seen the continuing evolution of the field and has developed a pragmatic view and approach to solutions. In addition, he has seen both the successes and failures of approaches to HR operations and is willing to take credit or blame for some of both.

Pete’s experience started with a retail firm of 325,000 employees. Within that organization he had a variety of positions including Regional HR Manager, National HR Manager, Director in Strategic Planning, Director of Store Operations, Staff Assistant to the President, and Director of HR Services. In the HR Services area, he was responsible for all HR and Payroll administrative activities. This area included both internal and external HR service centers as well as HR technology. He also was the Executive Sponsor of the largest PeopleSoft Payroll/HR implementation to that date.

After taking an early retirement, Pete began as the VP-Client Service Centers for Exult, the first pure play HR-BPO firm. He was Exult’s 33rd employee and built out multi-client service centers in the US and UK. Having exposure to industry visionaries such as Jim Madden, Kevin Campbell, and Bob Gunn was an important part of an evolving education and viewpoint on HR service delivery. Pete had several roles at Exult and departed after Exult went public.

Having been burned by the start-up bug, Pete became EVP- Services at HRBSI, Inc. HRBSI had a tremendous business and financial plan, but was in play during the dotcom doldrums and never got off the ground. The experience of meeting with Venture Capital and Private Equity firms, however, was worth the time and effort.

Pete then went with Deloitte Consulting LLP in the HR Transformation practice and spent nine years advising global firms on HR vendor selection and HR service center design. He advised many companies across a multitude of industries during that time and adapted a pragmatic approach to service delivery based, not on concept du jour, but on what actually works. Elegance is wonderful, but workable solutions are better.

Pete has written numerous articles and presented at various conferences over the years and looks forward to more of those activities on the future. He is based in the Houston, Texas area and now he and his wife have their first grandchild (finally!).