Crystal Riley Appointed to Lead ENSPIRA’s New Financial Services Practice;
Brings Unique Combination of Global Human Resources, Financial Services and Business Expertise
PALM SPRINGS, CA – February 27, 2020 – Enspira, an innovative human resources (HR) consulting firm fueled by hundreds of years of collective, diverse and deep cross-industry experience, today announced the appointment of Crystal Riley as Human Capital Director and Associate Partner to lead and grow its new Financial Services Practice. The new practice expands Enspira’s portfolio of consulting services to address the HR needs of banks, commercial real estate organizations, investment management groups, insurance companies and financial technology firms. Enspira currently provides its services to approximately 30 for-profit and nonprofit organizations from multiple industries, including healthcare, pharmaceutical, food, technology, sports, banking and more.
“I’ve had a career-long interest and passion for the financial services industry, going back to my early days leading the HR function for Accenture’s Southeast Financial Services Region,” said Kurt Serrano, CEO at Enspira. My goal at Enspira is to build the most diverse, highly-experienced team of HR professionals in the industry to mirror the diversity of our clients. Crystal Riley is a very accomplished leader who brings a strong financial services background and global HR expertise. She is the perfect complement to our team, which collectively has decades of professional and educational experience outside the U.S., an area of future growth and expansion for Enspira.”
Riley’s career spans more than 10 years of investment banking, client management and HR experience. She began working in financial services and investment banking as an analyst at Barclays where she raised equity and debt financing within private capital markets across industries. She then moved into roles at Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) and Biogen. At MLT, she partnered with financial services clients on talent management programs, including implementing successful recruitment, retention and diversity strategies. Her role at Biogen spanned integrated talent strategies, team effectiveness and employee relations as well as recruitment and diversity strategies. Riley has an extensive track record of helping organizations empower and engage their talent as a strategic asset and actively advocates and mentors young students and people of color to help them grow, succeed and thrive in their careers. Riley’s educational background includes studying abroad at the London School of Economics and earning a M.B.A. degree from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and a B.S. degree in Finance and International Business from Georgetown University.
As Human Capital Director and Associate Partner at Enspira, Riley is responsible for building strategic partnerships with financial services organizations, helping to identify effective and practical human resources solutions in the areas of performance management; talent strategy and planning; employee engagement and retention; manager capability and effectiveness; diversity and inclusion; and HR function optimization, including providing technology platforms, selection and implementation counsel. The financial services and insurance industries are burgeoning, which, at the end of 2018, employed more than 6.3 million people.
“I am excited about building and growing the Financial Services Practice at Enspira, working alongside a very talented, experienced team of HR professionals,” said Crystal Riley, Human Capital Director and Associate Partner, Financial Services, Enspira. “Given the significant changes taking place in the financial services marketplace today — from the global impact of technologies, cultural influence and buying power of millennials, and evolving talent and diversity gaps — I see a tremendous opportunity to partner with these organizations to help them achieve their strategic HR visions and earn significant returns on their most important asset — their people.”
“Over the past year, Kurt has been an insightful and thoughtful advisor on performance management design and best practices, compensation strategy and scaling general people operations programs across the business,” said Stephanie Mardell, Chief People Officer for Button, a leader in commerce-driven internet services and a client of Enspira’s. “What is unique about Kurt and Enspira is he both advises and provides you with examples and/or templates of how to implement. As we grow to 200 people this year, I’m excited to continue working with Kurt and the Enspira team.”
About Enspira
Enspira is an innovative human resources consulting firm, headquartered in Southern California, with deep expertise in performance management; talent strategy and planning; engagement and retention; manager capability and effectiveness; diversity and inclusion; and HR function transformation and optimization. Founded in 2018 by Kurt Serrano, Enspira’s winning team of human resources experts have hundreds of years of collective, diverse and cross-industry global experience and are dedicated to inspiring organizations and their people to grow and thrive by delivering custom, client-focused solutions that work. Learn more at enspirahr.com and follow @enspirahr.
Diana Campau
Enspira Media Relations
Phone: 805-340-4264
Email: media@enspirahr.com
