Recent workforce data points to a striking paradox for enterprise leaders: as investments in automation and generative AI accelerate, the pace of technological change is beginning to outrun the ability of workforces to adapt. For years, human capital strategy was often treated as a supporting function within enterprise transformation. In 2026, that role has expanded. Business leaders increasingly recognize that an organization’s competitive advantage depends less on the tools it buys than on how effectively its workforce can adapt, lead, and execute.
Today, major corporate initiatives carry a clear human capital dimension. Whether an organization is deploying analytics-led operating models to control costs or managing the people risks inherent in an international merger, execution fails when leaders neglect the friction of the transition.
The breadth of this year's cohort underscores how deeply human capital strategy now dictates organizational outcome. We see it in leaders advancing global workforce research on AI, skills, and worker sentiment; advisors guiding the people risks inside private equity and M&A transactions; specialists designing executive compensation structures tied to business performance; and consultants helping state agencies manage change across major child welfare and child support system modernizations. Ultimately, their work touches nearly every consequential decision in contemporary business and governance.
Selected through an evaluation of their advisory impact, domain expertise, and leadership scale, these professionals represent the very best of the field. Please join us in celebrating The Top Human Capital Consultants and Leaders of 2026.
Peter Brown
Firm: PwC UK
Title: Partner
As Global Workforce Leader at PwC UK, Pete Brown advises boards and executive teams on workforce transformation, AI, skills, productivity, leadership, and organizational change. He works with organizations around the world on the people implications of transformation, helping leaders redesign work, build workforce capability, and improve productivity while maintaining employee trust.
Pete has been part of PwC’s Global Workforce Leadership Team since 2014 and now leads the firm’s global Workforce practice. He also contributes to PwC’s research on the future of work, including the Hopes & Fears survey and AI Jobs Barometer, which examine how AI is affecting jobs, wages, skills, productivity, and worker sentiment across global labor markets. His client work includes workforce strategy, operating models, workforce analytics, HR technology, and large-scale change for multinational organizations.
Before joining PwC UK as a partner in 2010, Pete was a partner at Accenture and held a senior leadership role at Xchanging. Earlier in his career, he served as an officer in the Royal Air Force. He is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, a Chartered Management Consultant, and was appointed MBE in 2000 for services to the Royal Air Force.
Anthony Abbatiello
Firm: PwC
Title: Partner and Workforce Transformation Practice Leader
Anthony Abbatiello is a Partner and Workforce Transformation Practice Leader at PwC, where he leads the firm’s human capital consulting business. He leads work spanning HR strategy and transformation, organizational design, talent strategy, workforce analytics, rewards and benefits, and the workforce implications of emerging technologies.
Anthony has more than 25 years of experience building and leading human capital consulting businesses. At PwC, he is responsible for scaling the Workforce Transformation practice and expanding its capabilities across HR advisory, talent, analytics, AI, and rewards. His work with senior executives focuses on leadership performance, succession management, and the organizational changes required to support transformation.
Prior to PwC, Anthony led the global advisory business at Russell Reynolds Associates, where he oversaw consulting services across 20 countries and doubled the size of the business through new service lines and improved client delivery. Earlier, he was a principal in Deloitte’s Human Capital practice, where he helped launch businesses focused on leadership, culture, and digital human capital. He began his career at Accenture, where he helped build the firm’s HR transformation capabilities and later led its global HR consulting business. Anthony is also an adjunct professor in New York University’s graduate business program and holds a business degree from Villanova University.
Dave Eberhardt
Firm: PwC
Title: Partner
Dave Eberhardt is a Partner in PwC’s HR Transformation practice. There, he advises organizations on human capital strategy, workforce planning, talent management, organizational effectiveness, and HR operating model transformation. He works with senior leadership teams on large-scale workforce and HR initiatives, helping organizations make HR functions more effective during periods of growth, restructuring, and operational change.
Dave brings both consulting and in-house HR leadership experience to his work. Before joining PwC, he served as senior vice president and Americas head of human resources at Panalpina and as vice president of human resources and administration at Canvas Energy. His experience includes workforce analytics, succession planning, employee engagement, culture development, performance management, and HR technology transformation across global organizations.
Earlier in his career, Dave held consulting and advisory roles at Booz & Company and Accenture and served in HR leadership positions at Devon Energy. His work has spanned North America, Latin America, Europe, and India. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science with a focus on international affairs from the University of Utah and completed the CHRO Program through Wharton Executive Education.
Simona Spelman
Firm: Deloitte
Title: U.S. Human Capital Leader
Simona Spelman is Deloitte’s U.S. Human Capital Leader, overseeing one of the firm’s largest consulting practices focused on work, the workforce, and the workplace. In this role, she leads thousands of human capital professionals who advise organizations on workforce strategy, human performance, emerging technology, and large-scale transformation.
Simona has more than 20 years of consulting experience, with a background in enterprise program delivery, IT transformation, shared services, and human capital operating models. Her work focuses on helping organizations connect workforce capabilities to business performance as AI and other emerging technologies change how work gets done. She has also contributed to Deloitte’s Human Capital Trends research.
Before becoming U.S. Human Capital Leader in 2023, Simona served as Deloitte's global Human Capital as a Service offering leader and U.S. Human Capital as a Service offering leader. Earlier in her Deloitte career, she led the firm’s Extended IT service offering and worked closely with major client accounts on enabling functions, systems, governance, program management, and delivery. She previously held roles at Intrasphere Technologies and Accenture. Simona holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Rutgers University.
Mark Williamson
Firm: KPMG UK
Title: Partner
Mark Williamson has spent more than 25 years helping organizations redesign HR functions, workforce models, and people strategies to improve business performance. As a Partner and UK Head of People Consulting at KPMG UK, he focuses on learning, workforce planning and analytics, HR service delivery, HR technology, and people performance.
At KPMG, Mark leads the firm’s P³ People Powered Performance business, which brings together people solutions across Tax and Advisory. He has led large-scale workforce and HR transformation programs for clients in the UK and globally, with experience across defense, industrial manufacturing, telecommunications, financial services, consumer markets, pharmaceuticals, energy, infrastructure, and natural resources.
Mark previously worked in industry at Rolls-Royce and IAE and held roles at other global professional services organizations. He is a frequent industry commentator and co-author of “Transforming HR: Creating Value Through People,” a book focused on HR and workforce transformation. Mark holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering and an MBA.
Eric Gonzaga
Firm: Grant Thornton
Title: Partner
Eric Gonzaga is a Partner in Grant Thornton’s Human Capital Services practice, where he leads the Minneapolis human capital services group and serves as national leader for healthcare within the practice. His work centers on executive compensation, total rewards, and governance, with a focus on helping organizations design compensation structures that support leadership performance and business goals.
Eric advises private equity firms, financial institutions, public and private companies, and healthcare organizations on equity and incentive compensation design, annual and long-term incentive strategy, executive contracts, compensation governance, proxy disclosure support, and 409A, 280G, and reasonableness audits. He has also supported compensation strategies tied to growth, turnaround, and merger situations.
Eric joined Grant Thornton after serving as vice president at Clark Consulting. He is a board member of the National Association of Stock Plan Professionals and a member of WorldatWork. Eric has also written and presented on executive compensation, risk management, pay-for-performance, and governance. He holds a JD from the Hamline University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in English from Northern Illinois University.
Arthur Mazor
Firm: Deloitte
Title: Principal, Global Human Capital Leader
Art Mazor is a Principal in Deloitte Consulting’s Human Capital practice, where he advises global clients on digital and organizational transformation. Over more than 30 years, he has worked across human capital consulting, HR leadership, and outsourcing services, helping organizations navigate large-scale change through strategic planning, operating model and organization design, employee experience, digital enablement, governance, and change management.
At Deloitte, Art previously served as global human capital practice leader, leading the Global Human Capital Executive Team as a member of the Global Consulting Offerings and Assets Leadership Team. He also led Deloitte’s HR Transformation practice globally and has worked with major global brands on transformation initiatives spanning workforce, technology, and organizational change.
His previous leadership roles include senior human capital and HR services positions at Fidelity Investments, ACS Human Capital Management Solutions, Accenture, and PwC. His career has included leadership positions in HR transformation, outsourcing, service delivery, and organizational design. Art earned his degree in organization and management from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.
Liz Fealy
Firm: EY
Title: Global People Advisory Services Tax Deputy Leader
Liz Fealy advises organizations on the workforce and organizational implications of corporate transactions, helping companies navigate the people challenges that accompany mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings, and large-scale transformations. She serves as a Partner at EY, where she is the Global People Consulting Private Equity Leader.
Over the course of her career, Liz has worked with more than 25 Fortune 100 companies on transactions and transformation initiatives. Her expertise spans workforce strategy, HR integration, rewards, organizational design, and people-related transaction planning. At EY, she works with global teams to help clients address talent and workforce priorities across both private equity funds and portfolio companies.
Liz previously spent more than 16 years at Aon Hewitt, where she led the firm's global M&A business and helped develop its approach to talent, rewards, and culture in transactions. Earlier in her career, she practiced employment and labor law at Paul Hastings. Liz holds a JD from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and a bachelor's degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University.
Evan Metter
Firm: KPMG
Title: Principal, US Human Resource and Learning Transformation Leader
Evan Metter is a globally recognized human capital visionary, keynote speaker, and Principal at KPMG, where he serves as the US Human Resource and Learning Transformation Leader. His work is guided by a singular, driving mission: "Connecting people and ideas to create experiences that generate more understanding, meaning, and human flourishing in the world." With over 25 years of global experience across the U.S., Europe, and beyond, Evan operates on the core philosophy that, even in the age of AI, an organization’s people are its only truly sustainable advantage. He is known for his unique ability to reframe complex organizational challenges in entirely new ways—pushing leaders to grow, challenging the status quo, and building workplace ecosystems that produce the results that matter.
As a creative strategist, Evan’s visionary perspectives are fiercely practical. They are grounded in a career spent with his sleeves rolled up, driving the work on the ground. This authentic, field-proven leadership style allows him to partner effectively with C-suite executives across the world's most complex organizations. Whether guiding the transformation of a legacy HR function into a Total Workforce Management function, designing agentic orchestration for hyper-personalized experiences, or bringing to life dynamic workforce reskilling and re-deployment, clients and teams remember Evan for the same things: he is passionate, fun, highly engaged with new ideas, and profoundly committed to making a meaningful difference.
As a dynamic keynote speaker, Evan brings a highly sought-after vitality to the stage. He is celebrated for a signature speaking style that blends rigorous, research-backed insights with actionable execution steps—often incorporating a unique musical element to make his sessions unforgettable. He is the host of the monthly podcast, "Keeping People's Minds Growing," which explores human flourishing in the age of AI. At the forefront of industry thought leadership, Evan has directed the human capital research for KPMG’s global Transforming the Enterprise study, and his insights are frequently featured in top-tier publications, including HR Chief Magazine and HR Dive Magazine.
Evan holds degrees in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and Business Administration from Boston University.
Heather Wheeler
Firm: CSG Government Solutions
Title: Senior Principal
Heather Wheeler is a Senior Principal at CSG Government Solutions, where she works in the firm’s Child Support and Child Welfare practices. She specializes in helping state agencies manage the people side of major modernization efforts, including new child welfare and child support systems.
Heather has more than 25 years of executive experience across local, state, and federal government programs, including child support, child welfare, WIC, mental health, substance abuse, welfare, and public transportation. Over the past year, she has overseen change management for a new child welfare system in Connecticut and new child support systems in Alaska and Nevada. Her work focuses on executive sponsorship, stakeholder engagement, communication, training, and sustained adoption of complex technology and program changes.
Before joining CSG Government Solutions in 2015, Heather held leadership roles with the Community Transportation Association of Idaho, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, and the Anchorage Department of Health and Human Services. She holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Alaska Anchorage and a bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University. Heather is also a Prosci-certified Change Management Professional and PMI-certified Project Management Professional.