From transitionto traction.
When the Human Resources Professionals Association needed senior leadership through a significant leadership transition, they didn’t hope it would be fine. They brought in The Goods.
- Offering
- Fractional COMO
- Sector
- Professional association
- Duration
- About 18 months
- Members
- 24,000
Non-dues revenue generated through the engagement.
Operating costs, through restructured workflows.
Consolidated and AI-enabled. Less manual overhead, more accurate member data.
HRPA is the professional body for human resources practitioners in Ontario: a 24,000-member organization that sets professional standards, delivers education and advocates for the profession. When the then-CEO began wrapping up their tenure, HRPA entered a transition that needed more than a caretaker. It needed operational continuity, strategic momentum, and someone to support the executive function while the board searched for a new leader.
The organization was under real structural pressure at the same time. It had a strategic growth mandate, and the marketing and growth team was responsible for non-dues revenue. Legacy systems made new programs and new ways of engaging members hard to deliver. A CRM carrying years of inefficiency limited what the team could do, and communications, HRPA’s main line to its members and the profession, lacked the strategic architecture to drive engagement at scale.
HRPA didn’t need a consultant with a framework. It needed a senior operator who could step into the room, read what was actually happening, and move.
Three moves, executed in parallel.
- 01
A seat on the Executive Leadership Team.
Cerys joined HRPA’s ELT as a functioning member, not a project lead or an observer. She was in the room where strategy was set, where operational decisions were made, and where mission and margin pulled against each other. The team had added capacity and support while the board ran its CEO search.
- 02
A strategic plan for marketing and growth.
Filling the leadership gap on the marketing and growth team, Cerys worked with the team to build a new strategic plan that could absorb the transition and stay on its objectives. Together they found new revenue opportunities (+25%) and cut inefficiencies (−15% in costs).
Roles and responsibilities were tuned so the team could focus on its priorities instead of shifting decisions and changing leadership. The aim was clarity and confidence, so the team could get through the change and deliver its programs.
- 03
CRM consolidation and AI-enabled operations.
Member data was spread across legacy systems. The Goods led their consolidation into a cleaner, AI-enabled CRM, bringing in a technical product leader to cut manual admin, improve data quality and give the team tools it could actually use to serve members.
- Executive Leadership Team member, reporting to the Board
- Supported the outgoing CEO with the strategic plan and employee and member communications
- Developed and operationalized the marketing and growth strategy
- Identified and built non-dues revenue streams behind the +25%
- Led the CRM consolidation and AI-enablement initiative
- Managed the communications staff through the transition
The existing team stayed in place throughout. Cerys worked alongside them: not above them like a traditional contractor, not below them like a hired hand. They executed. She directed, prioritized and protected the team’s capacity. Together they produced more than the organization had managed before.
“Having Cerys at the ELT table was incredibly valuable and reassuring. Even in a fractional capacity, she provided a strong voice and was someone we could rely on for support and perspective.
HRPA leadership · Executive team
“Cerys positively impacted our Marketing & Growth team. She is an exceptional leader who helped move our team forward and made a meaningful impression during her time with the organization. She created space for people to grow, while also recognizing and encouraging the contributions of the team.
HRPA · Marketing & Growth
Leadership transitions are expensive.
Not just in the obvious ways. They’re expensive because of what doesn’t happen while the organization waits. Strategy pauses, decisions slow, momentum stalls, and teams look sideways instead of forward.
HRPA’s engagement wasn’t about keeping the lights on. It made the transition productive and left the organization structurally stronger than before. If you’re facing a leadership gap, a function that isn’t performing, or a growth plateau you can’t push through, this is the work we do.
Building the market before it existed.
A marketing function built from zero, a $2M seed round, and a wedge into Fortune 500 accounts.