Chief of Staff  ·  People Development  ·  Organizational Effectiveness

The person your best people call when it matters.

From think tanks to startups to trillion-dollar institutions, I've spent 13 years facilitating strategy, coaching leaders, and building the people systems that make organizations work. I'm at my best in the room — and I'm looking for my next one.

Chris Denhart
$12M
Organization budget managed within 1% of target
100+
Person onboarding program built and scaled to the enterprise
$1.25M
Per year freed by my call to sunset a product I personally redesigned
Enterprise-wide
Influencing experience across the org through scaled programs I built informally

Six studies in organizational effectiveness

Strategic Advisory, Product Ownership & Executive Recommendation

The Call Nobody Wanted to Make

Fannie Mae  ·  2023

Some of the most important work a strategist does isn't building something, it's having the clarity to see when building is the wrong answer and the guts to end a misaligned project.

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People Development & Culture Design

Building the People Infrastructure for Impact

Fannie Mae  ·  2021–2022

In the wake of Covid-19 we had a serious culture problem that was impacting business outcomes. I co-founded the Marketing People Council to address this issue. The programs we built were adopted by HR and scaled enterprise-wide and are still running without me.

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Strategic Facilitation & Informal Authority

Leading Up, Down, and Sideways Through Ambiguity

Fannie Mae  ·  2026

I led leaders way above me in the org chart through a structured process to evaluate 2,000+ web assets. The website isn't the story. How I led with informal influence, designed a process to optimize everyone's expertise, and got us there is.

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People Analytics & Strategic Culture Work

Finding the Signal in the Noise

Fannie Mae  ·  2021–2022

The top-line numbers were improving. The CMO wanted a good story, and I had one ready to tell. But it didn't pass the sniff test and I kept digging. Instead of a fluff story, I found the real issue and drove attrition to nearly 0 for our target top performers.

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Operations & Organizational Infrastructure

Operational Turnaround at Enterprise Scale

Fannie Mae  ·  2018–2021

Inherited a $12M budget that had run 30% over plan the year before. I took budget operations and managed to within 1% of target the following year, where it stayed for three years running while continuing to expand and scale capabilities.

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Chief of Staff, Research Leadership & Institutional Impact

Building the Measure That Changed the Conversation

Center for College Affordability and Productivity / Forbes  ·  2008–2014

Before I was legally allowed to work (as a 15 year old), I was learning the ins and outs of data and analytics. By twenty-two I was the de-facto Chief of Staff to one of the leading economists in the country. What we created together, the Forbes America's Best Colleges, changed how an entire industry evaluates itself.

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"The most powerful thing you can do is change the way value is measured."

I find what the organization actually needs. Then I build it.

MPS, UX Design — MICASumma Cum Laude · GPA 4.0 · 2020
BS, Economics — Ohio UniversityPhi Beta Kappa · Cum Laude · 2014
Project Management Professional (PMP)Project Management Institute · 2017
Certified Design Thinking FacilitatorLUMA Institute · 2019
Designing StrategyIDEO U · 2025
Open to WorkChief of Staff · People Dev · Org Effectiveness · Cincinnati or Remote

I grew up professionally in rooms I had no business being in and figuring out how to be useful anyway.

At fifteen I was doing data analysis and policy research alongside one of the country's leading economists. By twenty-two I was his de facto Chief of Staff, managing operations, preparing Congressional hearing materials, and representing him in Washington when he was unavailable.

"That's the through-line: I find the thing the organization actually needs, build the conditions for it to happen, and have the courage to own the recommendation when it's time."

At Fannie Mae I kept getting pulled toward the most important unfilled need in the organization — regardless of my job title. The Marketing People Council. The onboarding overhaul. The design operations turnaround. Managing the consumer mobile app. Leaders kept tapping me because I was the person they could count on.

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If that sounds like someone you need, let's talk.

I'm looking for a Chief of Staff, Head of People Development, or Organizational Effectiveness role at a mission-driven company where I can build something real.

📍 Cincinnati, OH — Remote-Ready