Mary Ann Downey, Principal and Co-Founder of HR Metrics Coach, and known as “Mad” to friends and colleagues, founded HR Metrics Coach because (she thinks) she knows what she should do when she “grows-up”.  Sadly, her father still isn’t sure what she does for a living.

Mad has always been a renaissance woman, and is more interested in the connections between disciplines (the white space) rather than specializing in a specific subject.  Her non-traditional professional path and keen problem-solving aptitude make her uniquely qualified to help organizations maximize their human capital for the benefit of the enterprise and the individual.

Mad has had the privilege of working with organizations from a variety of industries, sizes, and global footprints.  She has provided in-house and virtual training to organizations such as GE, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and ConAgra on a variety of human capital topics like Workforce Planning, Diversity and HR Analytics.

Mad’s clients appreciate her sometimes irreverent, and always practical approach to solving their challenges.  Her philosophy is that in a global, yet flat world the only source of competitive advantage is through people.  While her undergraduate Economics professor was attempting to make a joke, she realized there is truth in the punch line that “the only asset that appreciates is human.”

An attorney by training, Mad began her professional career in large multinational organizations such as Caterpillar, General Motors and ING.  She served in a variety of capacities working in the plant, at the business unit level and corporate headquarters.   She left the corporate world to take a role as a Research Director for start-up firm, the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp).

At i4cp, Mad spoke with hundreds of organizations on a wide range of topics including: Diversity, Talent Management, Performance Management, Knowledge Retention, the HR Profession, Workforce Planning and HR Measurement.  She led exclusive consortiums, which met monthly, for candid discussions on latest research, real world challenges, successes and failures.  

A frequent presenter, she has been invited to present at many professional organizations and conferences, including Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), Catalyst Awards Conference, Human Resources Planning Society (HRPS), International Human Resources Information Management (IHRIM), HR.com and others. 

In addition to articles, reports and presentations for i4cp, her work has been published in Talent Management and Diversity Executive magazines.  She was a contributor to Dr. Jac Fitz-enz latest book, The New HR Analytics: Predicting the Economic Value of Your Company’s Human Capital Investments (2010).

Mad is based in Atlanta, GA where she is enjoys a wonderful life with her husband, also an attorney, her amazing son, beautiful baby daughter, and her two (dumb) boy dogs.