Lisa Ryan

Lisa is a Fractional Chief People Officer, HR consultant, executive coach, and nonprofit board member based in Sausalito, CA. She brings nearly 30 years of experience in human resources and talent management, having held progressively senior roles across the biotech and pharma landscape - from a private mid-size company to a global public corporation to an innovative cell therapy startup. Her work spans multiple therapeutic areas including oncology, virology, transplant, and ophthalmology.

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Most recently, Lisa served as Chief People Officer at Lyell Immunopharma, where she was a key member of the leadership team that grew the company to 300 employees across three sites and led it through a successful IPO in 2021. Before that, she spent a decade at Genentech and Roche, holding senior HR roles in multiple functions: Technical Operations, U.S. Commercial, Product Development, and Clinical Operations. She also spent six years in global roles supporting teams in the UK, Canada, China, Germany, Singapore, and Switzerland. Lisa’s experience includes leading global transformation initiatives, cross-functional alignment, and complex reorganizations—most notably a multi-phase global restructure of Clinical Operations.

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Lisa holds a BA in Psychology from Boston College and an MBA from Suffolk University. She is a certified Executive Coach and 360 Debrief Coach, and has completed both the Virtual Accelerator (June 2025) and Immersion Accelerator (September 2024) programs with the ValueAdd Group. She meets the requirements for the Board Certified Coach (BCC) credential and is actively pursuing certification. In April 2023, Lisa joined the Board of Directors of Gateway Mountain Center, a Truckee, CA–based nonprofit that provides nature-based therapeutic programs for youth.

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Secret Superpower: "My superpower is meeting leaders where they are - building trust with high-growth leaders navigating complexity, change, and reinvention. Whether coaching a biotech leader,  guiding women through career and life transition, or aligning teams around vision and purpose — I listen deeply, challenge thoughtfully, and always bring people back to what matters most. I make the messy feel manageable and the complex feel possible  - with warmth, wisdom and zero fluff."