Ellucian, Reston, Virginia, United States: Greg Giangrande, Chief People and Communications Officer

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Greg Giangrande is Chief People and Communications officer for Ellucian, the leading higher education technology solutions provider. Greg leads the company’s global people organization, including employee experience, HR business partners, talent acquisition, total rewards, DEI, learning and development, corporate communications, and events. Greg has deep experience as a transformative human resources and communications leader, and joined Ellucian in January 2021. 

Prior to Ellucian, Greg served as a senior advisor with McKinsey & Company working with clients on enterprise transformation, employee experience, human resources, organizational health and culture, leadership development, diversity and inclusion, and communications strategies. Greg also served as executive vice president, chief human resources officer and chief communications officer for Time Inc. Greg is a career advice columnist for the NY Post and an adjunct faculty member of New York University. 

Over past 2.5 years, Greg has elevated Ellucian’s people and communications functions, building an improved company culture in which employees are supported, more engaged, and aligned around company values and mission as we undergo a major transformation of skills and the business to support our customers’ SaaS journeys. Greg has also driven a mature and truly data-driven approach to People analytics, making sure that all of our decision making is rooted in dashboards that have been built out which inform both our team and the broader business. 

Greg is a fierce proponent of a healthy workplace, maintaining flexible and remote work for all employees, while also encouraging teams to come together in person to collaborate when possible.

Highlights of Greg’s achievements:

• Worked with executive team and CEO to guide Ellucian through its purchase by private equity owners Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners.
• Led the integration and training of an influx of new employees during Ellucian’s acquisition of CampusLogic in April 2022.
• Led Talent Acquisition team in increasing headcount 20% globally in last 2 years, and oversaw the implementation of iCIMS, providing a unified, global scalable platform to optimize Talent attraction and enable a data driven approach.
• Implemented a “build over buy” Recruiting Strategy (High Potential Entry Level) targeting earlier career talent and engaging them with an immersive learning & development program to upskill, set them up for long term success, and increase their speed to productivity. The strategy is a programmatic approach through a tight partnership between our TA, HRBP, L&D, and compensation teams, and in the last 12 months we have had over 190 new hires go through the program [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION].
• Oversaw Benefits team in augmenting U.S. offerings to better serve employees, leading to Ellucian’s recognition by Blackstone with a “Bold and Brave” award.
• Assisted Communications team in revamping weekly internal company newsletter, “In the Know (ITK),” increasing readership by 20%. In 2022, ITK won a PR Daily Content Marketing Award for Employee Engagement.
• Established Ellucian’s inaugural DE&I and ESG teams with a focus on fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace, adopting sustainable practices, and establishing transparent governance structures that prioritize social responsibility and ethical decision-making. This includes publishing Ellucian’s first-ever Impact Report in 2022 and initiating company-wide conversations addressing unconscious bias, allyship and cultural competency. We have 11 Employee Resource Groups with 60% of our employees actively engaged, and ERG membership has grown by 35% during Greg’s tenure. Under his leadership, Ellucian has consistently ranked above portfolio company benchmarks with both of our private equity partners – Vista’s ESG assessment and Blackstone’s DEI assessment.
• Achieved 93% response rate in 2023 employee engagement survey – the highest rate our survey vendor has ever seen.
• Consulted on planning of and became the emcee of Ellucian Live, our annual user conference with more than 5,000 customers.
• [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION]
• Achieved 86% employee net promoter score two years in a row.  

Total 146 words used.

• Helped guide Ellucian through its purchase by new private equity owners Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners 
• Led the integration and training of new employees during Ellucian's acquisition of CampusLogic
• Implemented impactful High Potential Entry Level Talent program 
• Augmented U.S. benefits offerings, earning Ellucian a "Bold and Brave" award from Blackstone
• Revamped internal company newsletter, increasing readership by 20% and winning a PR Daily Content Marketing Award for Employee Engagement
• Improved DEI and ESG strategies, leading to above-benchmark rankings in assessments by Vista Equity Partners and Blackstone
• Achieved a 93% response rate in the 2023 employee engagement survey
• Emceed Ellucian Live, the annual user conference with over 5,000 attendees
• Achieved 86% employee net promoter score two years in a row.
• [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION]