Biographies

Summer Harriff, Ph.D.

Summer Harriff specializes in strategic change and human performance, with expertise in mergers and acquisitions, downsizing initiatives, and corporate restructuring. She has worked extensively on turnover retention and employee engagement strategies, employee development initiatives, the development and execution of knowledge management programs, and the improvement of performance management systems. A skilled organizational development practitioner, Summer has also assisted an array of clients in complex employee relations issues, decision making, problem solving, business process re-engineering, process improvement, and program development efforts.

With over 8 years of internal experience working in various departments within the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, Summer has a firm understanding of the interplay between job functions, departments, and corporate divisions, as well as the technical aspects and jargon of the various professions and business functions. Accordingly, she can readily connect with clientele by speaking their language, appreciating their culture, and understanding their capabilities and constraints given the context of the organizational system. These skills enable Summer to waste no time identifying performance strategies and solutions that are directly linked to business goals, a skill considered critical because of the speed and complexity of change. In her consulting engagements, Summer’s aim is to produce useful results quickly, and with minimal disruption to your organization’s productivity.

Trained at the doctoral level, Summer has a sophisticated understanding of employee attitudes and behaviors, which translates into solid tactics for promoting employee performance and organizational effectiveness in her human capital strategies and organizational change efforts. Summer takes an empirical approach to all projects, allowing her to accurately and efficiently identify the client’s critical issues and to prevent unintended consequences. Using such scientific rigor, Summer not only provides organizations with reliable, evidence-based solutions, she monitors her clients’ progress to help prevent derailment of the recommended initiatives and to ensure the projected ROI is achieved.

Prior to joining Global Life Sciences, Summer worked as a business consultant for Wolf Management Consultants and Avery Consulting Group. Her clients span the biotechnology/pharmaceutical, aerospace, security, employee wellness, insurance, tourism, and technical industries, and include companies such as Agouron/Warner- Lambert/Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Hewlett-Packard/Compaq, the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau, Alliance Space-Systems/Bluebeam Software, and the National Safety Council’s PeakCare.

Summer has a B.A. in psychology from Scripps College, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the Marshall Goldsmith School of Management.