John Brennan

John brings over thirty years’ experience in business, focusing on helping organizations— their people, clients and investors—thrive by creating great cultures, leaders and human capital practices. His expertise has centered on helping leaders inspire their people to produce their best and aligning individual and organizational goals, motivations, and outcomes. He has been a member of a variety executive leadership teams in his career.

As an in-house executive, he was most recently the Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Facilities and Community Involvement at Advent Software. John was responsible for ensuring Advent created an environment where Advent’s people perform at their best creating value for themselves and the company’s clients and investors.  John was a member of the executive management team, reporting to Advent’s CEO.

Before Advent, John was Vice President of Human Resources for Wind River Systems. John supported Wind River’s rapid organic and acquisition driven growth; building a worldwide HR function to scale with company needs.

Prior to Wind River, he was Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Visa International’s technology business unit, which was responsible for the software and network that facilitates billions of dollars of commerce every year.

John currently serves on the board of Summer Search, an organization that mentors high school youth from disadvantaged backgrounds so they successfully graduate high school and continue on to college.

Background

John has a master’s degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Music from Hamilton College.

John has served on the board of Goodwill of the Greater East Bay, including board chair. He also served as Chairman of the Board of the Meyer Friedman Institute, which conducted groundbreaking research into the connection between behavioral styles and cardiovascular disease.