Loretta A. Penn

Loretta Penn is a current board member and past Chairwoman for the Virginia Ready Initiative. Prior to her role at VA Ready, Ms. Penn was the President of Spherion Staffing Services (a division of SFN), a two billion dollar ($2.0B) staffing and recruiting company which was acquired by the Randstad Group in 2011.  Ms. Penn led the company’s largest division, in excess of one billion dollars ($1.1B), and was responsible for revenue growth and profitability, service delivery, sales, operations and strategic direction across 500+ company-owned, licensed and franchised offices in North America. Prior to serving as President of Spherion Staffing, Ms. Penn served as Spherion’s Chief Service Excellence Officer, and President of Spherion Legal Staffing along with other senior level positions.  Ms. Penn brings over 25 years of experience in the staffing industry and 10 years in sales, marketing and executive management positions with the IBM Corporation.

Ms. Penn was also the founder and President of PECC, LLC, an executive coaching and consulting company.  Ms. Penn works with the C-suite, senior executives, business owners, entrepreneurs and individuals to create greater alignment between business goals, vision and profitability.  Her practice focuses on working with professionals who are committed to developing innovative, creative and sustainable solutions in the areas of workforce management, strategic planning, talent acquisition and retention in a diverse global environment.

In alignment with her executive coaching and consulting practice, Ms. Penn is an Adjunct Professor in Washington, DC at the George Washington University School of Nursing Doctoral program and the Nursing Leadership and Executive Management Program.

Ms. Penn holds a Bachelor of Science degree from North Texas University and a Certificate of Studies from Harvard University. Ms. Penn formerly served as Executive Chair of the Board for YUPRO (a division of YearUp), and the board of TECO Energy (member of the Compensation and Nomination and Governance committees) which was sold in 2016.  She currently serves on the Board of Directors for The North Highland Company (Lead Director), ZRG Partners, and The Global Good Fund (Compensation Committee Chair).