Fred Holt is the founder and CEO of Summit HR Solutions, a provider of strategic HR services and products for early stage companies. Fred has more than twenty-five years of human resources experience with fast-paced, hi-growth technology companies. He has held the top senior HR positions at Photobucket (Vice President and Corporate Secretary), Rally Software (VP Human Resources), Vallent (Senior VP Human Resources), as well as serving in senior roles with several HR consulting firms (The Summit Group and Aim Executive). Fred’s passion and expertise is in facilitating effective growth, building capacity, and maximizing the contribution of people in organizations. He has extensive experience in growing human resource infrastructure from start up or early-stage to mid-size, mid-stage organizations. Fred has decades of successful experience aligning human capital with critical business objectives, assisting with the creation of intentional, values driven organizations. He has a track record of working effectively with executive teams and boards of directors to ensure that his efforts and results are aligned with corporate values and organizational objectives. His personal passion lies in HR consulting for high-growth tech startups in Boulder and Denver and looks forward to working with you.
Fred holds a B.S. in Psychology and Sociology, from Lake Superior State University and a M.A. in Industrial Organizational Psychology from Western Michigan University. He currently sits on the Board of Directors for Rocky Mountain Strategy and People (RMHRPS) and is an active member of the Society for Human Resource Management. He is also a ski freak, avid cyclist, sailor and loves all Colorado has to offer.
Melissa Grandchamp is a collaborative, employee-focused human resources and organizational development professional, recognized for establishing and managing innovative HR infrastructures, propelling high-tech startups into rapid and sustainable growth. Recognized as a visionary human resources leader, she effectively partners with executive management to ensure all HR strategies, programs and initiatives are tightly aligned with the company mission, culture and goals.
Prior to joining Summit HR Solutions, Ms. Grandchamp most recently served as the head of Human Resources for Ping Identity Corporation where she functioned as a trusted advisor to the executive team, and served as the first HR professional on deck to a fast-growing technology startup. She spearheaded the development and implementation of all HR strategies, processes, policies, and initiatives to a 300+ globally diverse workforce resulting in numerous corporate accolades including the Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 and the Denver Post’s Top Places to Work lists.
Melissa has achieved the highest-degree of confidence and respect amongst colleagues and peers due to her proven success in building employee morale while successfully aligning human and capital resources with corporate objectives.
Prior to joining Ping, Ms. Grandchamp served in other human resources roles including P3, American Fundware (now Intuit), and Continental Imaging Products. She holds her B.S. in Mass Communications and Advertising from the University of Southern Colorado and has a Six Sigma Green Belt certification.
Ms. Grandchamp lives and works in the Denver-Metro area where she actively participates in numerous HR organizations, serves on a number of boards and enjoys traveling and the Colorado outdoors.
Abby Pfeiffer currently serves as an independent Senior Principal Consultant with
Summit HR Solutions. Abby started her HR consulting career in 2017 and, before
that, held various corporate HR roles for the majority of her career.
In her corporate roles, she was most-recently the Senior Vice President of Human
Resources for Charter Communications. In this role, she supported the
organization’s enterprise-wide Human Resources function. This involved leading
the human resources integration efforts on all M & A transactions. She also focused
on driving the employee strategy and developing leading-edge programs for all
areas of HR, including compensation, benefits, recruiting, executive development,
succession management, training, talent planning, payroll, HRIS, and others.
Among her specific responsibilities were identifying opportunities to further enhance
Charter’s HR service offering to employees, implementing best practices and
strategic HR initiatives to optimize employees’ effectiveness in continually
improving the customer experience, driving the organization toward “employer of
choice” status, and implementing programs and procedures to improve HR’s
efficiency, productivity and focus on the customer. She also oversaw organizational
realignment initiatives and managed the employee transition associated with all
mergers and acquisitions.
Prior to joining Charter, Ms. Pfeiffer held senior HR leadership positions in other
telecommunications organizations, including WOW! Internet Cable and Phone, High
Speed Access, and Convergent Communications. Her early career experiences
were in the insurance and mortgage industries.
Ms. Pfeiffer has over 30 years’ experience in the HR discipline and, in addition to
her Master’s degree in Management, she has attained the Senior Professional in
Human Resources (SPHR), the SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) and
Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) certifications. She is a member of the
Society for Human Resources Management, Mile High SHRM, Colorado Springs
SHRM, World at Work, and Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT). In
addition, Ms. Pfeiffer received recognition as 2010 Woman of the Year from the
Rocky Mountain Chapter of WICT and was recognized as one of NAMIC’s Most
Influential Minorities for 2010. She is also an alumna of the Betsy Magness
Leadership Institute and has served on the Emma Bowen Foundation Board, the
Cable and Telecommunications Human Resources Association (CTHRA) Board, and
the Executive Women’s Summit.
Michelle Del Santo is a strategic, collaborative, employee experience focused
human resources and organizational development professional with over 15
years of experience in various industries, including technology, healthcare and
natural foods. She has passion for building diverse, high-performing teams,
fostering strong company cultures and developing people.
Prior to joining Summit HR Solutions, Michelle most recently served as the VP of
Talent and Culture at SurveyGizmo. Prior to that, at SurveyGizmo, she served as
the Director of Operations partnering with the CEO in executing all operations
initiatives, including human resources, compliance, security, and customer
success. Initially, at SurveyGizmo, she was brought on board as the first HR
professional for this fast growing, boot strapped, technology startup. She
developed and implemented all of the HR strategies, processes, policies and
initiatives. During her time there, in recognition of the company’s strong
operational performance and outstanding company culture, SurveyGizmo was
named to Denver Post’s Top Places to Work 2017 list as well as a Forbes Small
Giant 2017.
Known as a candid C-level advisor with high emotional intelligence and a natural
ability to inspire, she is passionate about helping organizations to grow through
creating sustainable programs that support employee growth, deep corporate
values and operational efficiencies.
Prior to SurveyGizmo, Michelle served as the first HR professional at another fast
growing technology startup, RegOnline. She established the organization’s HR
infrastructure and policies, and organized workflows and operational procedures
to support initial growth She was Instrumental in bringing company to sale and
transitioning the employees through the acquisition process by The Active
Network. Michelle stayed on board with Active serving as a Regional Human
Resources Manager, managing the HR functions for a region with a globally
distributed workforce of over 200.
Ms. Del Santo served in other human resources roles including at Boulder
Community Health and Wild Oats Markets (now Whole Foods). She holds a B.A
in Women’s Studies from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is a member
of the Society for Human Resources Management and a trained mediator
through Mares-Dixon & Associates and the Colorado Bar Association.
Michelle lives in the Boulder–Metro area and is outside as often as possible,
gardening, cycling or hiking.
We’ve been honored to have the opportunity to support many Colorado’s most
exciting companies over the years, including:
“I have run HR in Fortune 500 companies and now I run HR in a 100 person diagnostic start-up in Boulder. I knew what we needed to build but as a small HR shop we had limited capabilities and resources. I reached out to Summit HR Solutions to see if they could become my partner and become the extended HR functional team that I needed but could not justify having full time to tackle some big HR initiatives that needed attention.
Fred Holt understood my issues and introduced me to one of his top consultants, Melissa Grandchamp to come in on a project based engagement. Melissa worked with our entire team to build out and implement a performance system and a talent management infrastructure with approaches and tools appropriate to our size and complexity.
Melissa came on with us in August 2015 for 2-days a week working with our HR team to build a robust Talent Management system. We now have a cloud-based performance management application in place, our employees have goals with direct line of sight to our corporate key results, and we are rolling out ongoing training programs to facilitate continued employee and leadership development and ensure engagement. With Melissa’s involvement we are now accomplishing a number of key initiatives that has added value to our corporate structure but more importantly meeting the expectations of our employees. Additionally, Melissa has become a recognized member of our HR team and has become part of the Biodesix culture.
Their deep knowledge of the HR tech space was spot on and are making a difference in our performance. Working with Summit HR and Melissa in particular has really helped us move forward during a time of significant change providing strategic HR services from day one.”