Mentor
Mirian Graddick-Weir
Overview
Mirian Graddick-Weir is a globally recognised human capital leader whose career has been built at the top of two of the world’s most complex, people-intensive sectors: pharmaceuticals and telecommunications. As Executive Vice President, Human Resources at Merck, she was responsible for all aspects of HR for 68,000 colleagues in more than 90 countries, supporting a science-driven business operating under intense regulatory, societal and stakeholder scrutiny. She joined Merck in 2006 from AT&T, where she was Executive Vice President of Human Resources and Employee Communications and, over a 20-year career, held numerous senior HR and operational roles that gave her deep insight into large-scale transformation, union and non-union environments, and the evolution of technology-enabled work.
Mirian is known for shaping HR as a strategic discipline at enterprise level – aligning talent, culture, rewards and leadership to the growth and transformation agendas of global companies. At both Merck and AT&T she played a central role in leadership succession, workforce strategy, culture change and employee engagement at scale, often in the context of restructuring and M&A, technological disruption and shifting stakeholder expectations.
Alongside her executive career, Mirian has built a substantial portfolio of board and professional leadership roles. She serves on the boards of Yum! Brands, Inc. and Booking Holdings, Inc., bringing a distinctive combination of human capital expertise, global perspective and experience in consumer-facing, multi-brand organisations. She sits on the Foundation Board of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), is a Senior Adviser to Jersey Battered Women’s Services (JBWS), and is the CEO of the Massenberg STEM Foundation, reflecting a longstanding commitment to applying her skills in service of both organisational performance and social impact. She has previously chaired the HR Policy Association and the National Academy of Human Resources (NAHR); she was elected an NAHR Fellow in 2001 and a Distinguished Fellow in 2016, the Academy’s highest honour.
Mirian brings deep cross-sector expertise in:
• Global HR, talent & succession – leading human resources for large, complex organisations and stewarding leadership pipelines across multiple geographies.
• Culture, engagement & transformation – designing and delivering people strategies that enable large-scale change in heavily regulated, technology-disrupted sectors.
• Diversity, equity & inclusion – recognised leadership in advancing diverse talent and inclusive cultures, particularly for women and under-represented groups.
• Industrial/organisational psychology & evidence-based practice – applying rigorous psychological and organisational research to real-world leadership, performance and workforce challenges.
Her work has been widely recognised by peers and the wider business community: she has been named by Black Enterprise as one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and by Human Resources Executive magazine as one of the most influential global HR executives, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Michigan, and the Academy of Management’s Distinguished HR Executive Award.
Mirian holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Hampton University and a master’s degree and PhD in industrial/organisational psychology from Pennsylvania State University.
PDF Profile
Download PDFMajor Career Roles:
AT&T Corp
Executive Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer
Merck & Co Inc
Executive Vice President - Human Resources
Merck & Co Inc
Senior Vice President – Human Resources
Other Career Highlights
Booking Holdings Inc
Independent Director
YUM! Brands Inc
Independent Director
Harleysville Group Inc
Independent Director
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