Howard Risher

Howard Risher has 40 years of experience as a consultant and HR executive with clients in every sector. His early focus was compensation and performance management. In those years he managed the consulting practices for Mercer in Manhattan and for Watson Wyatt in Washington and Philadelphia. He began working privately in the early 1990s. He also started working with Wharton’s Peter Cappelli to plan and manage conferences for the Center for Human Resources. That put him in contact with the nation’s HR thought leaders which triggered his interest in the practices that are redefining and expanding HR’s role. His public sector clients have included a number of federal agencies, several states from Hawaii to Vermont, counties, cities and Pennsylvania court system. In 1990 he managed the project for OPM that led to the Federal Employee Pay Comparability Act and the switch to locality pay. He has also consulted with the UN’s ICSC and the OECD in Paris. He has published frequently in HR journals and websites. He is the author or co-author of six books and a growing list of ebooks. The most recent is Building the Workforce Government Needs. He is associated with Grahall Consulting Partners. He has a BA in psychology and an MBA and PhD from Wharton.