Laura Kangas

Laura L. Kangas is a global organizational and employee development consultant, workshop and program designer, facilitator, speaker, and writer. For over twenty-five years, she has been collaboratively developing strategy and leading programs in diversity, equity and inclusion and other areas of employee and management development. Laura is adept at managing projects, performing cultural assessments, developing strategy, designing programs, facilitating workshops, and training trainers/facilitators. She is known for developing programs that inspire people to want to learn more.

As a member of executive teams across many industries, she is a strong partner, often brought in on the most difficult projects to develop strategy and assist in leading the work. Laura is known for her ability to take on a project with a blank slate, and get it done by collaborating with others to create, develop, and deliver unique and innovative solutions based on research, experience, and leading-edge technology.

Laura advises her clients on human resource and organizational development issues with a lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Laura is adept at creating trust and helping people speak with one another. The Assumption Model, designed by Laura, is a tool that is used worldwide to help people understand issues relating to diversity, inclusion, unconscious bias, racism and other destructive isms.

Laura, often called a “troubadour of positive change”, started her career at Digital Equipment Corporation/HP. As an HR manager, Laura supported over 800 people in several business functions. As the US Program Manager for Valuing Differences for Digital, Laura’s team of fifty internal and external consultants designed, developed, and delivered programs and training to over 150,000 employees. Her consulting practice has included training D&I skills to Pfizer’s top 2000 managers across the globe, creating the first Executive Diversity Council at Partners’ Healthcare, and the first customized DE&I training for Human Resource Business Partners at Mass General Brigham.

Laura maintains strong relationships with many universities and colleges, teaching and developing online and face-to-face courses, and supporting business development. Her experiences have included a Visiting Professorship in the Accelerated MBA Program at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics in Shanghai, China.