Betty Larson

Solve the Bigger Problem

Betty Larson is CHRO at Merck, and has held the top people seat four times over: C.R. Bard, Becton Dickinson, GE HealthCare, and now Merck. She fell in love with HR as an undergraduate at Illinois, spent 16 years at Baxter, and took her first CHRO job by moving her young family to New Jersey. She walks through the path to the Chief Officer seat, the mentor whose quiet introduction started it, and the accomplishment she names first: the 10 or 11 former direct reports who are CHROs themselves today, every one of whom still calls.