Wendy Nice Barnes has over 20 years of Human Resources leadership experience in pre-IPO and Fortune 500 companies. Most recently, Wendy was Chief Human Resources Officer at Palo Alto Networks where she led the people function and the organization grew from 750 employees globally to over 5,000 and $255M in revenue to an annual run rate of ~$3B. Wendy was responsible for leading and driving talent acquisition and development, inclusion and diversity, culture and employee experience, HR systems and people analytics and the Palo Alto Networks Foundation. Previously, Wendy served as Vice President of Human Resources at eHealth, where she had responsibility for the company’s people and workplace programs across its worldwide offices. Wendy has also held senior HR leadership roles at Netflix and E*TRADE.
Wendy began her HR leadership career at Applied Materials, working in various roles and business units. She received her BS degree in Business Management from Santa Clara University and currently serves as a member of the University's Leavey School of Business Advisory Board. She has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes.com and the Silicon Valley Business Journal, among other publications on topic related to COBRA and other areas of human resources and people management.
Wendy has a passion for mentoring and sponsoring leaders who aspire to grow and develop their skills resulting in advancing their careers. She enjoys volunteering at her alma mater as well as spending time as an Executive in Residence at Cal Poly Orfalea’s College of Business. She regularly speaks on the topic of people leadership and the ability to juggle both professional and personal life. Wendy and her husband (also a Bronco) like to travel and explore the outdoors with their two grade school aged children.