EP24: The Function Nobody Owned: HR, IT, and AI Finally in One Room with Tracey Franklin

Tracey shares her experience scaling Moderna from 800 to nearly 6,000 employees during one of the most critical moments in modern healthcare, and how that growth required rethinking not just talent, but how work itself gets done. We talk about why integrating HR and digital technology is no longer optional, how AI is reshaping decision-making and operating models, and what leaders often miss when trying to modernize their organizations.

This is a conversation about building organizations that are designed to evolve, where culture, capability, and technology are not competing priorities but deeply interconnected system

Highlights:

• Why separating people strategy and technology strategy is breaking organizations faster than AI is transforming them
• What leaders misunderstand about scaling culture during hypergrowth moments like Moderna experienced
• The real reason most digital transformations fail even when the technology works
• What changes when HR and technology leadership sit under one vision instead of operating in silos
• How AI is shifting not just productivity, but how decisions get made across the enterprise
• The tension leaders must navigate between speed, innovation, and maintaining human connection

Guest:

Tracey Franklin is Moderna’s Chief People and Digital Technology Officer, where she leads the integration of people, culture, and digital innovation to shape how the organization operates and evolves. Since joining Moderna in 2019 as Chief Human Resources Officer, she played a critical role in scaling the company from 800 to nearly 6,000 employees during the COVID-19 pandemic while helping build a culture recognized globally as a top employer by Science.

In 2024, her role expanded to include Digital Technology, reflecting the growing importance of aligning human capability with technological advancement, particularly in the age of AI.

Before Moderna, Tracey spent 15 years at Merck & Co., Inc., where she held multiple global leadership roles, including Vice President, HR Chief Talent and Strategy Officer. Her experience spans global talent strategy, organizational transformation, and HR leadership across the U.S., UK, and Switzerland.

She holds a BA in Communication Arts and Sciences from Pennsylvania State University and an MA in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

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