Vanessa Ruda Seiden is a senior partner at RHR International and a Leadership Council Member at NACD Northern California. Vanessa has deep experience across C-level succession planning, executive selection and development, building high-performing senior teams, and strategic change leadership. She has worked with clients in a variety of industries throughout the world, ranging from small, family-run businesses to Fortune 500 companies. As an organizational psychologist, Vanessa is a sought-after expert who provides guidance to boards, CEOs, and top management teams on human-capital issues affecting strategic and organic growth, especially related to talent selection, C-level succession, leadership and organizational capacity, and operational performance. empowers. Vanessa holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in counseling psychology from Northwestern University, and a PhD in organizational psychology from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.