Walters named chief human resources officer

Mark Walters, a highly experienced human resources professional who has played a key role in several campuswide initiatives at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, has been named the university’s chief human resources officer.

Walters has held numerous leadership positions in UW–Madison’s Office of Human Resources (OHR) since joining the university in 1998. For the past five months he has served as interim chief human resources officer. He previously was OHR’s senior director of strategy and operations.

“I am delighted that Mark has agreed to take on this important campus leadership position,” says Laurent Heller, vice chancellor for finance and administration. “He is uniquely positioned to lead the campus HR community in addressing the needs of our employees and university.”

Walters, who will start his new role immediately, says he looks forward to continuing to build and maintain human resources programs that support the success of UW–Madison faculty and staff.

“This is a great opportunity for me to broaden my work with the campus community to transform how human resources can drive and support the mission of the university,” he says.

The chief human resources officer provides leadership, policy direction and management oversight for all HR services for UW–Madison faculty and staff. The university has more than 20,000 employees, including about 2,100 faculty and 12,500 staff across multiple shifts, plus 5,000 graduate assistants and 7,000 student employees.

Walters was part of the leadership team responsible for developing and implementing the HR Design Strategic Plan, which provided the blueprint for a UW–Madison personnel system separate and distinct from the state of Wisconsin’s system. The plan was guided by a vision to develop a diverse and engaged workforce for the 21^st century.

He currently has lead roles in two campuswide initiatives that will have a major impact on human resources processes and systems. The Title and Total Compensation Project, part of the HR Design Strategic Plan, is a redesign of job title and compensation structures that will result in relevant and market-informed job titles and compensation packages. UW–Madison also is developing a plan to transform and modernize its core administrative processes to better serve a complex teaching and research environment.