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Sally Thornton (she/her)

CEO & Founder of Forshay, Keynote Speaker, and Advisor to Companies Who Make Work Better

Connecting your people strategy (and execution that can be metabolized within your culture) to your business strategy is my jam. Here is how others have described my work:

Sally is the CEO & Founder of Forshay, a firm that takes a holistic lens on how hard work can accomplished more easily, as it’s essential to have both the right players on the team, and the culture and organizational structure that enables people to do their best work. Forshay does this in two ways – with a modern approach to executive recruiting, and by supporting overworked teams with interim experts in the People/HR and Marketing domains -- all grounded with inclusion, diversity, equity and belonging.

Forshay was awarded #290 on the Inc. 5000 "Fastest-Growing Private Companies" list for 2015. Prior to founding Forshay, Sally co-founded and was CEO of Flexperience. Under her leadership, Flexperience grew into a nationally acclaimed firm, and was awarded “Top 100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies” in 2010 by the San Francisco Business Times.

A speaker in two TEDx talks, Sally is a frequent keynote speaker on the future of work, women in leadership, diversity & inclusion, the science of work/life blend, applying design thinking to make work better, harnessing the value of a multi-generational workforce, and talent recruitment and engagement strategies. Sally has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, BBC, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, YahooFinance, Huffington Post, KQED radio, NBC11 News, ABC7 News, among numerous other media publications.

Sally launched WorkLab in 2015, a design thinking community of action committed to making work better, based on her work with Stanford's "Redesigning and Redefining Work" project. She is committed to prototyping new workplace strategies and systems that align with the lives of today's workforce so companies can better harness talent for mutual success. WorkLab uses design thinking, lean start up, and storytelling skills to design, test, and scale experiments to #MakeWorkBetter.

Sally lectures regularly at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business as well as UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. She served for six years on the Advisory Council of Stanford’s Clayman Institute for Gender Research. However, her friends say the only thing that people really want to hear is that she was in two Prince videos.

Join me in conversation @forshaytalent on Instagram for more data / story sharing to #makeworkbetter together

Highlights

Sep 2 · linkedin

Up close and personal with a tough topic I frankly didn’t know much about.

Below is Jennifer Aaker with Ayesha Curry & Stephen Curry using their collective power to shine the light on Sentenced—a documentary that is as impactful as it is empowering.

As Jennifer shared: “In Oakland, 50% of elementary students read below grade level and 25% are two or more grades behind. The Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation’s $25M commitment to literacy in Oakland is a beacon of hope—transforming lives and futures. As we navigate times of profound change, this mission reminds us of what creates and fosters the conditions of human thriving—the power of purpose, connection, and opportunity—values that I’m honored to explore in our research and classes at Stanford University Graduate School of Business . Together, we’re crafting a story where every child has the tools to thrive.”

My invitation is to use your power to learn, share, and change the story for more children…

Aug 30 · linkedin

Dive into the energizing world of Robin P. Zander, who is leading the Responsive Conference as we discuss the Future of Work (and more specifically the Future of Teams) with lucky me!!!

Robin and I talk about the cold plunging, the science of work, spirituality shifts, doing work you love, and much more.

I'm also delighted to be leading an interactive workshop at Responsive Conference 2024!

It was a JOY to sit down with Robin for a podcast interview...would love to hear anything that resonates for you :)

https://lnkd.in/eRsgPxBd

Sally Thornton (she/her)
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Experience

Founder & CEO at Forshay
Advisor at Balloon

Education

Liberal Arts, International Relations, University of Minnesota

Location

United States