About

Services company operations executive with experience in internal controls, governance, Sarbannes Oxley and value creation.  I have performed in a Director role including Board Chair on several Boards. I also have experience with Board Placements with executives including Advisory Boards and Fiduciary Boards. In addition I have worked for 20 years in high growth start up companies and consult with clients on fast growth and scalable services modeling.  

Board Profile

Debbie is an innovator who understands the complexities of risk management through her experience leading growth-focused service operations, divisions and start-ups. She has direct experience as a trusted advisor providing advice and oversight of solution delivery for their most challenging compliance-based efforts including IT Security, HR Compliance, SOX, and ISO9000. Debbie is also adept at helping companies look at more cost-variable ways to manage the costs and risks at executive level talent, and  has expertise including Board Placement Services. She has extensive experience helping companies align their strategy with their business operational performance while addressing the governance responsibilities, competitive and regulatory threats.                                                                                                                             

Board Experience

• Debbie has served on the Advisory Board of Children’s Service Society of Wisconsin (now an affiliate of Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin) for 9 years and is retired.
• She served for 6 years as a Director for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Area Chamber of Commerce/ Council of Small Business Executives and was appointed as a representative on the Cultural and Entertainment Assets Task Force to address the new Arena.
• She also serves on the Governing Board for GPS Partners in Education, currently as Board Chair, and Chaired the Development Committee.
• She has served as a Director on the Board of Milwaukee Women Inc. where she is currently a Steering Committee Member.
• She has served on the Board as a Director at Chenequa Country Club and is currently a member of the Long Range Planning Committee.

Professional Summary

Deborah Seeger has spent her 35-year career working with companies on workforce solutions and strategies across all industries. Helping companies consider their Build/Borrow/Buy Talent strategies, she has pioneered new programs and solutions throughout her career for companies ranging from start-up and early stage to Fortune 50.

As an operations leader she has managed a P&L  for a $30M division and as Co-Founder, is part of the executive team at her current company.  Since 1990, she has been researching the changing workforce demographics and the effects of changing worker performance and work attitudes in business. Since then, she has been sharing her knowledge and experience with companies as a subject matter expert on workforce changes and strategies – especially the effects these changes will have on growth and performance in the new world of work and as we move further into the new “Gig Economy.”

Deborah brings practical ideas and solutions to the ever-changing challenges of recruiting, developing and retaining talent in a global economy.

Recognizing an important shift in the workforce as companies lose the knowledge and experience of senior executive talent to retirement, Deborah joined  Mike Harris, and together they started Patina Solutions. Patina’s focus is on representing the most experienced and accomplished executive talent to companies in need of a flexible, agile solution to help address complex challenges or fill interim gaps. Being able to tap experience and expertise in a more agile, on-demand way is an important component in any company’s performance strategy. Patina created a way for companies to leverage the experience and expertise and a flexible, affordable way by, through its network of executives, managers and leaders in the Patina Nation.

Deborah has been a speaker on topics such as:

• Demographic changes and their effect on company talent strategies
• Workforce trends
• Addressing #MeToo in the workplace
• Improving culture
• Attracting and retaining talent
• Understanding the Millennial worker and changing workforce attitudes
• Women in leadership

Recognition & Awards

Early in her career she created the first-ever Master Service Provider ( Vendor On Premise) program for a Fortune 100 company, for which she received a Pericles Award, the Employment Management Association’s (now Society for Human Resources Management) award for an innovative, outstanding program in the area of workforce solutions.

In addition, Debbie was named a 2015 Woman of Influence by the Milwaukee Business Journal in the Entrepreneur category. Her peers describe her as pragmatic, energetic, creative, and someone who has the ability to inspire those around her with her “real world” attitude.

Personal

Debbie is passionate about developing alternative education pathways and being a mentor to young leaders. She is an alumnus of the Future Milwaukee Program for Corporate and Community Collaboration and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin.