Mai Ton - HR Advisor, Executive and Board Member

CEO & Owner EMP HR Consulting

Mai Ton is a startup advisor and HR consultant. She formerly led the People team at White Ops, HelloSign, OneLogin, RichRelevance and Trulia. In 2019, she formed her own consulting business, EMP HR Consulting, where she helps fast growing companies create a people strategy with core structures like performance management, compensation frameworks and cultural investments which increase employee engagement and retention.

Mai has 20 years of experience leading all aspects of Human Resources in several small and mid size rapidly growing businesses in the San Francisco and New York areas. Over the course of her career, she has been the first Vice President of Human Resources at six companies, including five start-ups. She helped these companies through IPOs and M&A transactions and built the people function from scratch at every company where she has worked.

Mai has won 14 awards for her companies, and was named to the list of the Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology, Top 50 Tech Leaders in 2019, and Top 20 Tech Trailblazers from Insights Magazine. Mai is a Board member of LEAP.org a non profit organization that helps Asian Americans break the bamboo ceiling. She is an advisor to some of the newest HR technology software companies and shares her knowledge with others by speaking at various HR conferences. Mai received a BA in Sociology from the University of Texas, Austin. You can find her in New York City and at mai@emphrconsulting.com or find her on LinkedIn.

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Q. Best advice for women who want to go out in life and crush it!

A. Carve out your own path. Don't let ANTs (automatic negative thoughts) creep into your headspace. Do what's right for you.

Q. What do you do to celebrate women?

A. I invest my time, energy and resources to help other women in my life. I'm a big believer in giving to the same communities that have helped propel me to what I've been able to accomplish to date!

Q. What do you want to see more of?

A. I'd love to see more opportunities to interview and understand the different career paths that women have had to carve out for themselves, especially when traditional companies have not been able to address the needs of modern women in the workplace.

Q. Recommended reading:

A. Favorite book = The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. It makes you think about how to make every day moments more special.

Q. The theme for this year's women's history month is Valiant Women of the Vote. What women's rights are you most passionate about?

A. We have to remember and celebrate our history. It wasn't until after the women's suffrage movement that we gained the right to vote. It took 70 years to gain support from each State and the votes needed to pass the 19th amendment to the Constitution. I'd love for us to think about fair pay, flexible work arrangements and more workplace privileges for working parents in the modern companies. If we start now, we can move the needle faster on diversity matters. My daughter Emma is 11 years old which means I have about 10 more years before she gets her first job. That isn't a lot of time so I urge all leaders to start thinking about how to improve their companies now to help the future Emma's of the world.

Q. Shout out to another woman who has made a difference in your life and how she/they did that.

A. Rajkumari Neogy is my executive coach and she has helped me understand my needs and helped me realize my own personal goals. She is fabulous and if you get a chance to take her for coffee, you should because you'd be amazed at how much she gives you.

Connect with Mai Ton online:

Monica Phillips