MURIEL R. WATKINS, MSILR
Muriel R. Watkins is Founder & President of MRW Consulting Group International, LLC, an HR consulting organization dedicated to capability building with corporate and private foundations, educational and nonprofit institutions operating globally. She has over twenty years of experience as a corporate executive, consultant and leadership advisor. The consistent theme in her work is building strong leaders and more capable organizations through practical solutions.
A former C-Suite executive, she understands the issues and business challenges facing senior leaders. Her focus is on facilitating transformative organizational change, collaborating to create solutions that are effective and practical to implement given the complex, dynamic nature of organizations today.
Prior to MRW Consulting, she was HR VP of The New York Times Media Group, where she was responsible for driving organizational change initiatives, including print/digital integration, increasing workforce diversity within middle/senior leader ranks, and directing workforce restructurings. For New York Times Digital, a start-up internet venture, she designed the HR infrastructure to support rapid growth, including recruitment and talent selection, designing “dot-com”-competitive compensation and total rewards programs and launching retention strategies to engage a highly mobile workforce.
Prior to her tenure at The New York Times, Muriel held senior HR roles with Reader’s Digest, Avon Products and Drexel Burnham Lambert. She brings a unique blend of experience as an internal practitioner and leader to a diverse collection of clients.
Muriel has published several articles, including “Strengths-Based Performance Management: Improve weaknesses or build strengths?;" “Making Career Transition Work For You;” “Helping Your Organizations Enhance Top Talent Performance;”and “Be a Master of Mergers and Acquisitions.” She holds an M.S. in HR management, industrial and labor relations from Baruch College/Cornell University. She founded HR Professionals Network, is a member of Executive Leadership Council, Human Capital Media Network and a Partner in Education for NYC Department of Education. Muriel is a certified executive coach and is certified to interpret Myers Briggs®, FIRO™ and FIRO-B®, CPI 260®, Strong Interest Inventory®, TKI Conflict Mode assessments, Work Engagement Profile, Parker Team Player Survey, Power Base Inventory, Stress Resiliency Profile, Neethling Brain Instrument™, Clark Wilson 360 and Marshall Goldsmith’s Global Leader of the Future 360.
Muriel has worked internationally on several engagements. She conducted a “Women in Leadership” program for high-potential female leaders; the program was delivered in Morocco. She designed and delivered an inaugural senior management program for a microbank in Papua New Guinea. She collaborated to design the kick-off of an inaugural “Leadership and Diversity for Innovation Program”, an initiative targeting senior leaders from 14 women-focused financial institutions from countries as diverse as Pakistan and Colombia. Additionally, she has delivered remote training and coaching to leaders in Uganda, Sudan, Egypt, South Africa, China, India, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Mexico, Chile and Brazil.