People decisions · Workflow design · AI systems

Better systems for high-stakes people decisions.

In chemistry, a reagent reveals what's already there and triggers transformation. I do the same for talent work. I diagnose the workflow behind a decision, redesign what isn't working, and build the tools and AI-enabled systems that make it faster, more consistent, and defensible.

Tell me how I can help.

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Corporate-trained talent leader turned operator and builder. 20+ years in talent, including 15 years building and leading talent functions at Teach For America and KIPP Foundation. Brown University graduate, with training in agentic AI through Harvard's Data Science Institute and design thinking through IDEO.

What I do

Bring me the talent decision that's stuck.

The Reagent Co. helps lean people and talent teams make high-stakes decisions when capacity, infrastructure, or clarity is thin. I can step in on the decision, redesign the system behind it, or build something your team can keep using after I'm gone.

Executive Search & Hiring

Executive search · Search-firm vetting · High-volume recruiting · Selection design

Run an executive search end to end, pressure-test a search firm before you hire them, or rebuild a recruiting process that isn't moving fast enough.

I've led C-suite and VP searches, built high-volume recruiting operations, and managed hiring engines running dozens of searches at once.

Talent Systems & Operating Decisions

Onboarding · L&D · Workforce planning · Restructures · Internal mobility · Vendor selection

Build or repair the infrastructure behind the people decisions your organization makes repeatedly.

That can mean onboarding, learning and development, internal mobility, workforce planning, restructures, or a major operating choice such as selecting an ATS, HRIS, LMS, search firm, or other talent vendor.

I can build the project plan, stakeholder requirements, evaluation rubric, decision process, and executive recommendation — not just advise from the sidelines.

Compensation & Role Design

Role banding · Salary structures · Internal equity · Promotion decisions

Create compensation and leveling decisions you can explain to the employee, their manager, leadership, and the board.

I've helped design and deploy compensation structures and used organization-specific criteria to reband an entire workforce.

AI-Enabled Workflow Design

Workflow redesign · Custom agents · Human-in-the-loop systems · Auditable decisions

Some problems need advice. Others need a system that keeps working.

I translate your existing decision logic, policies, rubrics, and judgment into reusable AI-enabled workflows that handle repeatable cognitive work while keeping a human in the loop where it matters.

Systems I've built

Use AI for repeatable decisions that still require judgment.

I build AI agents for HR workflows with clear rules, defined evidence, and human judgment at the end. The result is faster, more consistent, auditable work without turning the decision into a black box. Below are examples I've built for organizations. I can design one around your workflow, too.

Comp Generator

Consistent, equitable, defensible pay

Scores experience against your compensation criteria, places a hire in the appropriate role and salary band, and checks internal equity against peers — with every step shown.

Band Check

Fair leveling · 8× faster · 85% concordance

Compares the actual scope and responsibilities of a role against your leveling criteria and flags where title, responsibilities, and pay band do not match.

Hiring Panel Check

Evidence-based hiring · a check against inconsistent judgment

Reviews candidate evidence independently and flags when a decision to advance or reject someone diverges from what the interview materials actually support.

Candidate Slate Builder

Strongest candidates surfaced on results, not keywords

Turns a folder of résumés and a job description into a scored candidate slate with an audit showing why each person ranked where they did.

Employee Mobility Analyzer

Defensible people-moves · 15× faster · 100% directional concordance

Matches employees affected by a restructure to open roles based on their actual skills and experience and documents the rationale for every proposed move.

Training Session Builder

Facilitation-ready learning without starting from a blank page

Turns a short intake, audience context, and learning goals into a complete training session, facilitation guide, and learner rubric.

Method

I don't bolt AI onto a broken process.

No AI tool will fix a process that's unclear, inconsistent, or designed around the wrong outcome. I start with how the work actually gets done, then determine what to standardize, what to automate, and where human judgment belongs.

Audit

the workflow and the outcome that actually matters.

Gauge

each step for impact, repeatability, and complexity.

Engineer

the workflow for efficient execution and AI support where it makes sense.

Navigate

the handoffs between human judgment and agent execution.

Track

the value, accuracy, and outcomes the system delivers over time.

I use A.G.E.N.T., a framework from Harvard's applied agentic AI program, combined with 20+ years running the talent systems it's applied to.

Selected work

Results, by the numbers.

Executive Search

Led searches representing more than half of a nonprofit's 13-person C-suite, including CFO, CDO, COO, CIO, CLO, Chief of Staff, and Chief Schools Officer.

50%+ of a 13-person C-suite

Hiring Operations at Scale

Rebuilt a talent function's hiring engine across 220+ searches over three years, through two org-wide restructures.

Time-to-fill 90+ → 45 days · 93–95% new-hire retention

Compensation & Banding

Consulted on and deployed a compensation and role-banding system across an entire organization, then built Comp Generator and Band Check, the AI tools that run it today.

200 employees transitioned in 90 days · 8× faster with 85% concordance to senior judgment

National Recruiting Strategy

Led an 18-person team recruiting corps members nationally across a 28-region market portfolio.

800–1,000 corps members recruited annually · 104% to recruitment goal in FY20

Helen Chan

Operator first. Builder now.

I grew up with limited means, navigating a New York City school system that wasn't built for kids at the margins. The people who changed what was possible for me also taught me to question systems that weren't working and build better ones. That idea has shaped both how I learn and the work I've chosen to do. After Brown University, I started at the Corporate Executive Board, now Gartner, advising Chief HR Officers. But I didn't want to spend my career working only with Fortune 500 companies. Access to quality education had transformed my own trajectory, and I wanted to work with schools and institutions doing the same for people with less access. At 28, I left corporate consulting and restarted my career in education at a charter school in Los Angeles. I eventually brought those worlds together, building recruiting practices at scale at Teach For America and later rebuilding talent acquisition and people systems at KIPP Foundation.

Over the last five years, I've brought design thinking from IDEO into how I build talent systems, and more recently added agentic AI frameworks through Harvard's Data Science Initiative. Now I'm bringing together my background as a consultant, operator, and builder through The Reagent Co. to help organizations make people decisions fast, fair, and defensible.