Highlighting Innovative Female Leaders: Lisa Synek

Lisa Synek has built a career at the intersection of data, technology, and human behavior, moving across industries before finding her stride in the evolution of enterprise software and AI. A strategist by nature and a futurist at heart, her leadership philosophy is multifaceted and commercially grounded, rooted in the belief that performance, system design, and operating rigor enable sustainable, profitable growth for both people and the enterprise. She has spent her career demonstrating how well-designed systems and strong data foundations can create clarity, fairness, and momentum at scale. 

The Groundwork for Transformation

Trained in corporate finance, she began her career in the industrial corridors of a global manufacturing company. In her early roles, she learned how processes really worked on the ground, how decisions moved across the enterprise, and how to translate operational detail into insight. It was meticulous work that became foundational. The discipline she developed in those formative experiences later shaped how she leads technology-enabled transformation. 

Over two decades at CDW, Lisa built the analytical and business transformation toolkit that would define her trajectory. She advanced through a range of finance and strategy functions before stepping into business transformation and broader commercial work. She led major initiatives spanning growth, cost, and talent, built teams from scratch, and increasingly found herself drawn toward the space where business strategy meets human capability. It was during this period that she articulated what she calls her “guiding star:” building systems that fuel performance, fairness, and growth. 

Her chapter at Zebra Technologies deepened her exposure to the interplay between hardware, data, and field operations. She saw firsthand how real-time information, systems architecture, and frontline users intersect. It strengthened her conviction that technology should amplify human decision-making, not replace it. 

Leading at the Crossroads of AI and People Systems

Her move into enterprise software accelerated that philosophy. At Cornerstone, she led at the crossroads of AI, HR technology, global people systems, and organizational design. Her remit spanned HR technology, analytics, AI strategy, global total rewards, mergers and acquisitions, and large-scale operating model work. She played a central role in advancing the company’s mission to close the “workforce agility gap.” “AI is good at what we are bad at,” she says, “and bad at what we are good at.” This belief guides her approach to integrating AI with a deeply human lens, ensuring that leadership, judgment, and empathy remain at the center of organizational transformation. 

Cornerstone became a meaningful chapter, but not the culmination of her evolution. It positioned her for a broader platform to integrate systems, data, and people strategy at scale. 

Today, Lisa serves as Vice President of Total Rewards and Global Payroll at Boomi, a category-leading SaaS integration and automation platform. In addition to leading global rewards and payroll, she contributes to the company’s broader talent strategy and organizational design decisions, ensuring that people, systems, and structure evolve in step with business needs. This work strengthens Boomi’s roadmap for strategic preparedness and operational excellence, where applied AI, data infrastructure, workforce design, and talent strategy intersect. It is a natural progression for a leader who has built transformation across manufacturing, hardware, enterprise software, and AI-enabled HR ecosystems. 

Across every chapter of her career, one thread stands out: how she builds teams. It is the work she values most. The teams she builds are not only high performing but choose to stay, grow, and create sustained impact with her. She measures the strength of a team by the depth of its engagement, especially through periods of significant change. People who have worked for her often describe the environment as places where clarity, trust, and upward mobility are built with intention. Their staying power reflects confidence in her leadership and direction. 

Her leadership philosophy stays grounded in a simple idea: technology can enhance many things, but it cannot replace leadership. “Leadership will always be about developing others and bringing them along with you. AI can support that, but it cannot replicate it.” She defines impact by the people who grow, advance, and build long-term financial wellbeing through her guidance. “Kindness and strength can coexist,” she often notes, the balance reflected in how she leads. Creating environments where people can rise is central to her approach, supported by strong systems, clear expectations, and fairness in how decisions are made. 

A Mosaic of Mentors and Meaningful Support

When reflecting on her own career, she notes that personal readiness rarely arrives at one hundred percent. “Most of the pivotal moves in my career happened when I was less than ready, but I raised my hand or said yes anyway,” she says. That experience shapes how she evaluates opportunity and judgment. She emphasizes the importance of building strong business acumen because understanding the numbers behind decisions strengthens credibility and clarity. 

That clarity also shapes how she approaches community and support. Like many women who built careers in male-dominated industries, Lisa anchored herself early in performance, not perception. Over time, she also came to value the strength of community. She describes her “mosaic of mentors” as a stained-glass network of people who offer truth, feedback, and advocacy. “Someone who will fix your crown and help you present your best self. Someone who will tell you there is broccoli in your teeth before you go on stage.” That mix of honesty and belief, she says, is the kind of authentic support she is grateful to have throughout her career. 

Lisa Synek’s career is an arc across industries, disciplines, and technologies. She blends numbers and nuance, Systems Thinking and humanity, ambition and empathy. In an era defined by AI, she demonstrates that leadership does not require sacrificing humanity for innovation; it requires both. Leaders who understand that balance, as she does, are the ones shaping what comes next.