Michael L. Davis is a former human resources professional with experience working in consulting, business, academia, and industry associations. Prior to his retirement in 2014, Mr. Davis served as General Mills’ Executive Vice President of Global Human Resources and had been the company’s chief human resources officer since 2008. He joined General Mills in 1996 as VP, Compensation & Benefits, and later served as VP, HR, Corporate, and VP, HR, U.S. Retail. Mr. Davis was named Senior Vice President in 2008 and Executive Vice President in 2013.
Before he joined General Mills, Mr. Davis worked at Towers Perrin (formerly TPF&C) from 1981 to 1996 in various compensation consultant roles. He was named both a principal (partner) and a vice president (senior partner) while at the firm and consulted mainly with large corporations and boards. Upon leaving Towers Perrin, Mr. Davis was the firm’s worldwide consulting practice leader for executive compensation.
Mr. Davis has served on the boards (and in board leadership roles) for a number of human resources industry associations, including the National Business Group on Health (chair), the Human Resources Policy Association (vice chair), the Center on Executive Compensation (one of the founders), the American Health Policy Institute (founding chair), the Employee Benefits Research Institute (chair), WorldatWork (chair), the National Committee for Quality Assurance (executive committee), and the National Academy of Human Resources (executive committee). He also served as an ongoing advisor to World 50 and HR50x on education matters for senior HR executives.
In 2012, Mr. Davis was named a Fellow in the National Academy of Human Resources. In the following year, he was named the Distinguished Human Resources Executive by the National Academy of Management.
Throughout his professional career, Mr. Davis has guest-lectured at several leading universities and served as an adjunct professor at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, from 2006 to 2019, where he taught graduate courses in Compensation Benefits, Executive Compensation, and Teamwork and Leadership. He currently serves as Executive-in-Residence at Cornell University’s ILR School.