Cheri Alexander

Cheri Alexander is the Executive Director of Corporate Learning at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business Executive Education Department. She also teaches Leadership and Managing Human Capital in the Bachelors and Masters of Business Administration Programs. In addition, she teaches assorted leadership and HR topics for Executive Education. Prior to retiring from General Motors, she was the President of the General Motors University and Executive Director Global HR. In that position, she was the Chief Learning Officer of the company overseeing Global Learning & Performance. Cheri was also part of the company's Global Integration Team that oversaw Global HR Implementation, focusing on the emerging markets. At GM, Ms. Alexander had thirty-three years of successful International Human Resource Management and Labor Relations experience. She has HR expertise in Mergers and Acquisitions, JV formation and execution, talent management, succession planning, leadership development, corporate universities, security, crisis management, safety, industrial health engineering, and business process outsourcing. She was nominated several times and received the Chairman's Award for her work in positive downsizing. In addition to the multiple areas inside HR in which she has worked, Alexander had assignments in Plant Management, Quality, and Engineering. She lived and worked in 4 countries on 3 continents and was responsible for all HR outside of North America, as the Vice President of HR for International Operations, overseeing and visiting operations in 51 countries. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Cheri received her Bachelor's Degree from the University of Michigan, as well as, her first Masters in Industrial Health Engineering. She was selected as an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow and completed her second Masters of Science in Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is also a Certified Executive Leadership Coach. Cheri has published work on Noise Induced Hearing Loss and completed her thesis on the Relocation of Dislocated Automobile Workers. Her work is cited in two books, United We Stand, by Wilbur and Weakley, and in Successful Mergers, Acquisitions, and Strategic Alliances by Gancel, Rodgers, and Raynaud. In addition to her work, Cheri is on the Boards of the Inforum Center for Leadership and debunk-it, LTD, a European consultancy. Cheri is dedicated to global education and often speaks on her favorite topics, "Being International" and "Global Superficial Homogenization – What it Means to be Global." She lives in Ann Arbor with her husband, Dr. Richard Redding, a professor and archaeologist at the Kelsey Museum, University of Michigan who is also the CRO/COO of Ancient Egyptian Research Associates (AERA). Their daughter is an educator and entrepreneur currently studying for her Doctorate at Harvard.