Erica Alioto

Chief People Officer Advisor

Erica Galos Alioto is a Chief People Officer who has helped scale some of the Bay Area’s best-known technology companies, from early-stage startup through IPO. With 10 years of experience as a CPO, and 15 years prior as a business attorney and leading sales teams, Erica has a knack for understanding how to use People systems to drive strong business outcomes. 

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She most recently served as Chief People Officer at Retool. Prior to that, she was Global Head of People at Grammarly, where she led the people function for the AI communication company as it grew from 400 to 1200 employees across 6 countries. Before that, she was Chief People Officer at Opendoor, overseeing the company's growth from startup to a public company and leading the company through the pandemic and a pandemic-related layoff. She has led teams through challenging times, including uncertainty around the pandemic and determining operating models post-pandemic as well as supporting the 300+ Grammarly employees through Russia's invasion of Ukraine. She is known for building strong cultures and developing trust in organizations, and she places a strong emphasis on transparency in leading teams through difficult moments. 

 

Erica has also advised numerous startups, including Faire, Sonder and Sword Health. She enjoys working with founders and early-stage teams to build out strong cultures and empower People teams to build seamless systems that scale and drive strong results for the business. 

 

Erica deeply understands the business side as well, given her experience at Yelp, which she joined in 2006 as a 15-person startup. Over 11 years she grew the local sales organization to more than 2,200 people as Senior Vice President of Local Sales. She began her career as an attorney at Latham & Watkins where she worked on securities, antitrust and tort cases. 

 

Erica lives in San Francisco, and in addition to advising, spends her time writing and building communities for women. Her perspectives on leadership have been published in Fortune and Fast Company magazines.