Today, we welcome Dr. Mary Kay Vona to acceligence as an Executive Advisor, expanding the firm’s leadership capabilities across organizational transformation, workforce modernization, executive advisory, and AI-enabled change management. Mary Kay brings nearly 40 years of experience advising CEOs, boards, and executive teams through periods of rapid technological disruption, operational transformation, and enterprise reinvention.

Throughout her career, Mary Kay has helped organizations align leadership, talent, culture, and operating strategy during some of the most complex transformation efforts across Financial Services, Telecommunications, Media & Entertainment, Automotive, Energy, Healthcare, and Technology. Her work has consistently focused on helping organizations move beyond strategy alone – translating transformation into sustainable organizational execution and measurable business outcomes.

Mary Kay has held senior executive and partnership leadership roles at EY, IBM, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Aon Consulting, where she led large-scale human capital, workforce transformation, organizational redesign, and change management initiatives across global enterprises. At EY, she served as Partner and Financial Services Practice Leader for People Advisory Services, advising leading institutions on organizational transformation, technology integration, stakeholder engagement, and enterprise workforce modernization. She also co-founded EY’s Americas Learning Services Practice, helping organizations redesign enterprise learning and talent development strategies to meet rapidly evolving business and technology demands.

Prior to EY, Mary Kay spent more than two decades at IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers leading enterprise human capital and organizational transformation programs tied to large-scale technology modernization efforts. As IBM’s Global Learning Executive and Human Capital Practice Leader, she advised multinational organizations on workforce optimization, leadership development, organizational design, and enterprise transformation initiatives across a broad range of industries. Her work at IBM earned the company’s prestigious Golden Circle Award for excellence in client delivery and business development leadership.

Mary Kay also served as Executive Vice President and Southeast Region leader at Aon Consulting, where she oversaw actuarial, retirement, health & benefits, and human capital consulting practices across nine markets and more than 500 professionals. During the 2008 financial crisis, she developed and launched “Rethinking Everything,” a nationally recognized workforce transformation and change management framework that helped executive teams navigate economic disruption, leadership uncertainty, and organizational recovery.

Today, Mary Kay is widely recognized for her leadership at the intersection of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, workforce transformation, and executive accountability. She advises organizations on how to responsibly scale AI adoption while addressing the organizational, cultural, talent, and governance challenges that often determine whether transformation initiatives succeed or fail. Her perspective on the future of work and AI leadership has been featured through conferences, publications, and academic forums including the Millennium Alliance Conference, Dark Reading, and The George Washington University’s EdFix Podcast.

“Mary Kay understands that organizations do not transform simply because new technology is introduced – they transform when leadership, workforce strategy, and execution evolve together,” said Justin Greis, Chief Executive Officer of acceligence. “She has spent her career helping enterprise leaders navigate moments of disruption with clarity, accountability, and a deep understanding of the human side of transformation. That perspective is incredibly important as organizations rethink how they operate in the age of AI.”

In addition to her advisory work, Mary Kay currently serves as a lecturer and MBA advisor at the University of California, Davis Graduate School of Management and has held adjunct faculty appointments at Vanderbilt University and The George Washington University. She also serves as a faculty leader for the Chief Learning Officer (CLO) Accelerator Certification Program and remains actively involved in nonprofit and educational leadership initiatives focused on workforce readiness and leadership development.

As an Executive Advisor, Mary Kay will work closely with acceligence clients on organizational transformation, workforce modernization, leadership alignment, AI adoption strategy, change management, and enterprise resilience initiatives. Her addition further strengthens acceligence’s ability to help organizations navigate the operational and human dimensions of transformation in an increasingly AI-driven business environment.