Douglas Bender BS, MS, SPHR

Douglas Bender Quick Facts

Doug was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in the South and West of the U.S. He graduated from Alcorn State University with a BA in Political Science and Economics in 1975 and went on to receive a Masters degree in Human Resources Counseling from North Carolina A&T State University.  He also studied law at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina.

He has worked for some of the most exciting organizations in corporate America including Miller Brewing Company, Uncle Ben’s Foods, Dove, International, M&M/Mars, and Kal Kan Petcare, and held a number of corporate and manufacturing HR positions of increasing responsibility. The formation of a single multi-billion dollar U.S. food organization of over 7,000 associates in 2000 for Mars, Incorporated resulted in responsibility for developing leading edge transformational systems, processes and organization design promoting excellence in all professional staffing, eHR, HR Effectiveness, HR Administration and Regional Benefits Administration support for the company’s U.S. businesses.

As a result of Doug’s leadership in these areas, a number of innovative ideas were introduced resulting in millions of dollars in cost savings and significantly increased customer service allowing the HR function to increase its partnership role and effectiveness with its business clients.

Over time, Doug has worked with a number of public service organizations including Junior Achievement, the NAACP, Boy Scouts, and various PTA, vocational/technical schools, local industrial commission advisory boards and Chambers of Commerce as a board member. He has been a business advisory board member for the California School of Culinary Arts’ Hospitality and Restaurant Management Program where he also served as an Adjunct Faculty member. He has also been Program Coordinator for the Human Resources Management Certificate Program at California State University – Long Beach.

He was (or is currently) a member of the American Management Association, the American Society of Safety Engineers, the American Society for Training & Development, the Society for Human Resource Management, the World Business Academy, the Forbe’s.com Small Business Insights Panel, the International Coach Foundation, the Human Capital Institute’s Research Panel, and is a charter member of the International Neocasting Alliance founded by Jay Levinson, the international guerilla marketing guru.

He was a charter member of the Rockingham County (NC) Personnel Association in 1981 and was on the Personnel Administrator Magazine Editorial Review Committee from 1982 – 1987 and again since 2001. He has been an accredited HR professional since the early 1980s.

Doug has also served as a church Trustee for over twenty years. He is currently serving as Vice President of the Friendship Development Foundation board in Yorba Linda, California and as a Board Director for the City of Villa Park (CA) Community Services Foundation. He is also a charter member of the Epsilon Epsilon Boulé of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, Inc. where he serves as Chair of the Membership Council. 

Doug’s accomplishments have been many. He was listed in the first edition of Who’s Who Among Black Wisconsins in 1977. He received an Outstanding Community Service Award from the Reidsville, NC NAACP and Junior Achievement in both Wisconsin and North Carolina recognized him for his work. He was one of the Jaycees Outstanding Young Men of America in 1983. Doug is listed in Who’s Who in the South and Southwest (Marquis, 1982), the International Biographical Centre Directory of Distinguished Americans (1982 – 1983), Personalities of America (1982 – 1983), Who’s Who in Finance and Industry (Marquis, 1983), and Who’s Who in Los Angeles (2008). He received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (1983), was recognized as a “Point of Pride” by the City of Greenville, Mississippi in 1991(...a program modeled after President Bush’s national Point of Light campaign recognizing volunteerism), recently listed in Cambridge’s Who’s Who Among Executives and Professionals 2007-08 edition, and also included in Who’s Who Publishing’s inaugural edition of Who’s Who in Black Los Angeles.

In 2005 he was recognized by the National Republican Congressional Committee as one of its Business Advisory Council 2005 Businessman of The Year.

His specialty covers HR strategy development and effectiveness, leadership development, team performance, and workplace respect. Doug consults with many organizations in the areas of leadership and accountability, strategic resourcing, HR process re-engineering, valuing diversity, executive coaching, internal business consulting, employment law, and people strategy development.  

He is Board President and Managing Partner of an HR consulting consortium called Onyx Global HR LLC in Southern California. The firm is a full service organization dedicated to inspiring new levels of thinking, enlightenment and creativity for business excellence. Doug has also written a book entitled ‘The ABCs of Leadership’ which won an Axiom Business Book award for writing excellence in March 2008.  He is a Contributing Author to the newly published book ‘The Leadership Challenge Activities Book’ by Kouzes and Posner (2010, Pfeiffer). His next book project, ‘Leading From Behind’, is currently underway and is due to be published October 2010. Doug is also a guest writer and management consulting expert for the highly successful web incubator for business startups ‘www.perfectbusiness.com’.

Doug and his wife, Belinda, are the parents of seven children and reside in Villa Park, (Orange County) California.