Sean Moeller
Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer Cornell University
Sean Moeller was appointed as interim Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Cornell University in December 2025. His portfolio includes oversight of the human resources function, the Department of Inclusion and Belonging, and the Cornell Office of Civil Rights.
Moeller brings extensive experience in human resources and administration from both Cornell University and Penn State University.
At Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business, Moeller served as the Executive Director of Human Resources, Assistant Dean of Human Resources & Organizational Effectiveness, and most recently, Associate Dean of Staff and Academic Administration. His tenure at Cornell has been marked by significant contributions to human resources strategy and operational effectiveness as he helped steward the College of Business through its transition and integration of three schools.
Before joining Cornell, Moeller spent nearly eighteen years at Penn State University, where he held various roles such as Human Resources Strategic Partner and Director of Human Resources & Administrative Services in the College of the Liberal Arts.
Moeller received both his bachelor’s and master’s from Penn State University, in Labor and Industrial Relations, and Human Resources and Employment Relations respectively.
Seminars
- Leading a university wide HR operating model redesign as part of Cornell’s Resilient Cornell initiative, responding to financial austerity by shifting from a highly decentralized structure to a centralized, portfolio based model that improves consistency, governance, and service delivery across colleges and units.
- Rebuilding HR’s foundation by realigning reporting lines, reallocating budgets into a centralized cost model, and introducing strategic HR business partner ratios supported by pods of generalists and centers of excellence, enabling Cornell to reduce duplication while maintaining strong local support for academic units.
- Driving measurable financial and operational resilience through attrition, retirements, vacancy management, and functional streamlining, contributing to seven figure cost reduction targets across the institution while positioning HR to deliver faster, more scalable, and more strategic support during one of the largest transformation efforts in Cornell’s history.
- Where does decision overload show up most clearly in HR operating models today?
- How do unclear ownership, manual work, and fragmented processes increase risk even when costs are reduced?
- What decisions should be standardised, automated, or governed centrally versus deliberately left local?
- How do leaders know when simplification has gone too far?
