Cynthia B. Burks is a seasoned human capital executive and board director who operates at the intersection of talent strategy, organizational design, and culture-driven performance. She currently serves on the boards of Cityblock Health (Chair of Talent and Compensation Committee), WD-40 Company (Chair of Compensation Committee), Inspire Medical Systems, Inc. (Audit and Compensation Committees), and Sellars Absorbent Materials.
Burks is the managing member of Excel Advising, LLC, providing executive coaching and human capital advisory services. She is also a Founding Operator in the Coalition Network, connecting senior leaders with startups where their expertise is uniquely valuable.
Most recently, she served as Senior Vice President and Chief People and Culture Officer (titled Chief Human Resources Officer) at Genentech, Inc., a member of Roche Holding AG (June 2019 to April 2022), where she led a team of 200+ HR professionals optimizing employee engagement across an enterprise of more than 13,500 employees. Before that role, she served as Vice President, Head of HR for Genentech Research and Early Development (2015 to 2019), where she created comprehensive retention strategies, data-based people and culture strategies, and programs to enhance career satisfaction for scientific talent.
Her earlier career includes nearly 12 years at Genentech in various HR leadership roles (2010 to 2022), plus HR and organizational development positions at Stanford University (Resident Fellow), The San Francisco Chronicle (VP HR/OD), ON Semiconductor (Director, Organizational Effectiveness), and The Arizona Republic (Assistant Director, Organizational Development).
What She Brings to the Boardroom
Burks’ value is understanding that culture is not a soft asset but a competitive advantage. She knows what it takes to design talent systems that scale, how to align compensation and performance structures with strategic priorities, and when culture becomes a constraint rather than an enabler.
Boards increasingly face pressure to demonstrate oversight of human capital risk: succession planning, executive compensation alignment, DEI strategy, retention in tight labor markets, and the governance required when culture issues become reputational crises. Burks has built and led those systems inside high-growth, high-complexity organizations, and now brings that operational lens to board oversight.
Her role as Compensation Committee Chair at both WD-40 Company and Cityblock Health positions her at the center of one of the board’s most consequential responsibilities: ensuring executive pay aligns with long-term strategy, not just short-term performance, and that compensation philosophy reinforces rather than undermines the company’s culture and talent strategy.
Core Competencies
Human capital strategy and talent management
Burks brings deep expertise in attracting, developing, and retaining talent at scale. At Genentech, she led HR strategy for a biotechnology organization navigating rapid growth, M&A integration, and the complexity of managing scientific talent alongside commercial operations. She created data-based retention strategies that reduced unwanted turnover and enhanced career satisfaction for specialized talent. In board settings, that translates into sharper oversight on succession planning, leadership development, and whether the company’s talent strategy matches its growth ambitions.
Compensation strategy and performance alignment
As Compensation Committee Chair at WD-40 Company and Cityblock Health, and a member of compensation committees at Inspire Medical, Burks leads oversight of executive pay structures, equity design, and incentive alignment. Her experience includes designing compensation systems that reinforce long-term value creation rather than rewarding short-term metrics. She understands the governance required to ensure pay philosophy, performance expectations, and culture are mutually reinforcing.
Culture and organizational design
Burks understands how to design culture to increase competitive advantage, not just measure employee sentiment. At Genentech, she optimized employee engagement across the enterprise and advanced work on topics important to all employees, allowing teams to learn, grow, and thrive. She knows what healthy organizational design looks like when companies are scaling, restructuring, or integrating acquisitions, and when cultural misalignment becomes an execution risk. Boards need directors who can ask whether the organization’s structure, culture, and talent systems are set up to deliver on strategy or working against it.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion
Her work at Genentech included leading DEI efforts within a complex, global organization. In governance contexts, that means understanding DEI not as a compliance exercise but as part of talent strategy, risk management, and stakeholder expectations. She brings perspective on how boards should oversee DEI commitments, measure progress, and hold management accountable.
Audit committee and risk oversight
Burks serves on audit committees at both WD-40 and Inspire Medical, expanding her governance footprint beyond human capital into financial oversight and enterprise risk. This dual competency (people and audit) positions her to contribute to board discussions where talent risk, operational risk, and financial risk intersect.
Background
Burks holds an MBA in International Business from Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, and a JD from University of San Francisco School of Law. She has earned certifications in corporate directorship, executive compensation, and climate governance, strengthening her board contributions across leadership oversight, compensation design, and ESG.
Her board portfolio spans healthcare technology (Cityblock Health, Inspire Medical Systems), consumer products (WD-40), and manufacturing (Sellars). She has also served as an advisor to biotechnology and HR technology companies including Maze Therapeutics, Taltrics, and Air Protein, and was a board member of Torch (leadership development platform) from 2021 to 2025. Additionally, she is an investor in Gem, a talent engagement and CRM platform.
Beyond corporate boards, Burks served as a Resident Fellow at Stanford University (2017 to 2021), helping shape intellectual life and student engagement in campus residences.
Her board work reflects a governance reality: human capital oversight is no longer optional or secondary. In an environment where talent retention, succession risk, and culture issues can materially affect business outcomes, boards need directors who understand how these systems work and when they’re breaking.
Connect with Cynthia B. Burks on LinkedIn
Directors in Focus
Directors in Focus highlights the board members who shape strategy, navigate complexity, and drive governance excellence across industries. Each profile examines the competencies, decisions, and perspectives that define effective board leadership in an era of heightened scrutiny and global volatility.
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