Meet Tamla Oates-Forney, CEO of Linkage, a SHRM Company

Tamla Oates-Forney has worked in HR for more than 30 years, starting at age 15 with the North Carolina Employment Security Commission. She held a number of positions in 20 years at General Electric (GE), including leading and working in diversity, equity, and inclusion for multiple GE businesses and leading HR for GE’s operations in sub-Saharan Africa. She also served as chief people officer for WM, North America’s largest environmental services company, and CHRO for USAA before becoming CEO of Linkage, a SHRM Company, in 2024.

In this Q&A, Oates-Forney discusses her life and work; the importance of inclusion, equity, and diversity (IE&D); and where she finds motivation in tough times.

SHRM: What led you to take this new role as CEO of Linkage, a SHRM Company?

Oates-Forney: Before coming to SHRM to lead Linkage, I had a pretty extensive career in the HR space and a passion for helping companies fulfill their strategies through human capital. I have an interest in making sure that they have the right talent with the right skills in the right roles to usher their companies along, so leadership and talent development programs and strategies are things that I’ve been doing my entire career. I think my Linkage role is the perfect culmination of my purpose, my passion, and my profession—like my dream job, where all of it comes together.

Can you share some memorable experiences from your career that shaped you as a professional?

There’ve been quite a few. At 15 years of age, I worked for the Employment Security Commission in my hometown [Lincolnton, N.C.], and that was my first real experience in HR, where I got the opportunity to engage with people who had been displaced. They had been laid off, or they were out of jobs, and I helped them regain not only employment but their confidence through intervention and partnership. That was very profound to me to think that I could do something like that, that could change the trajectory of someone’s life just by helping them get placed in employment.

The other memorable experience was my time in Africa. I was there as the head of HR for GE in Africa for about five years. I’m very purpose-driven, so being able to really see what your company does to change lives and communities was profound. When I was there, there were multiple GE businesses based in Africa, including power generation, health care, transportation, aviation, etc.  As an example, we were creating power so that people can live in light. We [in the U.S.] take that for granted. As a company, we were able to see the impact our products and services had on the countries and communities. Immediately seeing how we could change the way people lived, worked, and grew was amazing.

As the HR leader, I was able to build the human capital strategies that we needed to capitalize on GE’s tremendous business opportunities. The continent needed a lot of infrastructure, and GE was an infrastructure company. But not having the talent really suboptimized GE’s ability to capitalize on all those opportunities.

My responsibility was to create a talent strategy so we could fulfill the business strategies. That involved working with local governments, colleges and universities, and communities to make sure they were educating people to be gainfully employable; helping update college curricula; and putting together leadership development programs that enabled the local nationals to evolve their professional careers. It was amazing to see all of it come to light, especially when roles were no longer occupied by expatriates, but local talent.

Another highlight was developing a program called “Back to Africa,” where we went out within the diaspora because there were a lot of Africans who had left their home countries to gain both an education and employment opportunities. “Back to Africa” provided both career opportunities and incentives for them to them to return home. They had the education and the experience and could come home to leverage their experience and help their native countries evolve. It proved to be an effective win-win talent strategy.

It was profound to see all of that happen and to see the role that human resources played in moving the company forward in an emerging market. As an African American, living and working on the continent of Africa was personally gratifying, but also professionally. It really changed the trajectory of my career, quite frankly because it was really hard living and working on the continent due to the complexities. Africa as a continent has over 50 countries, and each country is different. Trying to develop an enterprise talent strategy with local/country-specific applicability was very difficult, especially as a foreigner/expat.

GE, as a company, wasn’t as known as an employer of choice on the continent, and you had to change that point of view just through intervention and programming. It was probably the hardest job I’ve ever had, but the most profound. The experience catapulted my career within GE.

You mentioned being purpose-driven. Where do you pull inspiration and motivation from during tough times?

I’m very strong in my faith, and I grew up that way. I believe that to whom much is given, much is required, and I also believe that as often as we are given opportunities, etc., it’s incumbent upon us to provide them for others. This belief has been a guiding force my entire career.

I like to work for companies that are committed to doing their part to leave the world and communities better than they found them. Again, that’s how I grew up because it took a community to raise me. Because of that community, I am where I am today. I’ve had a lot of people pour into me, and I feel it’s my responsibility and obligation to do the same. Again, this has been my life’s work because I’ve received and benefited from it. I’m a first-generation college grad, and had people not invested in me, I would not be where I am today.

How did IE&D in the workplace become an important issue for you?

It’s important to me because of who I am: both a female and an African American. In my entire professional career, there have always been so few women in places where I’ve sat in leadership roles, even fewer women of color. That always puzzled me, and it still puzzles me to this day.

I think that a company should view people first based on the content of their character and their contributions to the organization, versus their gender and ethnicity. But that’s not the world that we live in. I am committed to making sure that we create an environment where people are assessed and judged based on their contributions to the organization, the content of their character, who may happen to be a different color, different gender, etc.

While there have been advances with women in the workplace, there is still more work to be done. Being an HR professional, I have had both the ability and the responsibility to change that.

I believe in the power of inclusion because none of us are one-dimensional in terms of our experience, in terms of our intellect, etc. I think the power of the collective always makes you stronger than having people who look the same, talk the same, think the same, etc. That’s just not the world we live in. I think there is so much power in different ways of thinking and different ways of being, and that difference comes from the individual who has had different life experiences.