Preetesh Bengali

Head of Total Rewards and People Operations

Upside

Dec 2025 - Current (9 months)

Head of People Operations

Newsela

Mar 2021 - Oct 2025 (4 years 8 months)

• Lead a team of six responsible for Total Rewards, benefits/payroll, equity admin, data analytics, HR systems, onboarding, procurement, compliance, workplace policies, real estate and program management • Scaled company from 325 to 650 FTE in 18 months by streamlining headcount planning, optimizing recruiting operations, standardizing onboarding and introducing an LMS • Enhanced the employee lifecycle – improving onboarding, Total Rewards philosophy, manager training and goal-setting – leading to a turnover reduction from 19.9% to 10.6% • Leverage employee surveys to drive retention, including enhancing competitiveness of equity program and benefit offerings, helping to increase average tenure from 1.8 years to 2.9 years since 2022 • Devel

Director, People Operations

Capsule

May 2020 - Feb 2021 (10 months)

• Consolidated People tools into Paycom, achieving $35K in cost savings and improving system efficiency • Designed and executed Total Rewards strategy for 1,000 domestic employees (600 hourly, 400 salaried), ensuring timesheet compliance, competitive pay and retention-focused initiatives • Partnered with CFO, COO and General Counsel to develop a scalable operational framework for national expansion, enabling the company to successfully launch in 15+ new cities during hyper-growth

Head of Total Rewards and People Sciences

Compass

May 2019 - May 2020 (1 year 1 month)

• Led benefit renewal/Open Enrollment process, working with brokers to evaluate plans, negotiate premiums and ensure ERISA compliance, ultimately resulting in $375,000 in savings • Oversaw 401(k) and deferred comp compliance, including nondiscrimination testing and plan audits

Senior Manager, Compensation

Squarespace

Oct 2017 - May 2019 (1 year 8 months)

• Supported 409A valuations and total direct compensation modeling for executive team, leveraging market data from organizations like Compensia; liaised with Finance and Legal to ensure compliance • Executed bi-annual focal cycles for 150 global compensation planners, providing senior management with real-time tracking reports against budget, thresholds and success metrics • Conducted dilution analyses, presenting findings and recommendations to the Compensation Committee

Compensation Manager

Zendesk

Jul 2016 - Oct 2017 (1 year 4 months)

• Managed business requirements, data validation, data flows, UAT and global roll-out of Workday, traveling to Europe and Asia to train 250 staff members on localized Rewards philosophy, job architecture representation and tool functionality • Partnered with HR to present strategic approaches to tackling critical employee issues impacting retention/recruiting, including market benchmarking, comp range management and job architecture • Led the design, budgeting, execution and review of bi-annual focal cycles which included merit increases, promotions, bonus reviews and annual equity grants for our 2,000 global employees

Manager, Sales Finance (Sales Compensation)

Twitter

Apr 2015 - May 2016 (1 year 2 months)

• Served as Team Lead in the design and administration of multi-million dollar global program, covering 2,000 employees across 20 countries, 13 verticals and two distinct software platforms • Routinely interfaced with Sales, Finance, Sales Ops, HR, Legal and Audit to ensure program was cost-effective, drove stated business objectives and had the necessary controls in place

Senior Consultant

Deloitte

Jul 2013 - Apr 2015 (1 year 10 months)

Sales Force Effectiveness team within Human Capital practice • Led teams on 11 client projects in technology, finance, industrial and medical industries on issues such as succession planning, reorganizations, sales plan redesign and comp cycle management • Designed sales incentive plans for six global clients and presented proposals to management; routinely centering on design of sales plans and payout curves, modeling optimized pay mix and recommendations on performance metrics, plan mechanics and cost of sale expectations

Associate Consultant

MERCER HUMAN RESOURCE CONSULTING

Aug 2010 - Jun 2013 (2 years 11 months)

• Worked with executive leaders to address client issues in global mobility, executive and broad-based compensation assessment, incentive plan design and sales effectiveness • Served in Project Management roles, creating and managing project plan and budget, spearheading design of work plans, owning client relationship as frontline resource and presenting deliverables

Organizational Strategy Consultant

Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco

May 2009 - Jul 2009 (3 months)

• Awarded one of two $10K summer internship grants from the Ross School of Business • Engineered multi-tiered benchmarking analysis comparing affiliate performance across ten criteria, projected to improve accuracy of budgeting forecast by $2.4MM • Drove client to institute knowledge sharing with comparable affiliates by projecting 40% reduction in operating expenses for programs based on affiliates' best practices • Delivered five-year strategic plan to Board of Directors, stressing fundraising and construction adjustments, supporting client's targeted 70% increase in home production

Consultant

Angelus SA

Feb 2009 - May 2009 (4 months)

• Formulated market entry strategy for dental consumables company by determining channel strategy and marketing plan and creating financial forecast model

MBA Student

University of Michigan Ross School of Business

Sep 2008 - Oct 2010 (2 years 2 months)

MBA candidate (April 2010) of High Distinction with emphases in Strategy and Finance pursuing a career in consulting.

Assistant Director / Team-Lead

Moodys Analytics

Jan 2006 - Jul 2008 (2 years 7 months)

• Promoted to Team-Lead upon completing accelerated leadership program, assuming management position and responsibilities six months after joining organization • Collaborated with clients via seminars and surveys to address data accuracy concerns following international adoption of new financial reporting standards, leading to publication of detailed white paper that reduced number of related client issues by 60% • Managed cross-functional global team in data analysis by using weekly conference calls to discuss progress, increasing accountability levels and reducing error rate by 30%

Senior Financial Analyst

Moodys Analytics

Jul 2005 - Jan 2006 (7 months)

• Developed and presented innovative plan to conduct specialized financial statement analysis for top 400 international firms in coverage to Senior Management; the plan's enactment resulted in highest customer satisfaction score for department • Spearheaded department-wide effort to integrate more robust data from Reuters into credit analyses; the accuracy of customized data mapping to internal standards reduced average turnaround time from Quality Assurance team by more than 50%

Investment Banking Analyst

Banc of America Securities

May 2004 - Jan 2005 (9 months)

• Analyzed and built advanced cash flow and capital models of client’s finance unit to project liquidity needs, leading to implementation of $1BB in capital-raising initiatives • Conducted valuation analysis to advise client on fair value of long‑term acute care hospital business, directly leading to negotiations on $300MM leveraged buyout of firm in the space and over $1.25BB in future business

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