The Ripple Effect: How C-Level Leadership Behavior Shapes Organizational Culture — A Conversation with Barbara Hess of CCS Medical Artwork

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The Ripple Effect: How C-Level Leadership Behavior Shapes Organizational Culture — A Conversation with Barbara Hess of CCS Medical

April 22, 2025 • Executive Platforms

At the 2025 edition of the North American HR Executive Summit series we sat down with Barbara Hess of CCS Medical to talk about the power and responsibility HR professionals have to help the C-Suite executives of their organization set a tone and reflect the values they want to see in their company culture. While leading by example is always important and valuable, there are all kinds of tangible dividends that pay out when a workforce sees what its leadership care about and put their energies towards. From productivity to safety to retention to cultural transformations that build positive outcomes in all sorts of ways, big and small, a lot a of great things can come from HR working with senior leadership to build culture. For all this and more, give this episode a listen!

Barbara Hess
Chief Human Resources Officer
CCS Medical

Barb Hess is an accomplished senior human resources executive with an impressive history of helping private equity-backed organizations build critical infrastructure, scale, and achieve successful exits. Her success in private equity environments is rooted in her ability to quickly diagnose situations, generate practical solutions, make thoughtful decisions, and drive consensus across executive teams/boards of directors.

Barb is currently Chief Human Resources Officer for CCS Medical and since 2021, has been an integral part in standing up the CCS Health business, growing company revenue, expanding headcount 20-30% YOY while doubling the patient base, and boosting talent retention by 30% in a highly competitive labor market. Prior to this, she served as Chief Human Resources Officer for private equity-backed Medical Specialties Distributors (MSD) where her leadership and talent/succession management expertise contributed to the company’s rapid growth ($350M to $800M in 2 years) and ultimate sale to McKesson.

Earlier in Barb’s career, she was Director of Organizational Development for Cardinal Health (Fortune 20), where she implemented enterprise-wide solutions that shaped global culture and sustained progress via gaining C-Suite support and skillful change management. Barb started her career with Nationwide Insurance as an HR Business Partner supporting 4.5K employees across the Financial Services and IT groups.

Barb earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Management/Labor Relations from Cleveland State University and a Master’s degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Capella University. Outside of work, she is active in the community with organizations such as Make-aWish (Executive Chair of Governance and Compensation Committee / Board Member for OH, KY, & IN) and The James Cancer Care Center fundraiser. Barb also enjoys having fun with friends and family, running, outdoor activities, and world travel.