Aaron Lawlor is a healthcare and health tech HR executive with extensive experience leading people strategy across complex publicly traded and non-profit organizations.

He has a proven track record of building and scaling HR functions in startup, scale-up, transformation, and unionized environments across multiple sites, states, and countries.

Aaron currently serves as the Vice President of People & Information Technology for Kooth Digital Health, a publicly-traded digital mental health company based in the UK and expanding in the U.S. through a $188 million contract with the State of California, as well as pilots with the States of Michigan and New Jersey. He leads the enterprise IT and Talent Management functions as well as the U.S. People Operations and People Partnership functions, including supporting employees across approximately 70% of U.S. states. Aaron’s work to align People/HR and IT is focusing on bridging the human and digital employee experiences.

Aaron previously served as the Vice President of Human Resources (a CHRO-equivalent role) at Howard Brown Health, a federally qualified health center serving more than 40,000 patients across 14 sites supported by 700 unionized and non-unionized employees. There, he led an HR transformation program that overhauled physician and provider recruiting, implemented an HR Business Partner program, and consolidated HR technology. He also led contract negotiations and labor relations for two collective bargaining units comprised of 400 employees.

Prior to Howard Brown, Aaron served as the chief elected official of Illinois' third-largest county, where he oversaw the county's $440 million budget and administration, including compensation and benefits for the County’s more than 2,000 employees, risk management, and labor relations with the County’s 11 bargaining units.

During his career, he has served on numerous boards, including: Vice Chair of the Chicago Metropolitan Policy Organization (a federally designated entity responsible for land use and transporation planning), Board President of the Cook Memorial Public Library District Board, Operating Committee of the Lake County Partners (Economic Development Corporation), Lake County Housing and Community Development Commission, North Suburban Public Library System, Solid Waste Agency of Lake County, and the United Way of Lake County.

Aaron holds a Bachelor of Arts from Lake Forest College and a Master of Business Administration from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.  He is an alum of the Wharton School's Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) Program. Aaron holds three HR certifications: SHRM-CP, Global Professional in HR (GPHR), and SHRM-CA (California HR), and has completed certificate programs in compensation studies, U.K. employment law, U.S. labor relations, and U.S. workplace investigations. 

Aaron’s proudest accomplishment is his sobriety and his work to help others who struggle with addiction. He is an outspoken advocate for mental health and addiction recovery, which impacts 1 in 5 people.

In 2018, Aaron gave a TEDx Talk on his own experience and the broader social and policy landscape. Aaron has been featured on PBS affiliate WTTW’s Chicago Tonight show, the Chicago Tribune, and “I’m from Driftwood,” a storytelling publication. As County Board Chairman, Aaron founded the Lake County Mental Health Coalition to increase capacity and coordination of behavioral health services.