Mercer hires Steve Hersh as head of Workday financials practice

Human capital consultancy Mercer has a hired Steve Hersh as head of its Workday financials practice, US & Canada. Hersh previously spent over seven years at financial and human capital management software firm Workday.

Founded in 2005, Workday is one of the leading providers of financial and human capital management (HCM) software. The firm’s cloud ERP software allows companies to manage accounting, procurement, projects, reporting, and analytics in one financial management system. Its HCM platform, meanwhile, lets firms easily manage recruitment, learning, benefits, payroll, and compliance, among other HR areas.

Workday’s IPO in 2012 valued the firm at $9.5 billion, and the company cleared $2.14 billion in revenue last year.

Mercer maintains its own Workday practice to help clients get the most out of the powerful enterprise software. The practice has now snagged a high-level strategic hire from Workday itself.

Steve Hersh, who has over 20 years of experience in enterprise software, has joined Mercer as the leader of the Workday financials practice for US & Canada. He will be based in New York, and will report to Steve Seykora, Workday practice leader, US & Canada.

Hersh most recently spent over seven years at Workday, where he was regional financials lead. His previous roles at the firm included principal managing partner (focusing on client relationship management), director of consulting services, and director of business development.

His areas of expertise extend across sales, delivery, practice management, and executive relationship management.

Before joining Workday, Hersh ran Oracle consulting firm Infotegrity for nearly ten years. Much of his career was spent consulting on Oracle software, including stints as Oracle lead at Arise Virtual Solutions and Oracle program manager at Primedia. Hersh started his career as an Oracle developer at NCR Corporation, moving on to serve as a principal consultant at Oracle itself, later on.

As an interesting side note, Workday was founded after Oracle initiated a hostile takeover of PeopleSoft, forcing founder David Duffield and chief strategist Aneel Bhushri to form the new ERP firm.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Steve to this new role,” Julie Humphries, US & Canada Leader, Mercer Digital, said. “We are confident that his relevant skills and experience at Workday will help us further provide exceptional service and solutions to our clients while strategically growing Mercer Digital.”

Hersh holds a BS in business administration from SUNY at Buffalo.