Lisette Ortiz
Lisette Ortiz, She/Her, is a Vice President of People Operations at Avenue Z with more than 14 years of experience building scalable, people-first organizations across high-growth, multi-site, and distributed environments. She specializes in org design, people analytics, total rewards, HR technology modernization, and leadership development. She is known for translating business strategy into practical operating systems that improve performance, strengthen culture, and create more consistent and effective employee experiences across the organization. She began her career with a bachelor’s degree in marketing but quickly discovered a stronger interest in the operational side of business and people systems. That path led her into an “HR department of one” experience that spanned 15 years, giving her a full, end-to-end view of the employee lifecycle—from recruiting and onboarding to performance management, engagement, and retention. Although her original academic passion was psychology, she ultimately chose not to pursue clinical work, recognizing the emotional demands of therapy. Instead, she found a natural application of psychology in HR and marketing, where understanding human behavior, motivation, and interpersonal dynamics is essential to effective leadership and organizational design. In her current role at Avenue Z Network, where she has spent a total of 10 years including three years since its inception following the acquisition of Designzillas, Lisette leads People Operations across multiple offices and a global workforce. She partners closely with executive leadership on workforce planning, compensation strategy, and organizational design, with a focus on building a performance-driven, people-first culture. Her work has been central to integrating teams across acquisitions, stabilizing and aligning cultures, and driving measurable improvements in engagement, retention, and operational efficiency. She thrives in moments of transformation, helping organizations scale with clarity, structure, and a deep commitment to both business outcomes and employee experience.
• AI-Driven Recruiting - LinkedIn Recruiter Power User Assessment
• Section ProfAI: AI Proficiency
• Rippling Certified: Payroll Administration
• University of Central Florida - BSBA, Marketing
• Best Places to Work
• Zilla of the Year
• Core Values Integrity Award
• SHRM local chapter
• Music Mop Salon sorority
• Mu Sigma Upsilon Sorority, Inc.
• Hispanic American Student Association
• National Society of Collegiate Scholars
• MSU Foundation
• Music Mop Salon Foundation
What do you attribute your success to?
Having really great people around me that allowed me to constantly keep challenging myself. I think that is really important. I think it's one of the reasons why I have been with my company for so long, is because I have people around me and my CEO that is always open to hearing my ideas, my suggestions, and being like, okay, you know, try it out. And that has helped me not only build my confidence, but expand further than, you know, what I thought I could originally do.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
One of the pieces of advice that I still carry to this day is that you have the power to change things. If you want a particular company culture, you have to be the example of it, you know? What you do, not what you say is what matters. You don't have to have the leadership title in order to be a leader. I think that's what kind of helped me change my mindset early in my career when I thought, well, I'm not a manager, you know, like, I can't make changes. And that helped me shift my perspective of, yeah, I don't need a title to lead, and that helped me develop my leadership skills and then become a leader.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say when you don't have to have all the answers, it's enough to create an environment of clarity, where we can figure it out together. Start simple, like, really, like, build out relationships. Build out relationships outside of your company as well. For me, it was very much building out relationships with women that I admired and building out those relationships with people I could count on, especially, I think for me, it was mainly, you know, like I mentioned before, HR department of one. I didn't have someone I could bounce off, you know, ideas from within my own company and having that elsewhere has been really helpful. And being that being okay with, I don't know, but I'm gonna figure it out. The other thing I would say is, ask good questions and get clear expectations. That way you can know what you're gonna figure out.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
It is constantly evolving, especially with AI, and finding the right ways to ensure that we are keeping up with the changes in our industry, and helping ensure that our team has the education and training they need to stay up to date, and to be able to do their best work with all the changes happening.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
At the core, I would say integrity is really important to me. It's foundational for trust, and trust is necessary for any kind of relationship, whether it's a work relationship or a personal relationship. You have to have that trust and integrity is at the core of that, where I know if I asked someone for something, I don't even have to think about it twice. I know that they're going to do it.