Elisa Soto
Chief People Officer, CNA Corp.
Elisa Soto’s biggest achievement has been the connections she establishes with the people she supports, past, present and future. Throughout her career, people have trusted her with matters that truly matter to them – their careers, their families, their challenges and sometimes some of the most difficult moments in their lives.
“I never take that trust for granted,” Soto said. “I am incredibly proud of the programs, transformations, and business outcomes I have helped achieve, but the accomplishment that matters most is knowing that people trust me to listen, be candid, advocate when appropriate, and help find a path forward.”
For Soto, HR is ultimately about people. If employees know they can turn to her and her team and trust that they will treat their concerns with respect and integrity, that is success.
“People First. Mission Always,” she noted. This isn’t just a leadership philosophy for Soto, it is how she and her team approach everything they do. “We understand that behind every HR program, policy, or organizational decision are people, and our responsibility is to never lose sight of how those decisions affect them personally,” she said.
A recent retirement plan consolidation is a great example of that philosophy in action. Soto and her team understood that retirement planning is deeply personal and that employees needed more than a standard communication about what was changing. Her team customized that approach, in some cases to the individual employee level, to make sure people understood their options, had opportunities to ask questions, and, most importantly, knew that they mattered.
“That personalized approach required more time and effort, but it resulted in an incredibly smooth transition. For me, that is what ‘People First. Mission Always.’ means: taking care of the people who make the mission possible. When people trust that you have their best interests in mind, they can focus their energy and talents on doing extraordinary work,” Soto said.
One of the most important ways Soto and her team support government customers is by ensuring that CNA has the right talent, capabilities and organizational infrastructure to deliver on the mission efficiently and effectively. “HR may not always be directly in front of the customer, but the workforce we recruit, develop, engage, and retain absolutely is,” Soto said.
That means continuously looking for ways to remove administrative barriers, modernize internal HR systems and processes, strengthen succession and workforce planning, develop critical skills, and ensure employees can spend more of their time focused on high-value, mission-driven work.
“Ultimately, our government customers benefit when our employees can focus their expertise on solving complex problems rather than navigating unnecessary processes. My team’s role is to help create the workforce environment that makes that possible,” Soto said.
Why Watch
Soto and her team are heavily focused on how they can effectively lean into AI while keeping people at the center of the transformation. There’s a deep importance of adopting new technology to drive continuous improvement, and this work directly supports one of CNA’s strategic goals: building an AI-literate workforce and ensuring employees have the training, resources and confidence to use these tools effectively.
From an HR perspective, Soto believes her and her team’s responsibility goes beyond introducing new technology. They must help employees understand what AI means for their work, identify opportunities to make processes more efficient, prepare the workforce for evolving skill requirements, and create an environment where employees are comfortable experimenting and learning, Soto said.
“Elisa exemplifies the ideal partner for the CFO team, combining compassionate leadership with a steadfast commitment to employee well-being,” said Christine Peterson, executive vice president and CFO at CNA Corp.
“She prioritizes people while skillfully balancing the importance of maintaining a fiscally sound organization, making her an invaluable asset to People Operations and CNA as a whole.”
Fun fact: Soto absolutely adores children. Her employees joke that if you are looking for Soto at a company event, just follow the children and there she’ll be. In fact, some employees have warned new parents that if they bring a baby around Soto, there is a very good chance she will snatch them up! “Family is the center of my world, and that part of who I am carries into how I lead. I genuinely enjoy getting to know the people I work with—not just as employees or colleagues, but as people with families, interests, aspirations, and lives outside of work,” Soto said.