About David Alsop
CHRO · Author · Executive Coach · Culture Catalyst
I have learned to see the potential that lives between the extremes.
Not the extreme that protects the business at the expense of people. Not the extreme that protects people at the expense of the business. The honest, uncomfortable, productive middle — where both are fully honored and something genuinely good gets built.
That capacity — seeing and growing potential — is what I bring to every CHRO role, every coaching conversation, every keynote room, and every DisruptHR stage. It is what Making HR Matter is built around. And it is what I believe HR, at its best, does for every organization it serves.
I am a CHRO, an author, and a community builder — but underneath all three, I am someone drawn to a specific kind of work: finding the potential in people and organizations that hasn't yet found its footing. Bridge to What's True is how I look for it. Grow The Potential is what I do with it. Everything else on this site is an expression of those two things.
Bridge to What's True. Grow The Potential.
I am the lucky husband to Heather and father of four boys — Luke, Caden, Porter, and Ryland. Utah is home. Its mountains and rivers are where I go to find what is true.
Full Bio
David Alsop's HR philosophy is simple: find the balance between the needs of your people and the needs of the business — and hold both with equal conviction.
David began his career in 2002 — not in HR, but in sales. That early experience gave him something rare: a visceral understanding of how a business actually runs, what line managers need, and how commercial pressure shapes culture. When he made the deliberate turn toward HR, he brought that business-first lens with him.
Over 20+ years, David built his craft at Kraft Foods, Nabisco, and Oscar Mayer before joining Ultradent Products, Inc., where as CHRO he has helped the company earn a spot on Fortune's list of the top five workplaces in large manufacturing and production. He is the co-author of Making HR Matter (Weaving Influence Press, 2026), a Wharton-certified CHRO, and a former Forbes Human Resources Council contributor.
He founded DisruptHR Salt Lake City in 2017 — creating a community where Utah's HR professionals, executives, founders, and team builders come together to challenge convention and inspire each other. He holds an MBA from the University of Arkansas and a BS from Brigham Young University.
Philosophy
What I Believe
"HR has the potential to be the most powerful function in any organization. Most of the time that potential goes ungrown. Finding the truth between what business demands and what people need — and growing from there — is the whole job."
On Leadership
"The best leaders I've known lead with curiosity first and answers second. I'm still working on that."
On Community
"Disruption isn't a solo act. The best ideas in HR come from people challenging each other, not just one voice from a stage."
On Life
"Grow The Potential. I don't have it figured out. But I show up every day trying to be useful."
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