Mary Humiston was born and raised in upstate New York. She developed an interest in psychology during her undergrad years and opted to do a Master’s in Business Psychology coupled with an MBA. She began working at General Electric and would spend seven years there. She ultimately landed in human resources. From GE she moved to retailer GAP and helped them establish systems. She then worked for a SoftBank-backed startup. After it was sold, she returned to an industrial giant and worked for Honeywell in Europe as well as Applied Materials, before becoming Chief Human Resources Officer at Rolls-Royce. In addition to now serving as a Senior Advisor for Accenture she has launched Modern Career, a purveyor of HR insights to executives.