Vice President for Human Resources and Administration
Michael A. Peel, B.S., M.B.A.
Michael A. Peel, Vice President for Human Resources and Administration, joined Yale University on October 1, 2008. Mr. Peel is responsible for Yale’s human resources functions including staffing, compensation and benefits, organizational development and learning, staff relations, employee services, and diversity. He also provides oversight to the University’s police and security activities, a variety of other administrative and student services departments, as well as union relations and best practices.
Before coming to Yale, Mr. Peel was Executive Vice President for Worldwide Human Resources and Business Services at General Mills, Inc. In that capacity, he had overall responsibility for the company’s human resources, global shared services, real estate & facilities, environmental compliance, employee safety, and travel activities. Mr. Peel originally joined General Mills in 1991 as Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer. Under his leadership, General Mills was consistently one of the most widely recognized organizations in the world for workplace excellence and diversity, regularly appearing on Fortune’s list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” and Working Mother Magazine’s “Top 10 Companies for Working Women.”
Before joining General Mills, Mr. Peel spent fourteen years with PepsiCo, Inc., where the leadership roles he held included Senior Vice President for Human Resources for PepsiCo Worldwide Foods (1987–91) and Senior Vice President for Human Resources for the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Group (1984–87).
Mr. Peel received a B.S. in business administration from James Madison University in 1971 and an M.B.A. in finance from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business in 1983.
He is a long-term member of the Board of Directors of the Walker Art Center and also serves on the Board of Directors of the Select Comfort Corporation, where he chairs the Compensation Committee. He served as a member of the President’s University Council Committee on Workplace Diversity at Yale from 2005 to 2007. Mr. Peel is the former Vice Chair of the Human Resources Policy Association, the largest association of major company Chief Human Resources Officers in the world. He was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources by his peers in 2002, and is currently on the NAHR Board of Directors, serving as the organization’s Secretary/Treasurer.
