Somos, Inc. Appoints Elissa Barrett as Chief People Officer

When a company that underpins trusted communications appoints a new Chief People Officer, it’s a signal about how it plans to scale culture. This week, telecom registry and data solutions provider Somos, Inc. named Elissa Barrett as CPO, tasking her with talent strategy, employee experience, leadership development, and organizational effectiveness—areas that increasingly determine whether growth is credible and sustainable. PR Newswire+1

Barrett brings scale experience from Henry Meds, HubSpot, and Spotify, a trio of high-growth environments where people systems and operating cadence had to mature quickly without losing the creative spark that attracts great talent. At HubSpot, she helped the company expand from ~1,000 to ~8,000 employees while accumulating more than 170 workplace awards, including Glassdoor’s #1 Best Place to Work. Her first public note at Somos keeps the focus simple: “People are at the heart of every great organization.” PR Newswire+2Somos+2

Why this hire matters in a trust-critical business

Somos isn’t just another enterprise software vendor; it administers core numbering and identity infrastructure across North America—NANPA, TFNA, and the RND—touching 1,400+ service providers and more than 7 billion phone numbers. In that context, trust isn’t a tagline; it’s an operating requirement. Appointing a CPO with a track record of integrating culture, leadership behaviors, and scalable people systems tells customers, regulators, and employees that trust will be built from the inside out. Somos+2Somos+2

From HR programs to culture architecture

The modern CPO role extends well beyond policy and programs. The work is culture architecture: aligning operating rituals (goal-setting, decision rights, feedback loops) with leadership standards and communications practices. Barrett’s background suggests fluency in this shift—balancing creative DNA (Spotify), disciplined scale (HubSpot), and mission-anchored healthcare (Henry Meds). For a company like Somos, that translates into three near-term priorities:

1. Leadership clarity: codify expectations for how leaders communicate and make decisions, especially across product, operations, and customer trust functions.

   
   

2. Experience by design: engineer employee journeys—from onboarding to manager development—so that trust, inclusion, and performance are reinforced in every interaction.

   
   

3. Data-literate people strategy: connect engagement, retention, and capability metrics to outcomes that matter for customers (reliability, security, fraud mitigation). PR Newswire+1

   
   

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The trust flywheel: people → product → reputation

In regulated, high-stakes ecosystems, internal credibility becomes external advantage. When teams experience consistency—clear priorities, predictable rituals, and psychologically safe debate—they ship better products and navigate compliance with fewer surprises. Somos’ recent industry partnerships and solution launches emphasize authenticated, secure communications; the same principles should inform internal communications and talent systems. That’s the flywheel: trustworthy inside, trustworthy outside. First Orion

What executives can do now

Audit leadership rituals. Review how priorities are set and communicated each quarter. If messages vary by team or channel, codify the “one narrative” and the cadence for reinforcing it.

Invest in manager capability. Middle managers carry culture in real time. Equip them to run 1:1s, give useful feedback, and lead change with clarity and care.

Instrument the employee journey. Make the invisible visible: measure the moments that matter (role clarity at 30/60/90, promotion equity, learning utilization) and tie results to business outcomes like customer satisfaction and fraud reduction.

Tell the trust story. In a company that manages identity and numbering, share the internal practices ethics, controls, decision frameworks that mirror your external value proposition. Somos

Call to Insight

If your product sells trust, your culture must manufacture it. Start by aligning your leadership cadence with the customer promise—then instrument it like any other critical system.

Sources & Context

• Press release: “Somos, Inc. Appoints Elissa Barrett as Chief People Officer” (Dec. 2025). PR Newswire• Company announcement: Somos newsroom post confirming role and remit. Somos• Industry role: Somos descriptions of NANPA, TFNA, and RND administration and scale. Somos+2Somos+2• Executive signals: Barrett’s announcement and leadership commentary on LinkedIn. LinkedIn

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