About Oyster
You come to us because of our experience. You stay because of
your experience.
Oyster is a woman-owned small business headquartered in metropolitan Washington, D.C. It is led by Julie Nielsen, who has deep experience in senior leadership roles in public, private, and non-profit organizations. Our clients range from four to the hundreds and are all committed to organizational success.
The Oyster team includes OD consultants with expertise in a variety of functional and industry backgrounds, including non-profits, construction, manufacturing, government contracting, IT, public relations & media, research & technology, catering, international development, higher education, public policy, political strategy, and others.
We serve as the chief human capital advisor for our clients, either during a project or on an ongoing basis. And we...
- are a leader in total compensation and benefit analysis and design.
- provide the best employee engagement ecosystems.
- assess and coach executives, senior leaders, boards, teams, and other professionals using assessments as a foundation for delivering results.
- facilitate the creation of new strategic plans and revisit existing ones.
- conduct assessments of your entire organization or of the HR function to identify opportunities.
- design Strategic HR programs customized to your needs.
Every organization is a puzzle.
Solving it with you is what we do.
About Julie
Julie Nielsen, President and Chief Human Capital Officer and Chief Puzzle Solver
Oyster is led by President and Chief Human Capital Advisor, Julie Nielsen. Julie has managed change in settings that can be challenging – including international, government contracting, and the non-profit world – and has implemented programs at organizations with 90 to 3,000 employees. She has partnered with C-level leaders to redesign and rethink organizations, to create actionable strategic plans that reach all levels of employees, coached and developed leaders, led major efforts around employee engagement and culture change, created corporate universities that provide blended learning opportunities for all employees, managed change and change initiatives, and designed strategic human resource programs.
Julie has served on the senior leadership teams of the Association for Talent Development (ATD), Resource Consultants, Inc., CTA Space Systems, Dewberry, Wolters Kluwer, and The Institute for Humane Studies. She received a BS in Business Administration from Auburn University and an MA in Human Resources from Marymount University.
Get to Know Julie
Why did you start Oyster?
I started Oyster because I saw the need for smaller organizations to have access to the same success tools as bigger organizations.
What is Oyster’s commitment to clients?
We commit to accurate data, good communication, transparency, and quality results. Our clients like us because of our user-friendly deliverables.
What have you learned from engagements that weren’t as successful as you hoped?
We have learned that the executive level must be supportive and involved in our work.
What is your vision for the next 5 years at Oyster?
Although we want to do great work for our clients, I also want to see the Oyster team do great things for their careers.
What’s a fun fact about you?
I have to make sure that I don’t laugh too much. I have a good time doing what I do!
What are you most proud of in your work?
I’m in awe of the incredible missions we get to support!
How do you sum up Oyster’s work?
The work world is our Oyster.