Liz Ryan (b. December 31, 1959) is a business owner, public speaker, and a social media influencer. She is the Founder & CEO of Human Workplace, a publishing and consulting firm. She also writes for LinkedIn and Forbes.

In 1979, back when she was a sophomore at the Manhattan School of Music, Liz Ryan started earning money waitressing at various burger joints. Ryan eventually quit school and moved to Chicago and waited tables there, as well.

The last restaurant in which she served food was an outdoor café called Melvin's; she was 19 years old at the time.

When the restaurant shut down for the winter, she eventually found out that she was working as a server illegally; back then, one had had to be 21 to serve alcohol in Chicago.

As she put her server days behind her, Ryan eventually got her first office job at a greeting card company called Recycled Paper Greetings. Back then, they had some in-house problems, particularly at the distribution center. She eventually got involved trying to solve those problems. Originally in the order processing department, her boss made her Director HR of the company at the age of 24.

Under her direction, Recycled Paper Greetings grew from a $1 million company to a $200 million company.

She worked there for 9 years and left the company at age 28.

Adding more experience in the field of HR, Liz served as Vice President of Human Resources at U.S. Robotics. When she first started working there in 1988, it was a Chicago tech start-up with 100 employees. When she left, there were roughly 10,000.

Once U.S.

Robotics was acquired by 3Com, she resigned.

HR and Organizational Strategy consulting for Fortune 500 companies and startup organizations. These included Aon Insurance, DDB Worldwide, LookSmart, Snap.com/ NBC Interactive, and more.

In 2012, Liz Ryan founded Human Workplace: a publishing firm and a coaching/consulting business that aims to make organizations healthier and more productive for employers, institutions, and individuals.

Liz Ryan is a professional opera singer.