Cole Napper is the Vice President of Research, Innovation, & Talent Insights at Lightcast, a labor market intelligence and insights firm. Author of People Analytics: Using Data-Driven HR and Gen AI as a Business Asset, he is also the Co-Host of Directionally Correct, a People Analytics podcast, Substack newsletter, and owner of Directionally Correct LLC.

Cole is a globally recognized leader in the people analytics, workforce planning, and talent intelligence space. In previous roles, he brought a strategic focus and invaluable insights to both large multinational corporations spanning various industries (FedEx, Texas Instruments, Toyota, PepsiCo, Grainger) and venture-capital-backed startups (Motive, Booster, Orgnostic).

His expertise extends to emphasizing the transformative power of people analytics and human capital labor data in contributing to organizational growth and efficiency.