Start with the business
People priorities should connect directly to growth, customer experience, risk and operating performance.
ABOUT EARLY EDGE
The desire to help comes from
being inside the work.
THE STORY BEHIND EARLY EDGE
Experience built inside complex, real operations.
Nico started in staffing and recruiting, close to the daily pressure of open roles, changing priorities and leaders who needed answers quickly. That experience shaped a practical belief: HR earns credibility by helping the business move.
He later led workforce initiatives in healthcare and behavioral health, then helped build and scale HR capability across a national education organization with 300 schools, 30 states, thousands of employees and more than 100 acquisitions.
Early Edge brings that experience to growing organizations that want senior guidance, candid partnership and a leader who stays connected to implementation.
SPHR®Predictive IndexM.S. Cognitive ScienceEnglish and Italian
NICO TOGNARA, SPHR
Founder and Principal HR AdvisorPhoenix, ArizonaHOW NICO THINKS
Hands on matters because execution is where strategy gets tested.
Get close to the work
The best answer comes from understanding how leaders, managers and employees experience the operation every day.
Build for real conditions
A solution creates value when people can use it, leaders can sustain it and the business can measure the difference.
100+acquisition integrations supported
25K+professionals hired and onboarded
500specialized healthcare hires in four months
19years across HR, talent and transformation
EXPERIENCE THAT TRAVELS
Different industries sharpen the same operating instincts.
Broad experience helps Nico separate durable people principles from practices that only work in one environment.
Executive HR leadership
Cadence Education
Helped scale people infrastructure across a national early education organization with 300 schools in 30 states, supporting rapid growth and more than 100 acquisitions.
Healthcare and behavioral health
Valleywise Health
Led workforce initiatives in a 4,000 employee public teaching and safety net health system, including specialized staffing, retention, onboarding and employee relations.
Cross industry talent and HR programs
Adecco
Led volume and specialized initiatives spanning Amazon, the NHL, Deluxe Media and Entertainment, retail, home services, logistics, manufacturing and technology.
Manufacturing, engineering and energy
BASF and E.T.S.
Supported organizational integration, workforce mapping, technical recruiting and people programs across complex industrial and project environments.
Banking, finance and broad market recruiting
Manpower
Built early career HR and recruiting depth supporting banking, financial services and a wide range of business sectors.
Company logos identify prior professional experience and do not imply current affiliation or endorsement.
POWERED BY SRV HR
Independent attention. Broader capability.
Early Edge is part of the SRV HR network, combining Nico’s direct leadership with access to experienced HR advisors and specialized resources when an engagement requires additional depth.
View Nico’s SRV HR profileYOUR NEXT STEP
You start with the business challenge. Early Edge helps you find the right leadership, talent, and systems to solve it.
Start with the business reality, then build the people solution that moves it forward.