Berkshire celebrates 40 years in business

The team at Berkshire would like to celebrate and acknowledge our 40th anniversary of providing quality HR consulting services to our clients.  

It was 40 years ago this August when a young HR professional named Dawn Hyde was struck with inspiration while laboring over her company’s affirmative action plan.  

In that era of newly emerging technology Dawn realized there had to be a way to automate the time-consuming process of creating affirmative action plans. 

With help from her father, a computer engineer, she built the first automated solution for affirmative action plan preparation – and in 1983 established Berkshire Associates to provide expert AAP consulting powered by this groundbreaking technology.  

Not only was Dawn a pioneer in the field, but at that time in our history, she was part of a small community of women business owners – who made up just 23% of the country’s top executives. 

Still woman-managed today, Berkshire has expanded our scope of services beyond AAPs over the years to meet the evolving needs of HR professionals with training, software, and a range of services to include compensation and DEI solutions.  

The company that began with a handful of employees in a small office space has since grown into a company of nearly 100 staff members, working remotely in communities across the country to fulfill Dawn’s vision... And we like to think that Dawn would be proud! 

Berkshire’s President Beth Ronnenburg (a protégé of Dawn, herself) has firmly upheld Dawn's legacy of delivering innovative solutions to HR professionals – responding to the rapidly-changing needs of our community and establishing Berkshire as a leading authority in the HR and compliance space. 

“Founded by a woman in 1983, Berkshire has broken a lot of barriers since the very beginning,” said Berkshire President Beth Ronnenburg. “Today our team continues to push the boundaries of conventional HR consulting in an effort to provide our community with new and innovative solutions.” 

Berkshire’s longstanding reputation has empowered us to bring on and retain some of the most hardworking and knowledgeable consultants in the industry. With an average of 15 years’ experience under their belts, many of our consultants hold advanced degrees, SHRM certifications, and experience working directly with OFCCP and EEOC.  

Last year, Berkshire joined forces with Resolution Economics, a leading legal consulting firm, with expertise in labor and employment matters, finance/accounting analysis, DEI&A, and more. This has expanded Berkshire’s capacity to support our clients even further. 

“Berkshire’s legacy of excellence in the affirmative action space, together with their talented staff and a great culture fit, made them an obvious choice as a partner in compliance matters that relate directly to our existing work in labor and employment consulting,” said Ali Saad, managing partner at Resolution Economics. “On their 40th anniversary, we celebrate Berkshire's accomplishments and look forward to being an integral part of their success story moving forward.” 

As Berkshire celebrates our 40th anniversary, we want to take this moment to thank all of our clients, partners, and team members for helping us reach this milestone. Here’s to 40 more!