Anthony Buffum Joins Upwork as Vice President of HR Client Strategy

With over 20 years of human resources experience at GE, Stanley Black & Decker, FLIR Systems and more, Buffum’s appointment will help unlock the work marketplace for enterprises

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Upwork (NASDAQ: UPWK), the world’s work marketplace that connects businesses with independent talent, today announced the appointment of Anthony Buffum in the newly-created role of vice president of HR client strategy. As a key member of Upwork's senior-level executive client strategy team, Buffum will accelerate growth of current and prospective Upwork enterprise clients by solving HR challenges related to finance, procurement and talent transformation.

“Anthony brings the real-world expertise and leadership experience to propel our executive client strategy team forward,” said Eric Gilpin, senior vice president of sales. “I can’t think of anyone more fitting for this first-of-its-kind role and am confident that he will be a trusted advisor and thought leader to enterprises looking for more strategic, flexible and reliable ways to access the highly-skilled talent they need.”

Buffum is an accomplished HR professional with more than two decades of experience leading global HR teams as well as driving transformational change in company culture, organizational design, performance management, and employee integration and engagement. He joins Upwork following a series of noteworthy leadership positions including chief human resources officer (CHRO) at FLIR Systems, VP of global human resources at STANLEY Security, VP of human resources at Stanley Black & Decker and others. With robust experience spearheading talent recruitment, training and development efforts, Buffum will partner with HR executives to successfully create and execute long-term business strategies for enterprises.

“Upwork is at the center of an inflection point in the future of work,” said Buffum. “As remote work is changing businesses forever, long-term management and hiring strategies will need to continue evolving and engaging independent talent. Upwork is an infinitely flexible talent platform that provides enterprises the much-needed power to work with a pool of highly-skilled independent professionals and is blazing a trail of important change with conviction, values and aspirations for people around the world. I am thrilled to join the team and help business leaders discover the transformational value of Upwork in order to get tomorrow’s competitive edge today.”

At Upwork, Buffum will not only be on the front lines as a change agent and HR advisor to enterprise clients, but will also partner closely with sales leaders to set strategies for enlisting HR leaders as champions for talent transformation, hybrid workforces of independent professionals and employees, and Upwork itself. As the Upwork Enterprise Suite continues to grow and diversify, Buffum will play an integral role in helping enterprises understand and adopt Upwork’s flexible solutions, effectively scale, and go to market faster — ultimately taking businesses to new heights.

About Upwork

Upwork is the world’s work marketplace that connects businesses with independent talent. We serve everyone from one-person startups to 30% of the Fortune 100 with a powerful, trust-driven platform that enables companies and freelancers to work together in new ways that unlock their potential. Our talent community earned over $2.5 billion on Upwork in 2020 across more than 10,000 skills in categories including website & app development, creative & design, customer support, finance & accounting, consulting, and operations. Learn more at www.upwork.com and join us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.