Mike Costello
Mike Costello has more than 18 years of experience in top human resources, organization development, and management positions.
Costello offers CEO advising, senior executive coaching, C-suite consulting, and executive and organizational assessments. Over the course of his career, he has repeatedly demonstrated his ability to handle complex HR and operations challenges in startups and established businesses alike, engineering strategies that benefited both businesses and their employees.
Costello joined the Perot Museum of Nature and Science as VP of HR in 2011. He led the redesign of this nonprofit’s HR infrastructure, starting with a clean sheet of paper. In the year preceding the museum’s expansion into a new 185,000-square-foot facility, he developed and implemented a new salary structure, attracted and onboarded more than 100 employees, developed and deployed training and culture reinforcement programs and served as acting COO during the new facility’s grand opening.
Prior, he worked at Sammons Enterprises, a privately held diversified holding company with assets in excess of $40B. He first held the position of Director, Organization Development and was soon promoted to Vice President, Organization Development, with responsibilities over enterprise-wide OD and HR. At Sammons, Costello implemented a long-term employee benefits strategy that saved $1.5M annually while improving the quality of benefit offerings. He also designed and administered programs for succession planning and for leadership assessment and development.
Costello launched his career at American Airlines, Inc., a subsidiary of AMR Corporation. He climbed rapidly from entry-level jobs into the executive suite at American Eagle Airlines, the regional subsidiary of AMR with $1.8B in revenue, earning the titles of VP of Employee Relations, VP of DFW Region, and eventually VP People Department. He reported to the president and led the team that delivered all HR services for 11,000 employees. Over the course of his time there, he directed the operational performance of the company’s largest region (covering 37 cities), served as the chief spokesperson for 17 labor agreements, and led the organizational redesign after the merger of three airlines.
Costello holds an MBA, Human Resource Concentration from the University of Dallas and a BS in Aviation Management from Southern Illinois University. He has also attended several courses from the Harvard Program on Negotiation. Costello is certified as a mediator by the State of Texas Judicial System and as a Human Capital Strategist by the Human Capital Institute.
