The people behind ShiftDegree.
ABOUT US
ShiftDegree was co-founded by Leah Merli and Meghan Smith. Together we bring more than 45 years of operator experience across enterprises and high-growth companies. We co-founded ShiftDegree to apply this work to AI transformation, partnering with leadership teams ready to redesign the operating model alongside us.
AI creates value when organizations redesign work, decisions, and accountability.
Organizations are investing AI. Few are redesigning how work gets done.
THE HUMAN SYSTEM GAP
12%
OF WORKERS SAY AI HAS CHANGED HOW THEY WORK
40%
NOW FEAR LOSING THEIR JOBS TO AI
84%
OF COMPANIES HAVE NOT REDESIGNED ROLES TO SUPPORT IT
Sources: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026; Mercer, Global Talent Trends 2026; Deloitte, State of AI in the Enterprise 2026
When companies stop treating AI as a side initiative and redesign the operating model, people begin creating value in new ways.
People understand how their roles are evolving, where they create the greatest value, and how new opportunities emerge as AI becomes part of the operating model.
As capability grows, organizations create a continuous learning loop where people and AI improve how work gets done, creating a compounding advantage over time.
Co-Founder of ShiftDegree
Leah Merli
20+
YEARS OPERATOR EXPERIENCE
Leah Merli is a Co-Founder of ShiftDegree. She has spent more than 20 years doing the work most consultants describe but rarely do, sitting inside organizations and rebuilding the leadership behaviours and workflows that determine whether technology investments produce results.
As a member of the McCain Foods Global HR Leadership Team, Leah led the enterprise-wide AI adoption and operating model transformation across global functions and markets. The goal was not adoption of tools. It was a shift in how employees and leaders worked. The result was 80 percent adoption in year one and multimillion-dollar recruiter capacity unlocked, which returned to the business as additional throughput and time reinvested in the relationships that close deals.
Leah works daily across the latest AI platforms, not only as a topic she speaks about, but also as an operator who builds with them. Inside ShiftDegree, she uses AI to research client industries, structure strategy briefs, and run her own business development. She has also built client-facing solutions, including agents that returned time to support human efforts that AI cannot replicate.
Leah speaks on AI adoption at Gartner ReImagineHR and IAMPHENOM, and was recognized for human-centred leadership of digital transformation at global scale. She brings the operator perspective to a category dominated by advisors who have not done the work.
Co-Founder of ShiftDegree
Meghan Smith
25+
YEARS OPERATOR EXPERIENCE
Meghan Smith is Co-Founder of ShiftDegree. For more than 25 years, she has helped CEOs and executive teams redesign how organizations operate through periods of growth, transformation, and technological change. Her work focuses on the operating model that determines business performance, aligning leadership, workflows, decision rights, and organizational capability so strategy becomes execution.
Long before AI became a business priority, Meghan was redesigning the operating models that determine how organizations perform. Today, she applies that same expertise to helping organizations embed AI into how work gets done, redesigning the human system behind the technology so AI delivers measurable business value rather than isolated productivity gains.
Her experience spans high growth venture backed companies and complex enterprises, including Direct Energy, Float, Top Hat, and the University Health Network, where she has helped leadership teams navigate rapid growth, acquisitions, restructuring, and enterprise transformation. Earlier in her career, she designed an award winning leadership development program at Direct Energy that was recognized among the Global Top 20 by Leadership Excellence magazine. She is also a Certified Executive Coach and trusted advisor to CEOs, boards, and investors.
Today, Meghan integrates AI into every aspect of her own work, from research and strategic thinking to executive coaching and business operations. She believes organizations create lasting competitive advantage by building a continuous learning loop where people and AI continuously improve how work gets done.
She brings the organizational transformation perspective to a market that has largely focused on technology.
HOW TO WORK WITH US