Karishma Patel Buford

Karishma Patel Buford serves as the Chief People Officer of Spring Health. Spring Health’s vision is to help individuals and organizations thrive by eliminating every barrier to mental healthcare. Spring Health uses a proprietary assessment and machine learning technology to understand all the conditions a person may be experiencing and uses those results to match them to a care plan personalized to their needs; this is Precision Mental Healthcare. Prior to Spring Health, Karishma led various teams at OppFi including People, Communications, and Customer Success. Her team drove key business transformation initiatives including building the organization’s HR infrastructure from the ground up and transitioning the firm from private to public company succession and total rewards practices. At Groupon, her global team of 100+ across 15 countries owned talent development, DEI, employer brand, and recruiting. Before Groupon, she partnered with global peers at BAE Systems across the UK, Australia, India, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to build globally consistent and locally customized talent management initiatives including succession planning, high potential programs, and leadership assessment strategy. Karishma earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Virginia and a Doctorate of Psychology from the Georgia School of Professional Psychology. Following her postdoctoral fellowship at Pennsylvania Hospital, she joined PDI (prior to the acquisition by Korn Ferry), where she initiated a management consulting career focused on executive coaching, leadership development, and talent management serving clients around the world. This role was ultimately the springboard for her transition from the clinical to corporate setting and the foundation for progressively advancing roles in the Talent and HR space.