Workforce Management
The Sprint to LA28 Games
An inside look at how the Chief People Officer for the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games is building a world-class team driven by purpose, not permanence.
February 17, 2026
Korn Ferry is the Official Talent & Organizational Consulting Partner of the LA28 Games.
Just 900 days: That’s about how long Tami Majer has to pull off one of the largest organizational builds in modern history—knowing, of course, that the entire thing will be dismantled shortly afterward.
Welcome to the role of Chief People Officer (CPO) of the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games. A longtime HR specialist, Majer has the humbling job of scaling the organization from roughly 600 people to 5,000 employees—and coordinating up to 60,000 volunteers.
It’s a role that would give nightmares to even the most seasoned executive, especially when you consider that the budding LA28 workforce must cover more than 800 events across over 40 competition venues. And at the heart of it, there’s a kind of paradox: Majer is recruiting world-class talent for roles that will definitively end. “It’s not a job for life, but it’s a job of a lifetime,” she says.
To learn how Majer is building the workforce behind the LA28 Games, Korn Ferry’s Chief Marketing Officer Jill Wiltfong sat down with her to discuss the skills she looks for in candidates, how AI is helping build the workforce, and the leadership lessons that will endure well past the Closing Ceremony. (Some responses are edited.)
Before we talk about building the LA28 team, let’s start with you as a fan. Is there an Olympic moment that still gives you chills?
My favorite Olympic moments are the Opening and Closing Ceremony. I love seeing the world come together. I think it's an amazing display of humanity.
But my favorite athlete experience has been following Simone Biles through some of the challenges she experienced in Tokyo, then her amazing comeback a number of years later. I think it's a great display of what it takes to be the world's best—the grit and the ability to come back from challenges. It's a great lesson for all of us.
You’re helping to run and put on the LA28 Games, which is a dream job, but also a super intense one. What do you think prepared you most for this role?
Well, I don't know if you're ever fully prepared for this role. Personally, I'm really comfortable with a fast pace and dealing with ambiguity. In that type of environment, I can really lean in. Perhaps most importantly, I've learned the importance of stakeholder relationships and building those relationships as a way to create trust and credibility.
When you think about the scale and the timeline that you’re working with, what excites you and what worries you?
I am so excited about being able to contribute to the most amazing sporting event that's ever been put on. I'm really proud of what we'll be able to do for the greater city of Los Angeles and, quite honestly, for a number of states across the US.
What humbles me is the pace of building at scale. I've certainly worked in fast-paced environments, but I've never experienced anything where, multiple times during the day, we're facing new experiences, new challenges, and new questions that we have to muddle through.
When you think about the workforce behind the Olympic and Paralympic Games, what specific roles or skills do you need to pull this off?
There are lots of roles that I never would have imagined existed. For example, accrediting hundreds of thousands of people before and during the Games is a mammoth responsibility. And just planning for the growth and scale of the workforce, and how to schedule and roster that workforce with the complexity of the number of venues that we have across the number of days of competition, can be really mind-blowing.
What can organizations learn from watching you build an organization almost overnight?
The importance of focusing on what it is we're here to do. You have to really work hard on eliminating all the other noise. Here, it's really about what do we need to do to focus and deliver the best Games ever? That creates a need to relentlessly prioritize and debate the scope of what you're doing.
LA28 may have the first truly AI-enabled Olympic and Paralympic workforce in the history of the Games. How are you using technology to scale without losing the human side of the whole experience?
Some of the questions that we're looking at are how to schedule and roster the workforce and make sure they get to their workstations on time—and that we minimize some of their travel time. Those are some interesting questions that we're leaning into, to see if AI can support solving them.
The other big area—and it's where I'm really excited about partnering with Korn Ferry—is selecting talent to build the workforce. The degree to which AI can help us source an interview and screen potential employees for our workforce is something I'm really excited about.
Beyond the technical skills, what personal qualities matter most when the stakes are this high, and the pressure is nonstop?
I think there's a level of grit that's required. We try and fail often. It's a little bit of the Simone Biles story that I talked about earlier, which is the ability to sort of say, okay, what next? If that didn’t work, what do we need to do to pivot? It's the ability to withstand some of the challenges, not be knocked down by them, and just continue to lean in.
What’s the biggest difference between building this organization and building a traditional company?
This is the most amazing experience I think people will have in their lifetimes, but they know that it’s going to come to an end. And so, it's an extraordinary challenge on its face to be able to attract such a tremendous workforce. But I don't think there are many of us who have any regrets.
For my part, I'm going to be really sad when this comes to an end, but I will be a more experienced leader as a result of the few short years that I'm in this seat.
Find out more about Korn Ferry's role as a Founding Partner of the LA28 Games.
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