A human resources executive who joined Salesforce as its 90th employee and later guided Turo’s people strategy through the COVID-19 pandemic is taking over the top HR job at autonomous trucking company Kodiak AI.
Lorie Boyd has been appointed chief people officer at the Mountain View, Calif.-based company, which develops driverless technology for trucks. She brings more than 30 years of experience in HR and organizational leadership at technology companies, including Turo, Salesforce, Oracle, Zendesk and Plume.
“Autonomous trucking is changing how freight moves, and the opportunity to help build the organization behind that transition is incredibly compelling,” said Boyd. “I’ve spent my career helping companies navigate growth and change while creating environments where people can do their best work. From my first conversation, the quality of Kodiak’s team and its deep commitment to Kodiak’s mission really stood out. I’m thrilled to join the team at this exciting moment, where Kodiak is scaling its technology on the road.”
Boyd will oversee Kodiak’s HR strategy as the company continues to grow its team. That includes talent acquisition, employee development, organizational effectiveness and company culture.
She succeeds Zsuzsanna Major, who had led people operations at Kodiak since the company’s inception.
“Lorie understands that our people are every bit as important as our technology,” said Don Burnette, founder and CEO of Kodiak. “Lorie’s ability to bring out the best in employees, strengthen leadership, and build a culture of collaboration will be critical as we enter our next phase of growth.”
“We want to thank Zsuzsanna for all that she has built over the last eight years,” said Burnette. “Her leadership and dedication have helped shape Kodiak’s culture and laid a strong foundation for our continued growth.”
Most recently, Boyd was chief people officer at Plume. There, she led efforts to strengthen organizational culture and employee engagement during a period of leadership transition.
Before that, she spent nearly eight years at Turo, a peer-to-peer car sharing marketplace, first as vice-president of people and later as chief people officer. She helped guide the company’s people strategy through significant growth, the pandemic and preparations for an initial public offering (IPO).
Earlier in her career, Boyd was director of recruiting at customer service platform company Zendesk. She built and led its global recruiting team, helping grow the workforce from about 100 to nearly 900 employees worldwide.
She also held leadership roles at Salesforce and Oracle. Boyd joined Salesforce before its IPO and helped set up its HR operations during its early growth. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Stanford University.
Boyd arrives as Kodiak prepares to launch long-haul driverless trucks on public highways with shipper launch partner IKEA, while expanding its work with major U.S. trucking fleets. The company’s autonomous driving system, the Kodiak Driver, already runs in commercial driverless service in the Permian Basin.
As of the end of the second quarter of 2026, the company had deployed its technology in 35 driverless trucks with no humans in the cab, according to Kodiak.
