Signe M. Spencer

Signe Spencer, born in Chicago (1950). She grew up as a "yankee" in the deep South, graduated from St. Mary's Episcopal School for Girls in Memphis, Tennessee, and then from the University of Chicago (A, B. 1971). She taught Montessori pre-school and trained Montessori teachers and then developed the training and organizational development function at Northern Engraving in Sparta Wisconsin.

Signe began work at McBer (now Hay Group) in 1989, retrieving and compiling all their previous competency research, in a database that became the foundation for the book Competence at Work. At the same time she completed her Masters in education at Harvard She continues to work at Hay Group, currently as global leader of capability assessment. Some of her recent advances in competency methods can be seen in the book The Indian CEO, which is essentially one competency research study.