Aron J. Ain serves as executive chair of the UKG Board of Directors as well as operating partner at Hellman & Friedman (H&F). Aron firmly believes that great businesses are powered by great people, anything is possible when people are inspired at work and in life, and great management is the single-largest business component that adds to shareholder value and company performance. As UKG executive chair, Aron is actively involved with the company, including working with UKG customers and partners, providing support to the leadership team, and promoting the UKG brand. He also serves as a member of H&F’s CEO Council, an advisory group for H&F portfolio company CEOs.
Before transitioning into both the UKG executive chair and H&F roles in 2022, Aron served as longtime chief executive officer (CEO) of UKG, which is the only company he has worked for. Aron joined Kronos Incorporated in 1979 and held a role in nearly every functional department over the years, working his way up to become CEO in 2005. In 2020, as founding CEO, Aron helped lead the merger between Kronos and Ultimate Software to become UKG amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The following year, UKG made history by becoming the first newly merged entity to land on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® list, debuting at #6.
Aron is a multiple-time honoree on Glassdoor’s Top CEOs list and is regarded as a pioneer in workforce management and human capital management. In 2018, Aron released his debut book, “WorkInspired: How to Build an Organization Where Everyone Loves to Work” (McGraw-Hill Education), which chronicles how he and the company’s leadership team used employee engagement as a business strategy to impart leadership lessons onto senior leaders, HR professionals, and people managers.