The Software Report is pleased to announce The Top 25 HR Software Executives of 2025. Earlier this year, Paychex CEO John B. Gibson led the company’s largest acquisition to date, bringing Paycor into the fold in a $4.1 billion deal that expanded Paychex’s market reach and positioned it to surpass $6 billion in revenue by 2026. In a similarly defining step, CEO Joshua Reeves strengthened Gusto’s platform by acquiring Guideline, a retirement services provider with over $20 billion in assets.
AI leadership has been equally pivotal. Workday Vice President of AI Kathy Pham has been at the forefront of advancing Illuminate, the company’s next-generation AI platform built around intelligent agents, and advanced Workday’s position as a frontrunner in embedding AI across enterprise HR and finance. Meanwhile, DailyPay CEO Stacy Greiner oversaw a landmark partnership with Workday, integrating on-demand pay into one of the world’s most widely used HCM platforms and extending DailyPay’s influence across millions of workers.
Beyond these headline moves, all of the awardees on this year’s list have assisted their companies in advancing HR software through product innovation, global expansion, and stronger compliance solutions through their high-caliber leadership.
This year’s awardees were selected through a methodical evaluation process that considered the scope of their business achievements, the innovations they and their teams have delivered, and the influence of their leadership on the human capital management industry. Please join us in recognizing The Top 25 HR Software Executives of 2025.
Deb Muller
Company: HR Acuity
Title: Founder & CEO
Deb Muller founded HR Acuity in 2006 to standardize how organizations investigate, document, and report employee-related events. Prior to founding HR Acuity, Muller was an HR executive, serving as vice president of human resources at D&B, and before that, director of human resources at Honeywell International. She also served as assistant vice president of human resources at Citibank.
As CEO, Muller has led major business initiatives including creating the empowER community for employee relations professionals and hosting the Employee Relations Roundtable to bring together global leaders. In 2024, the company launched a next-generation platform with a new analytics suite and responsible AI.
HR Acuity provides a predictive and disciplined approach to managing workplace issues. Muller holds a master’s degree in instructional systems development from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and a bachelor’s degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University.
