Bruce Monte, Jr. joined the University’s Human Resources team as the Head of Total Rewards in November 2022. Bruce previously spent time in New Haven as a Yale undergraduate, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering cum laude before obtaining his masters in Chemical Engineering Practice at MIT.
As Head of Total Rewards, Bruce leads the team responsible for designing and delivering compensation programs for Yale’s salaried and hourly staff and benefit programs for both staff and faculty, with the objective of attracting and retaining the talented and diverse workforce necessary for the university to achieve its mission.
Bruce began his career as an aerospace engineer (or as he likes to say, “an actual rocket scientist”) with Grumman Aerospace. He quickly changed gears and spent nearly two decades as a consulting actuary, working at several global HR consultancies. As a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, Bruce worked with a variety of large employers helping them develop, communicate, finance, and administer retirement benefits, including several years when he served as the actuary for Yale-New Haven Hospital.
He then took his consulting skills in-house, working in a variety of positions related to employee benefits for several large organizations across a wide range of industries. These organizations included Fortune- 50 companies PepsiCo and UnitedHealth Group, financial services icon Morgan Stanley, and – immediately prior to joining Yale – the Federal Reserve.
Bruce describes himself as a “long-suffering Mets and Jets fan and an avid Springsteen fan (no suffering required).” Away from the office, he is a “voracious reader” of science fiction and fantasy, plays tennis and platform tennis, and most recently, as he notes, has “succumbed to the national obsession with pickleball.” Bruce and his wife Robin are “ecstatic” to return to Connecticut, where they lived in Fairfield for over 20 years, raising three children there. Now in Shelton, Bruce and Robin have two border collies.