Meet Ken Sensanbaugher
A 30+ year HR career at Honeywell and Cummins, global transformation leadership, and the CHRO chair at JB Poindexter. Ken founded KNS Associates to bring that experience to businesses like yours.
Why KNS Associates Exists
The quality of HR leadership a company gets should not depend on the size of the company.
KNS Associates, LLC was founded on a conviction Ken formed over a 30+ year career at the top of corporate human resources: people decisions are business decisions. Fortune 500 companies hire seasoned CHROs because they know what is at stake when those decisions go wrong. Small and medium-sized businesses face the same decisions with the same stakes, usually without anyone in the room who has made them before.
Ken founded KNS to close that gap, building the practice as he transitions from a corporate career that continues as Chief Human Resource Officer at JB Poindexter. The firm is deliberately built around one thing: direct access to a genuine HR executive. There is no leverage model and no junior staff learning on your time. When you engage KNS, the person across the table has led HR through global transformations and the everyday hard calls that never make the org chart.
Where the Experience Comes From
Every credential below was earned inside operating businesses, leading HR under real pressure.
Honeywell and Cummins
Ken built his career inside some of the most respected operating companies in American industry. At Honeywell and Cummins he led HR through the realities of global scale: demanding operational cultures, complex workforces and leadership standards that do not bend. It is where he learned that HR earns its seat by making the business measurably stronger.
Global HR Transformation Leadership
Across his career Ken led global HR transformations, redesigning organizations, modernizing HR functions and guiding leadership teams through change that touched every part of the business. That work is the backbone of the transformation consulting KNS offers today.
Chief Human Resource Officer, JB Poindexter
Ken serves as CHRO and VP of HR and Administration at JB Poindexter, responsible for the full people agenda at the executive level. The role sharpened the perspective he brings to every client: the view from the top of the function, where HR strategy and business strategy are the same conversation.
Cornell University Master of Industrial and Labor Relations
Ken holds a Master of Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. That formal grounding in employment, labor relations and organizational behavior shows up in his work every day, especially in employee relations, labor relations and organizational design.
Why Ken Founded KNS
Ken did not found KNS because he needed something to do. He founded it because of what he kept hearing from owners and CEOs of smaller companies: people problems were the ones they felt least equipped to handle, and the executive help they wanted did not exist in a form that made sense for them.
A full-time CHRO is out of reach for most small and medium-sized businesses. Going without one means the CEO absorbs the people agenda on top of everything else. The fractional model resolves that tension: real executive leadership, scaled to the size of the business and engaged only at the level you need.
That is the practice Ken chose to build in this stage of his career. A small number of direct client relationships, work he considers the most useful of his professional life, and 30+ years of hard-won judgment put to work for companies that could never justify it full time.
How the Work Looks
KNS is based in the Houston area and serves clients nationwide. Ken works on site with client leadership teams and remotely, in whatever mix the engagement calls for.
Imagery on this page is representative. Client photography replaces it once brand assets are approved.
How Ken Approaches the Work
Business First, HR Second
HR exists to make the business stronger. Every engagement starts with your strategy, your growth plan and your risks, then works back to the people agenda that serves them.
Straight Answers
You will get Ken's honest read, including when it is not what you were hoping to hear. CEOs do not need another advisor who tells them what they want.
Capability, Not Dependency
The goal is to leave your organization and your HR team stronger and more self-sufficient, not to make KNS a permanent fixture in your budget.
What Working with Ken Is Like
An executive colleague, not a vendor.
- Direct access to Ken from the first conversation onward
- Executive presence in your leadership meetings when you want it
- Discretion on sensitive matters, from succession to employee relations
- Plain-English recommendations with a clear point of view
- On site in the Houston area, remote nationwide, or a mix of both
- A defined scope, cadence and set of priorities agreed up front
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. KNS is built around direct access to Ken. He leads every engagement personally, from the initial conversation through ongoing executive support. Nothing is handed off to a junior team.
Both. KNS is based in the Houston area, and Ken works on site with client leadership teams as well as remotely with clients nationwide. The right mix is agreed during scoping and can change as the engagement evolves.
Small and medium-sized businesses from $1M to $500M in revenue, across industries. Most are in a season of growth, transformation or leadership change, and want executive HR judgment beside them as they navigate it.
Where to Go Next
Talk Directly with Ken
Bring the people challenge you are facing. You will get an honest executive read on it, and a clear view of whether KNS is the right fit.