Mercate People Partners

Mercate People Partners is a fractional and interim HR consultancy based in Apex, North Carolina, serving growing businesses across the Raleigh-Durham Triangle and beyond.

We work with operational businesses (typically in construction, manufacturing, logistics, distribution, and retail) that are scaling fast and need serious HR leadership, but aren’t yet ready to hire a full-time HR Director.

That’s exactly where we come in.
Founded by Jo Spilsbury, a senior HR leader with 20+ years of experience across global manufacturing and public sector organisations, Mercate brings enterprise-level people strategy to businesses that have outgrown their current HR setup. Jo spent eight years as Head of People at a major UK manufacturing organisation with 5,000 employees and revenues of $685M - and she knows firsthand what happens when growing businesses skip the HR foundations.

We help businesses build the people infrastructure they need to grow with confidence: clear policies, strong employee relations, effective leadership, and HR systems that actually work. Whether you need ongoing fractional HR support, help navigating a specific challenge, or a senior HR leader to step in on an interim basis, we deliver the expertise without the full-time overhead.

Our clients get a trusted advisor who understands both the strategic and the operational - someone who has sat at the executive table, managed complex workplace investigations, led teams through change, and built HR from the ground up.

If your business is growing and your people challenges are growing with it, Mercate People Partners is ready to help you get ahead of them.