CrossFit brings back Kyla Pavlina as chief people officer

CrossFit brought back Kyla Pavlina as chief people officer, putting a familiar operator at the center of Bruce Edwards’ first major hire since returning as CEO. The move went beyond a standard staffing announcement. It signaled that CrossFit was trying to settle its internal culture, sharpen its support structure and give its sport operation a steadier base heading into the 2026 season.

Pavlina was not new to the company’s playbook. She had previously served as CrossFit’s head of human resources from 2013 through 2019, giving her direct experience with the affiliate network, seminar staff, support teams and event machinery that sit behind the Games and the Open. Edwards was announced as CrossFit’s CEO on April 28, 2026, and started on May 4, while Don Faul’s last day as CEO was March 6. In that span, the company moved quickly from one leadership era into another, and Pavlina’s return gave the transition an internal anchor.

The hire mattered because CrossFit’s people function reaches far past the corporate office. Affiliates depend on clear communication, coaches and seminar staff rely on consistent support, and athletes experience the company through the people who run qualification stages, manage events and shape the everyday culture of the brand. CrossFit has described itself as more than a fitness program, emphasizing methodology and community, which makes the chief people officer role especially important when the company is trying to reset how it operates.

That reset arrived in a season with real stakes on the competition side. The 2026 CrossFit Games are scheduled for July 24-26 at SAP Center in San Jose, California, where the top 20 teams in the world will compete to crown the Fittest Team on Earth. CrossFit’s pathway also includes the Open and restored Quarterfinals, so leadership stability at headquarters can influence everything from the flow of information to how cleanly the season runs for athletes and fans.

The broader backdrop also made the hire more significant. CrossFit said in March 2025 that Berkshire Partners, which invested in the company in 2020, was seeking a new owner for its next phase of growth. Against that backdrop, Pavlina’s return suggested a preference for institutional memory alongside a fresh start. She had also held chief people officer roles at Scipher Medicine and Hyperfine in 2021, bringing additional scaling experience back into a company that was still working through change. For CrossFit, the message was clear: the next chapter would depend as much on leadership stability as on what happened on the competition floor.