Neil Slater, CEO of Redevco, a real estate management company, explores his personal leadership journey and the pivotal moments that led him to the CEO role. He reflects on the formative experiences that shaped his approach to leadership, the challenges he faced transitioning from a global head role to CEO, and what he’s had to unlearn to lead effectively in a rapidly evolving business landscape. He also discusses the importance of resilience, adaptability, and self-reflection, as well as aligni...
Jun 16, 2025•37 min
In this interview, Mitja Schulz, the newly appointed CEO of Debrunner Koenig, a Swiss wholesale company specializing in reinforcements, steel and metals, metal services, and technical products, describes his leadership style and shares the core leadership competencies he believes are essential for steering his organization through today's dynamic business landscape that places increasing demands on CEOs. He also discusses how he thinks about developing leaders who excel in collaboration, staying...
Jun 11, 2025•21 min
In this interview, as part of our ongoing series examining how leaders across functions are managing and incorporating AI, Heidrick & Struggles’ Julian Ha spoke to Miriam Vogel the president and CEO of EqualAI, which is a nonprofit organization created to promote artificial intelligence governance. Miriam, who has extensive experience working with C-suites and boards and the government to help them establish best practices for legal regulatory compliance, as well as operationalizing those be...
Jun 10, 2025•27 min
In this interview, Heidrick & Struggles’ Scott Bae and Alexis Hennessy sit down with Lior Susan, the founder and managing partner of Eclipse Ventures, a venture capital firm dedicated to partnering with entrepreneurs, transforming industries that are critical to people's lives and national economies, such as manufacturing, supply chain, transportation, healthcare, and defense. Susan shares the leadership traits that he believes are uniquely critical to success in start-ups in the physical in...
Jun 05, 2025•15 min
James Borzi is the executive vice president and chief supply chain officer at Baxter International, a healthcare company; he joined Heidrick & Struggles’ Fabrice Lebecq to discuss how AI is helping leaders of the supply chain function across industries deliver value. Borzi shared how AI was rolled into the function at Baxter, as well as his perspective on finding the talent needed to make the most of these tools and managing the culture changes necessary to integrate the tools into ways of w...
Jun 02, 2025•24 min
In the first of our interview series exploring AI and its impacts on leaders across functions, Heidrick & Struggles’ Lindsay Leach and Hugh Marshall were joined by Chris Koehler, the chief marketing officer at Twilio, a customer engagement platform that drives real-time personalized experiences for leading brands. Chris discusses the ways in which his marketing function is using AI and where they are finding it adding particular value, as well as how he uses AI tools in his day-to-day work. ...
May 27, 2025•25 min
After nearly 23 years at Unite Students, the United Kingdom’s largest student accommodation provider, Joe Lister moved from the role of CFO to CEO in January 2024. In this interview, he discusses how his mindset and perspectives regarding leadership have shifted, how he deals with mental health and wellness, and what it’s like managing a wide range of stakeholders. He also shares how he built out his executive team, what he looks for in future-ready leaders, and his advice to someone stepping in...
Apr 28, 2025•27 min
Stendert Krommendam is the chief people and sustainability officer at Ecotone, a leading private equity–backed company in Europe for organic, vegetarian, healthy and fair-trade food. Krommendam, who has built a dynamic career at the intersection of people, sustainability, and business, was formerly an HR leader in Unilever and Ahold Delhaize. In this interview, he discusses his new leadership model that embeds sustainability and systems thinking as core leadership qualities, describing what heal...
Apr 07, 2025•24 min
Santiago Argelich Hesse, CEO of Cellnex Poland, Europe's largest digital infrastructure provider, shares his approach to leading diverse teams that are aligned with both local market needs and a unified global vision, as well as how the maturation of the digital infrastructure sector is changing talent needs, specific skills, and mindsets. He also shares the strategies he feels are most important to foster trust and alignment within the leadership teams of organizations during a merger, and what...
Mar 31, 2025•23 min
In this special episode of The Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast , Heidrick & Struggles’ Adam Pacifico sits down with Dr. Regis Chasse, who leads leadership development solutions initiatives for Heidrick Consulting. Adam and Regis discuss the five imperatives Heidrick has identified through which leaders can focus their capabilities and, over time, become what we call connecting leaders. These imperatives are: envision the future, deliver today, act with purpose and courage, harnes...
Mar 25, 2025•27 min
Ludovic Gaudé, CEO of Qinshift and Avenga, discusses the challenges and opportunities of leading tech companies under private equity ownership compared to other ownership structures, including private ownership or a publicly traded company, as well as balancing value creation with fostering innovation. Having led through mergers, he also shares how he adapts his leadership approach in a merger scenario and what qualities or strategies are most critical for success, as well as how he thinks about...
Mar 10, 2025•24 min
For this interview, Heidrick & Struggles’ Sherree Kendall sat down with Emma Delaney, executive vice president at BP, to discuss balancing growth and sustainability. Delaney, who has exposure and experience in both the upstream and the downstream verticals, shares how that has influenced her approach to leadership, emphasizing the importance of the strength and power of the team. She also talks about balancing being impactful as well as approachable and shares what skills and capabilities sh...
Mar 03, 2025•17 min
In this next episode of the Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast, Heidrick & Struggles’ Sean McLean speaks to Theresa Roessel, the CFO of Canada Diagnostic Centres, about her 30-year career journey in finance. Theresa has led large global teams through strategic, collaborative leadership and proactive approaches to complex business issues. She has worked as CFO at the Calgary Zoo, as well as with CNOOC International. She also has served on the board of the Canadian Red Cross, among ma...
Feb 25, 2025•23 min
In this next episode of The Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast, Heidrick & Struggles’ Jarrad Roeder and Jennifer Streitwieser speak to Clint Grimes, the chief procurement officer at Capital One. Grimes shares his perspective on how the role of procurement is evolving and the implications that evolution has for the skills and capabilities needed by procurement leaders and professionals. He also shares his insights on the role of culture in broader strategic shifts and how leaders can...
Feb 18, 2025•18 min
Samuel Skott is the former CEO at HiQ, a tech consulting firm. Having been a leader at publicly traded, privately held, and private equity–backed companies, he shares some of the unique challenges and opportunities he’s encountered while transitioning between these ownership models, as well as how he adapted his leadership approach between them. He also shares what it means to lead in an AI-enabled world, how AI has been shaping his leadership priorities, and what organizational changes will be ...
Feb 10, 2025•23 min
In this interview, Anuradha Chugh discusses leading purpose-driven brands and balancing profit, people, and planet. She also explores how businesses can create cultures of empowerment, foster continuous learning, and align governance with societal impact, offering practical tips to help organizations’ leaders be a force for good and to have a positive societal impact. As the former global marketing director of ice cream at Unilever; managing director Europe at Ben & Jerry’s; and CEO of Pukka...
Dec 16, 2024•22 min
In this episode of The Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast , Heidrick & Struggles’ Adam Howe sits down with Shawn Bushouse. Throughout his career, Shawn has spent time on multiples sides of large and small businesses, from start-ups shipping their first order to global enterprises with market value nearing $300 billion. He has led teams of varying sizes, both scaled and sold companies as well as purchased businesses, and led venture capital and private equity–backed businesses. In th...
Oct 29, 2024•21 min
In this interview, former CEO Caroline Farberger shares how her mindsets and behaviors changed as a leader after she transitioned and how she realized that her previous way of leading was not inclusive—and what had to change for it to become truly inclusive. She also argues that leaders make better business decisions if they can master the skills of harvesting the unique perspectives and contributions of the people around them, discusses how organizations can gauge whether or not they are inclus...
Oct 14, 2024•26 min
Matt Carter, CEO of Intrado, the Stonepeak-backed provider of 9-1-1 critical infrastructure and technology solutions, and a board member at both JLL and NRG Energy, sits down with Heidrick & Struggles’ Jessica Gentile and Francesca “Chessy” Michel, to discuss his approach to building high-performance teams, the particular leadership skills or capabilities that are most important, and creating strong organizational cultures and driving followership. He also shares how his experience as CEO of...
Oct 01, 2024•12 min
In this special feature, three of our Heidrick & Struggles colleagues—Kathryn Bardi, Christina Cary, and Sean McLean—sit down to talk about neurodiversity: what it is and what it means for leaders, particularly CHROs and chief people officers, looking to make their organizations more inclusive. The three offer their advice to a leader or manager who wants to make a positive difference but isn’t quite sure where to start; discuss what it takes to create a workplace that accommodates neurodive...
Sep 24, 2024•20 min
A recent study from Bitget Research found that countries in the Middle East saw a 166% increase year-on-year in daily crypto traders in 2024 alone, with the UAE clearly emerging as one of the fastest-growing markets for cryptocurrency adoption worldwide. Ben Grolimund, the general manager of the UAE at Rain, the first fully regulated virtual assets brokerage and custodian in the Abu Dhabi global markets, sits down with Heidrick & Struggles’ Mikhail Kozlovskiy and Guy Shaul to talk about what...
Sep 17, 2024•11 min
Ujjwal Kumar, group president of Teradyne Robotics, sits down with Heidrick & Struggles’ Jerry Gorss to discuss the changing status quo of the industrial robotics sector and manufacturing generally. Kumar shares his outlook on how the next 12 months will impact the industry, particularly its leadership needs. He also shares what he believes are the key characteristics a successful robotics and automation leader of the future must have, how he thinks about the balance on his teams between spe...
Aug 27, 2024•15 min
José Perdomo Lorenzo, chief strategy officer of Deutsche Telekom Group, sits down with Heidrick & Struggles’ Lukasz Kiniewicz to discuss Lorenzo’s primary strategic goals for Deutsche Telekom Group over the next five years, particularly in the context of fiber optic network expansion. Lorenzo also shares how he thinks about balancing AI with data privacy concerns, the role ESG concerns are playing in Deutsche Telekom’s overall strategic plan, what he feels leaders in the field need to be awa...
Aug 19, 2024•22 min
Avik Dey, the CEO of Capital Power, sits down with Heidrick & Struggles’ Sean McLean to discuss Dey’s journey leading the company in its growth and expansion plans across Canada and the United States as well as accelerating its current strategic drive to net zero. Dey, who has seen the energy industry from multiple viewpoints, including in board, executive, operational, investing, and senior advisory roles, shares what he thinks are Canadian leaders’ areas of expertise as well as areas of gr...
Aug 13, 2024•22 min
In this next episode of The Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast, Heidrick & Struggles’ Charlie Moore speaks to Kabir Nath, the CEO of Compass Pathways. Compass Pathways is a company dedicated to studying investigational psilocybin treatment in treatment-resistant depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anorexia. Kabir Nath, whose career has spanned approximately 30 years in the biopharmaceutical and medical device industry, was previously the senior managing director of the g...
Aug 05, 2024•35 min
In this next episode of The Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast, Heidrick & Struggles’ Lee Hanson speaks to Cynthia Lo Bessette, the head of Fidelity Digital Asset Management, about her journey from starting as a young lawyer to leading digital asset investments and solutions at Fidelity. Lo Bessette shares the skills and capabilities that helped her make the transition, as well as her insights into people management, building and managing diverse teams and fostering innovation and e...
Jul 30, 2024•15 min
In this next episode of The Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast , Heidrick & Struggles’ Carlos Gómez-Arnau speaks to Inaki Berenguer, managing partner at LifeX Ventures, a global fund investing at the intersection of AI and science, and the co-founder and former CEO of CoverWallet, an insurance tech start-up. Berenguer discusses the leadership challenges he’s encountered managing a fund focused on AI and science, highlighting the importance of competitive salaries and growth opportun...
Jul 22, 2024•26 min
In this next episode of The Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast , Heidrick & Struggles’ Christina Cary speaks to Mita Mallick, the head of inclusion, equity, and impact at Carta, a California-based software company that provides ownership and equity management. In this conversation, Mallick, who has also had a long career as a multicultural marketer in the beauty and consumer goods space, discusses her new book, Reimagine Inclusion: Debunking 13 Myths to Transform Your Workplace. She...
May 28, 2024•16 min
In this next episode of The Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast, Heidrick & Struggles’ Dr. Laryssa Topolnytsky speaks to Dr. Ardeshir Mehran, a psychologist, behavioral researcher, business leader, leadership coach, and founder of the Human Work Studio, about mental health and well-being at the leadership level. In the conversation, Dr. Mehran explores some of the science around the links between emotional well-being and peak performance as well as the neuroscience for feeling better...
May 14, 2024•16 min
In this next episode of The Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast, Heidrick & Struggles’ David Hui and Grace Gu speak to Peter Attfield, the former chief talent and learning officer at Jardine Matheson. Attfield shares how the Jardine Group has met the challenges of the last few years, how the company, the group, and the subsidiaries are preparing for the future, and what leadership skills or capabilities the group is focusing on in terms of both development and talent attraction. He a...
Apr 29, 2024•16 min
