What qualities do you consider essential in an executive today?
Strategic humility. We’ve moved from having to know everything to creating contexts where talent can flow. For me, an executive today must be able to draw a future that inspires, while ensuring that strategy and day-to-day reality are not two separate worlds. This can only be achieved with clarity, listening, and solid ethics - being able to withstand discomfort in order to protect the purpose.
What advice would you have liked to receive early in your career?
Not to confuse being busy with adding value. For years I thought that the more I did, the more I was worth. Over time I’ve learned that what matters isn’t having a full calendar, but creating environments of trust where the team can give their best- without fear and without unnecessary noise.
What talent do you consistently look for when building teams?
I look for professional generosity. I take technical competence for granted, so I look for people who understand that individual success is impossible if the team doesn’t work. Profiles that add, that share information, and that have the maturity to prioritise “us” over “me” or their own territory.
What talent priorities do you consider critical for your organisation over the next 3 years?
Moving from a silo mentality to real synchronisation. We need to break internal barriers so that what we say as a company aligns fully with what we do, and therefore enables us to develop talent. I believe it will be important to help teams build peripheral vision: being able to navigate global complexity while maintaining the sensitivity needed to connect with local reality and with our purpose.
Which internal initiatives are you especially proud of?
Turning our purpose into a real decision-making filter. I am proud to see teams consistently choosing the coherent path rather than the easy one. That ability to turn down shortcuts to protect our values is the clearest sign of cultural maturity.
How do you think leadership will evolve in the coming years?
Towards leadership based on criteria and questions, not answers. AI will give us speed and execution, but not direction. The leader’s value changes radically: we will stop supervising
tasks and start managing dilemmas. The algorithm can give you the most efficient answer, but not necessarily the most ethical one. Our job will be to provide exactly that: human judgment where technology offers only data.
What skills will executives of the future need to master?
Discernment. In a world saturated with data, the key skill is not accumulating information but distinguishing the signal from the noise. The value of an executive will lie in helping their team focus on what truly matters and avoid getting lost in complexity.
What inspires you about the new generation of professionals?
Their intolerance for incoherence. They’re not just looking for stability; they’re looking for meaning. They challenge us and force us to be more transparent. That pressure - though uncomfortable at times- is the fuel that prevents organisations from falling asleep and pushes us to improve.
What book, film or reference has impacted you recently?
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. A timeless reminder that-even when everything trembles- having a clear purpose is the only thing that truly sustains us.
If you could summarise your professional philosophy in one sentence, what would it be?
No business objective justifies losing yourself along the way.
What advice would you give a future HR executive?
Fall in love with the business, not with the tools of our function. To have impact, you must speak the language of strategy. But remember: your differentiating value is not courage for courage’s sake- it is the courage to remind others that results must be achieved through people, not at the expense of them.
