People Leader Accelerator Podcast

What does effective people leadership look like when AI is changing how organizations operate, how employees work, and what businesses need from their leaders? In this episode of the People Leader Accelerator Podcast, Jess and Andrew welcome Annie Wickman , an experienced People leader whose career includes Google, Etsy, Gusto, Humu, Character. AI, and MagicSchool AI. Annie shares how her thinking...

What does it take for people to thrive when work already feels overloaded and AI is adding another layer of change? In this episode of the People Leader Accelerator Podcast, Andrew Bartlow and Jess Yuen are joined by Aoife O'Brien , author of Thriving Talent , for a conversation about burnout, psychological safety, leadership and the environments organizations create around performance. Aoife argu...

Providing employees with access to AI is one thing. Turning that access into measurable business value is something else entirely. In this episode of the People Leader Accelerator Podcast, Andrew Bartlow and Jess Yuen are joined by Arjen Mackaaij , Chief People Officer at Front, for a practical discussion about what AI adoption actually looks like inside an organization. Arjen describes a useful p...

How should you think about your HR career when salary, learning, job title, employer brand, and long-term opportunity are all pulling in different directions? In this episode of the People Leader Accelerator Podcast, Andrew Bartlow and Jess Yuen take a practical look at career growth for HR professionals - from choosing your next role to deciding which forms of professional development are actuall...

What happens when hypergrowth demands immediate action, but the familiar playbook does not fit? Michael Welsh , Head of People Programs & Strategy at OpenAI, joins the podcast to explore why effective people leadership starts with understanding an organisation’s distinctive reality rather than importing solutions that worked elsewhere. The challenge is to move quickly without skipping the diag...

What does effective leadership look like when AI expands individual scope, compresses teams and disrupts familiar career paths? Yue Zhao joins the podcast to explore how leaders can navigate this shift without losing sight of human judgment, strong relationships and intentional career choices. The challenge is not simply adopting more technology. Organizations must decide where AI creates genuine...

How can an early-stage company move at exceptional speed without creating the organisational problems that later slow it down? Matt Hoffman , Partner & Head of Talent at M13, joins Andrew and Jess to explore the leadership and people decisions that help companies scale with focus, adaptability and the right level of structure. The central tension is not structure versus freedom. Early-stage or...

AI is arriving faster than many organizations can absorb it, often with pressure for immediate efficiency gains. Joseph Clay joins Andrew and Jess to examine why this compressed timeline creates a leadership challenge for HR - and why treating AI as another technology rollout risks missing its deeper impact on work, skills, and the operating model. The conversation makes the case for greater disci...

What does it take to access global talent without creating global chaos? Arif Khimani , President & COO at MobSquad , joins the podcast to explore why workforce geography has become a strategic leadership decision - and why neither office-bound hiring nor unrestricted work from anywhere offers a complete answer. Global workforce planning involves a difficult trade-off. Organisations want broad...

Why do smart, experienced leaders still make predictable mistakes - and why does knowing about cognitive bias rarely prevent them? In this episode, Matt Mulford , Capstone Project Director at TRIUM Global Executive MBA, explores how leaders can make better decisions under uncertainty by designing stronger decision processes. Matt explains why our minds turn observations into simple causal stories...

HR’s strategic influence depends not only on what the function delivers, but on how its leaders design the team, systems and personal capacity behind the work. In this episode, Brian Kuchcicki , SVP, People + Culture at Visiting Media, shares a practical approach to creating greater leverage: build a complementary senior team, experiment with AI around genuine employee needs, retain human accounta...

Welcome to the People Leader Accelerator Podcast, where we go behind the curtain on building high-performing organisations with honest conversations between experienced leaders. In this episode, we take a break from the traditional guest interviews and invite you into an informal conversation between hosts, Jess Yuen and Andrew Bartlow. Instead of sharing the spotlight with a guest, they dive into...

Welcome to the People Leader Accelerator Podcast, where we go behind the curtain on building high-performing organisations with honest conversations between experienced leaders. In this episode, we take a break from the traditional guest interviews and invite you into an informal conversation between hosts, Jess Yuen and Andrew Bartlow. Instead of sharing the spotlight with a guest, they dive into...

Welcome to the People Leader Accelerator Podcast, where we go behind the curtain on building high-performing organisations with honest conversations between experienced leaders. In this episode, we take a break from the traditional guest interviews and invite you into an informal conversation between hosts, Jess Yuen and Andrew Bartlow. Instead of sharing the spotlight with a guest, they dive into...

Culture is not an HR programme to impose, preserve or package into a set of aspirational statements. It is a commercially relevant operating system: shaped by founder behaviour, grounded in the realities of the business and made credible through the decisions and behaviours leaders consistently reinforce. In this episode, Alex Buder Shapiro , Head of People at Clay, explores what it takes to build...

Welcome to another episode of the People Leader Accelerator Podcast, where we explore what it really takes to build high-performing organisations. Our guest today is Ben Perreau , Founder and CEO of Parafoil . Ben brings a unique perspective shaped by his diverse background spanning journalism with major media brands, digital transformation, consulting, and organisational change. After two decades...

Welcome to the People Leader Accelerator Podcast, where we go behind the curtain on building high-performing organisations with honest conversations between experienced leaders. In this episode, we take a break from the traditional guest interviews and invite you into an informal conversation between hosts, Jess Yuen and Andrew Bartlow. Instead of sharing the spotlight with a guest, they dive into...

Welcome to another episode of the People Leader Accelerator Podcast, where we explore what it really takes to build high-performing organisations. Our guest today is Anna Binder , a seasoned HR executive, board member, and investor. With a career that spans leadership roles at startups and global technology companies such as Asana and MuleSoft, Anna offers a nuanced perspective on scaling teams, n...

Welcome to another episode of the People Leader Accelerator Podcast, where we explore what it really takes to build high-performing organisations. Our guest today is L. David Kingsley , Chief People Officer at Illumio. With a background spanning management consulting, HR leadership in public and scale-up technology companies, and service as a Navy Reserve intelligence officer, David brings a disci...

Welcome to another episode of the People Leader Accelerator Podcast, where we explore the realities of leadership and organizational effectiveness. Our guest today is Cole Napper , the first Chief People Intelligence Officer at HRBench and a recognized leader in people analytics, workforce intelligence, and evidence-based HR strategy. He is the creator of the *People Intelligence Manifesto*, found...

Welcome to another episode of the People Leader Accelerator Podcast, where we examine the realities of building effective organizations and leading through complexity. In this episode, we take a break from the traditional guest interviews and invite you into an informal conversation between hosts, Jess Yuen and Andrew Bartlow. Instead of sharing the spotlight with a guest, they dive into their own...

Welcome to the People Leader Accelerator Podcast, where we examine what it genuinely takes to lead, scale, and evolve effective organisations. Our guest for this episode is AJ Thomas , an accomplished executive with a remarkable track record across talent, HR operations, business strategy, and the early-stage venture ecosystem. Having served in pivotal roles at Alphabet’s Moonshot Factory (Google...

Welcome to another episode of the People Leader Accelerator Podcast , where we explore what it really takes to build high-performing organisations. Our guest today is Dylan Vassallo , an engineering leader at OpenAI, where he leads the People Innovation Labs team. Dylan brings a unique blend of technical expertise and a deep passion for people operations, having previously held impactful roles at...

Welcome to another episode of the People Leader Accelerator Podcast. In this episode, we take a break from the traditional guest interviews and invite you into an informal conversation between hosts, Jess Yuen and Andrew Bartlow. Instead of sharing the spotlight with a guest, they dive into their own lived experiences and perspectives as people leaders, exploring what leadership, culture, and auth...

Welcome to another episode of the People Leader Accelerator Podcast, where we dive into what it truly means to lead teams and build effective organisations. Our guest today is Guissu Baier , Chief People Officer at GoFundMe. With a diverse background as both an employment attorney and people executive, Guissu brings unique perspective from her time at Visa, Instacart, venture capital firm General...