The Modern People Leader: Forward-Thinking HR

Beth Ley, Chief People Officer at Kendra Scott, joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about how to build the number one workplace for women, the “Great Talent Transfer” and Beth’s vision for internal talent mobility, and what it’s like to work with a visionary founder. ----  Sponsor Links: 🔗 Learn more about Wellthy at wellthy.com/mpl 🔗 Learn more about Tilt at hellotilt.com/mpl ---- ...

Matt McFarlane, Founder of FNDN , joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about how to build a successful HR consulting business, why niching down and strong branding matter, and how to create sustainable growth through content, community, and a portfolio career. ----   Sponsor Links: 🔗 Book a conversation with Compete at compete.com/mpl 🔗 Learn more about Tilt at hellotilt.com/mpl MPL...

Most benefits strategies fail for one simple reason: employees don’t know how to use them. Matt Scovil, Co-Founder and CEO of Medefy , joined us to break down why confusing benefits lead to higher healthcare costs, why behavior change is the real unlock, and how HR teams can turn benefits from a cost center into something employees actually use. ----   Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://...

Alex Coonce (Chief People Officer) and Patrick Quigley (CEO) from Sidecar Health joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about building a strong CEO–CPO partnership, why culture must scale before headcount does, and how companies can become AI-native while staying transparent with employees. ----   Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode287 Sponsor...

Kim Smith from Tilt joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about how personalized leave support creates a better employee experience, what managers and HR teams often miss during leave transitions, and how to build a modern leave process that balances compliance, communication, and care. ----   Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode286 Sponsor Lin...

Melissa Theiss, Head of People Ops at Kit, joined us on The Modern People Leader to break down how HR leaders can build real business acumen using practical frameworks like Track-Racehorse-Jockey, her PeopleOps maturity diagnostic, and a 90-in-90 listening tour. We also walked through how to turn employee feedback into an actionable backlog and use it to shape a people strategy that supports the b...

Jessica Zwaan joined us on The Modern People Leader for MPL Build’s first-ever AMA, alongside Jalene Vandermey-Jackson from Workleap. We talked about what traditional HR mindsets must be let go to become builders, how to collect lightweight employee feedback to help build the right products, and more. ----   Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode284 Sponsor...

Diane Sadowski-Joseph, Co-Founder of Clarinet, joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about why most AI adoption stalls at “talking the talk,” how to choose the right AI use cases using the “trifecta” and the Five Frictions framework, and how “click cutters” can unlock compounding gains by removing cognitive and workflow friction. ----   Here’s everything Diane referenced: https://modern...

Liz Bronson, VP of People at Skimmer, joined us on The Modern People Leader to talk about intentionally “flatlining” her career for a period of time to prioritize parenting.  ----   Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode282 Sponsor Links: 🔗 Learn more about Tilt at hellotilt.com/mpl 🔗 Learn more about Wellthy at wellthy.com/mpl 🔗 Try AskChartHop at Chart...

Isabel Naidoo, Chief People Officer at Wise, joined us on The Modern People Leader to share how Wise builds a cohesive employee experience across global offices while still honoring local identity.  ----   Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode281 Sponsor Links: 🔗 Try Viva’s $950 one-month trial at execviva.com/mpl 🔗 Try AskChartHop at ChartHop.com/AI 🔗...

Chase Warrington, Head of Operations at Doist, joined us on The Modern People Leader to break down how async-first work enables faster decision-making, stronger culture, and scalable operations. We talked about building trust without offices, the systems and rituals behind Doist’s execution velocity, and why async workflows are foundational to effective AI adoption. ----   Downloadable PDF with to...

Jani Sanguino joined us on The Modern People Leader to share how Viva built an award-winning, manager-led AI transformation. We talked about the three AI competencies they prioritized, their 13-week manager-led learning path, and the most impactful use cases for their business. ----   Go deeper on Viva's AI Journey in Roundtable with Jani (only 10 seats) : execviva.com/mpl Downloadable PDF wit...

We recapped MPL Live Austin with attendees Cindy Lopez (Senior Director, People & Culture, Pattern Bioscience) and Marlene Arroyo (Founder, Peoplecraft). ----   Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode278 Sponsor Links: 🔗 Try Viva’s $950 one-month trial at execviva.com/mpl 🔗 Learn more about Nava Benefits 🔗 Check out AirMason MPL Links: 🔗 Go sign up f...

Jon Couture, CHRO at Vanguard, joined The Modern People Leader to share how Vanguard is balancing 50 years of legacy with the next 50 years of change.  ----   Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode277 Sponsor Links: 🔗 Try Viva’s $950 one-month trial at execviva.com/mpl 🔗 Try AskChartHop at ChartHop.com/AI 🔗 Learn more about Tilt at hellotilt.com/mpl MPL...

In this episode of The Modern People Leader , Sarika Lamont, Chief People Officer at Vidyard, joins us to unpack her non-traditional journey into HR and how AI is reshaping the role of People teams. She shared practical AI use cases from onboarding automation to AI coaching, along with the mindset shifts HR leaders must make to lead change rather than fear it.  ----   Downloadable PDF with top tak...

Peter Fader and Jessica Zwaan joined The Modern People Leader to explore how customer-based audit principles can be applied to employees. ----   Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode275 Sponsor Links: 🔗 Try Viva’s $950 one-month trial at execviva.com/mpl 🔗 Try AskChartHop 🔗 Take Clarinet’s AI Readiness Snapshot   MPL Links: 🔗 Go sign up for MPL Build ....

Kirthi Mani, Chief People Officer at CLA, joins The Modern People Leader to explore why joy is a true competitive advantage and how people-first leadership drives sustainable performance. ----   Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode274 Sponsor Links: 🔗 Try Viva’s $950 one-month trial at execviva.com/mpl 🔗 Try AskChartHop at ChartHop.com/AI MPL Links: 🔗...

Pat Lencioni, founder of The Table Group and bestselling author behind The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The 6 Types of Working Genius, joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about his origin story in organizational health, how Working Genius helps leaders prevent burnout by designing teams around strengths, and how HR leaders can build trust and stay grounded as AI reshapes work. ---...

Brandon Sammut (Chief People and AI Transformation Officer at Zapier), Jenny Molyneaux (VP of People, Vercel), and Valerie Gobeil (Head of Talent Management, Workleap) joined us for a live session on how HR teams are actually using AI today.  We talked about how to get organizations AI-ready, avoid “AI debt,” make smarter build vs buy decisions, and we walked through live demos of AI-powered perfo...

DJ Casto joined us on The Modern People Leader to share how Synchrony is co-designing the future of work with employees. We talked about active listening at scale, building trust by being great not perfect, rethinking leadership for a flexible workforce, and why treating the employee experience like a product creates real business impact. ----  Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpe...

Taylor and Melanie joined The Modern People Leader to unpack how HR teams can get out from under compliance chaos and admin overload to focus on business impact. ----  Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode270 Sponsor Links: 🔗 Try Viva’s $950 one-month trial at execviva.com/mpl . MPL Links: 🔗 Buy your ticket for MPL Live Austin . 🔗 Go sign up for MPL Bui...

Jessica Swank, Chief People Officer at Box, joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about building an "org brain", preparing managers to lead teams of humans plus agents, avoiding agent sprawl and tech debt, and why every people leader needs to start experimenting with AI personally to stay ahead. ----   Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/ep...

We dug into Foursquare’s North Stars of vibrancy and velocity, applying design thinking to the people function, and their team-based performance model. ----  Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode268 Sponsor Links: 🔗 Learn more about TopicFlow. 🔗 Talk to the team at Ethena . MPL Links: 🔗 Buy your ticket for MPL Live Austin . 🔗 Go sign up for MPL Build ....

Shannon Hobbs, Chief People Officer at BNY, joined us to unpack how the bank is scaling its early-career pipeline, flattening org design, and running a culture-first transformation. We discussed BNY’s in-house AI hub “Eliza” (99% employee certification, 15k+ agents, 100 digital employees), plus practical advice for CHROs on building AI capability safely and at scale. ----  How BNY is betting big o...

Luke O’Mahoney, Founder & Creator of Sapienˣ, joined The Modern People Leader. We talked about the three emerging models of product-led HR, Agile theater, and how an enterprise company phased its shift to product-led HR. ----  Sponsor Links: 🔗 Learn more about TopicFlow. 🔗 Talk to the team at Ethena . MPL Links: 🔗 Buy your ticket for MPL Live Austin . 🔗 Go sign up for MPL Build . ----  (06...