Built by People Leaders

Michael K. Cobb, Founder and CEO of ECI Development, has run three fully remote businesses across Central America for 30 years: a mortgage bank in Belize, an international real estate development company, and a teak timber operation in Panama that started with 100 acres planted in 1999 and now runs its own sawmill. His single biggest argument for scaling People teams: leadership and management are different jobs, and most growing o...

Nathaniel Sietz is an HR professional who built an entire People function from scratch as the only HR Manager at a logistics company that had no HR infrastructure. In this episode of Built by People Leaders, Nate introduces The 91st Day framework—a practical way to keep onboarding and culture-building going beyond the standard 90-day probation period. Ironically, that’s exactly when most companies stop investing in new ...

Maria Kolesnikoff spent 20 years across every HR function—recruitment, compensation, organizational design, and change management—before becoming head of talent management at the corporate investment business unit of a large bank, and now works as an ICF PCC coach. In this episode of Built by People Leaders with Daria Rudnik, Maria Kolesnikoff argues that effective learning and development must be built as infrastructur...

Rachel Sutherland is SVP of People & Operations at Respondology, a 50-person venture-backed SaaS company, and she builds HR functions from the ground up at high-growth startups. In this episode of Built by People Leaders, Rachel Sutherland argues that the hardest part of scaling is forcing the founding executive team to stop making every decision and instead build a trusted middle layer that can act without them—her core ...

Katherine Hawkins-Jones is Chief People Officer at a UK-based motor insurance company and founder of the People Experience Consultancy PeopleScape. She entered HR from retail and hospitality management, completed her CIPD qualifications, and built over two decades of experience across insurance, financial services, automotive, retail, hospitality, and education — specializing in change and transformation. In this episode, Kat...

Greta Stahl, Vice President of Organizational Learning and Development at Workday, ran the largest L&D program in the company's 20-year history: Everyday AI, which reached over 85% monthly AI adoption (a 40%+ jump from baseline) and conservatively saved more than 600,000 hours. Greta structured that program on a three-part framework—Mindset, Skill Set, and Habits—and her central argument is that AI delivers value on...

Dom Dib is Head of Human Resources at 'Maplewave', a technology firm that won the Digital Nova Scotia Talent Champion Award and recognition as one of the best places to work in Atlantic Canada. Dom runs a two-person HR team supporting a globally distributed workforce across Canada, South Africa, and the Middle East, and his core operating principle is "Continuous Curiosity" — a company value that drives both product innovatio...

Ted Forbes, co-author of Making HR Matter: What CEOs Want and How to Deliver It, spent 25 years running HR functions at companies ranging from United Airlines (85,000 employees) to the startup Cotopaxi (70 to 300 employees). Ted introduces the "Relevant HR" framework and income statement thinking—a method that connects every people decision directly to EBITDA and cash flow. Ted started in consulting on merger integration befo...

In this episode of Built by People Leaders, host Daria Rudnik sits down with Ed Howard, founder of One Breath Leadership and author of the One Breath Leadership book and app. Ed spent 20 years as a global compliance executive in investment banking before combining that high-stakes corporate experience with three decades of Zen training to create practical micro-recovery tools for corporate skeptics.

Together, they break down how su...

In this episode of the Built by People Leaders podcast, host Daria Rudnik speaks with Marina Morgan, fractional strategy leader, executive facilitator, and founder of AIQ Impact, about why successful transformation depends less on technology and more on human and organizational readiness. Marina shares insights from her journey across corporate leadership in Russia and her transition to entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley, where she...

In this episode of the Built by People Leaders podcast, host Daria Rudnik speaks with Anastasia Minko, Senior HR Project Manager at Smart Europe, about how HR leadership changes across cultures, industries, and stages of company growth. Drawing from her experience in global corporations, fast-growing tech companies, and German organizations, Anastasia shares practical insights on navigating complexity in international HR, building ...

In this episode of the Built by People Leaders podcast, host Daria Rudnik speaks with Chris Farr, Operations Executive at Invision Technologies, about leadership, organizational growth, and how HR can become a true operational partner during periods of rapid change and AI transformation. Drawing from his experience leading teams in the MSP and technology space, Chris shares practical insights on scaling businesses without losing cu...

In this episode of the Built by People Leaders podcast, host Daria Rudnik speaks with John Pezoulas, co-founder and managing partner of Ready Set Exec, about the realities of executive hiring in startups and scaling companies. With from more than 20 years in recruitment and executive search, John shares why recruiting is ultimately about helping people find opportunities where they can succeed — not just filling roles. The co...

In this episode of the Built by People Leaders podcast, host Daria Rudnik speaks with Jason Aydelott, Fractional Chief Learning Officer and L&D strategist, about how Learning & Development can evolve from a cost center into a measurable business driver. Drawing on over 25 years of experience, Jason explains why most L&D functions struggle to prove impact—and how shifting from content creation to performance consul...

In this episode of Built By People Leaders, Daria Rudnik sits down with Ochuko Dasimaka, Career Strategist, HR Leader, and Founder of Career Heights Consulting, to explore what it really takes to build a successful career—and lead people through complex organizational change.

With experience across global companies like Shell, Amazon, Unilever, and Rio Tinto, Ochuko shares her perspective on navigating large-scale transformat...

What happens when success is no longer enough?

In this deeply personal and thought-provoking conversation, Daria Rudnik speaks with Catherine Dudtschak—former banking CEO turned Conscious Leadership Advisor—about the hidden cost of high performance and the journey toward authentic, essence-led leadership.

After more than 30 years in executive leadership, Catherine shares how burnout, identity suppression, and a personal...

In this episode of Built By People Leaders, Daria Rudnik speaks with Daniela Morein Bar, Founder of Inspired Marketing, about how employer branding has evolved into a critical growth function for modern companies.

Daniela shares how her background in B2B marketing led her to build recruitment marketing systems for tech companies like Teva, HiBob, and Intel. She explains why employer branding is no longer just about messaging—...

In this episode of Built by People Leaders, host Daria Rudnik sits down with Jim Carlough — Leadership Identity Architect and author of The Six Pillars of Effective Leadership. With over 30 years of experience scaling organizations from $100M to $1B, Jim shares a powerful perspective: leadership isn’t about skills alone — it’s about identity.

Together, they explore why most managers fail not because they lac...

In this episode of the Build by People Leaders podcast, host Daria Rudnik speaks with Monica Duque, senior people leader and AI transformation driver, about what it really takes to build an AI-first organization.

Drawing from her hands-on experience transforming a company through AI, Monica shares how HR can move from a support function to the driver of organizational change. Instead of waiting to be invited to the table, she expla...