CACEIS

Annabelle Thebaud

Annabelle Thebaud is a seasoned HR leader with more than two decades of experience spanning HR communications, corporate social responsibility and human resources. Her career has focused largely on the financial sector, including banking and reinsurance, with additional experience in technology. She has worked across large corporates and scale-up startups, often within organizations at very different stages of HR maturity. A central theme of her work has been helping HR move beyond transactional delivery to become a strategic partner involved earlier in business decision-making.

This feature explores Thebaud’s approach to HR transformation in global organizations. She shares insight into how experience across regions, disciplined change mandates and people-centered execution can strengthen organizational performance and long-term capability.

Building HR Capability across Global Environments

My career has developed across very different environments and geographies. I am French and spent 20 years working across APAC, alongside roles in Europe, including London, Zurich and Paris. That exposure gave me local, regional and global responsibilities, including work at the group level. It allows me to understand the realities of different HR roles and the importance of balancing global frameworks with local specificity in matrix organizations.

Over the past decade, my focus has been on HR transformation and development. I have led teams with clear mandates tied to meaningful change, including building centers of excellence during my time at Credit Suisse across Poland, India and North Carolina. These were large-scale transformations that required coordination, discipline and collaboration. I am drawn to work that delivers real impact for organizations while carefully managing the effect on people. Optimization, for me, is not only about efficiency or cost. It is about placing the right people in the right roles at the right time, while staying aligned with the original mandate and long-term goals of each transformation.

Shared Values as a Foundation for Global Leadership

Handling leadership across regions begins with identifying what people share, not what sets them apart. Universal values create common ground, even in highly diverse environments. In APAC, where responsibility stretched from Mumbai to Tokyo and from Beijing to Sydney, diversity was constant. Success came from engagement rather than imposition. Working closely with regional leadership teams, learning continuously, and challenging stereotypes helped build understanding and trust across cultures.

But certain principles cannot shift based on geography. In some countries, discomfort still exists around hiring women into senior roles. That line was never negotiable. Listening and taking local context into account matters, but core principles must hold everywhere. Respecting those principles while navigating local realities was a consistent focus.

That balance is not simple. When global standards are pushed without local buy-in, integration can fail. Without support, people may undermine decisions, making inclusion difficult in practice. These moments reinforce that leadership is learned through experience. The challenge is avoiding a rigid, single way of thinking while still holding firm on direction. Knowing when to adapt and when to stand firm is central and there is no fixed formula.

High-performing teams make this balance possible. Taking time to onboard the right people mattered, even when teams were stretched and workloads increased temporarily. Careful hiring ensured new team members were positioned for success. That discipline ultimately supported results while preserving culture during periods of rapid change.

Planning AI Adoption for Long-Term HR Impact

Organizations are entering the AI journey at very different speeds. Some have moved quickly, while others have taken a more measured approach. Caution is not always a weakness. Early investments have shown that return on investment is not guaranteed or immediate and those experiences offer important lessons. Learning from them allows organizations to move forward with greater selectivity and pragmatism. Still, participation in this shift is essential. Stepping away from AI altogether risks long-term competitiveness.

“Effective leadership requires a balance between care and conviction.”

In HR, progress has been slower. At senior levels, there is often a clear vision, direction and conviction that AI matters. Resistance tends to emerge deeper in the organization, which is typical of any significant change. Most HR-focused AI adoption has centered on recruitment, where results have been tangible and effective. Performance management and learning are beginning to follow, but HR operations remain largely overlooked, despite offering some of the greatest potential gains.

Administrative work presents a clear opportunity, though concerns around payroll accuracy often create hesitation. Paying people correctly and on time is non-negotiable. Still, these areas deserve deeper exploration. Reducing administrative load creates time for higher-value work, but letting go of familiar processes requires strong change management. Teams need training, reassurance and clarity that AI supports role evolution rather than job loss.

Ultimately, AI should help HR focus on work that drives business growth and strategy. It is an additional capability meant to increase impact, not replace people. Compared with functions like finance or risk, HR still has ground to cover. Closing that gap will be essential to remain a strong strategic partner as organizations continue to evolve.

Building Capability through Continuous Learning

Progress comes through testing and learning. Organizations are exploring different training solutions while recognizing that access to knowledge has never been easier. Learning materials and courses are widely available, often at no cost, through platforms such as LinkedIn Learning and others. The challenge is not access, but engagement. The focus is on triggering curiosity in a positive way and encouraging people to invest in them through a genuine growth mindset.

Learning is also closely tied to performance. When development is built into objectives, the knowledge gained over time supports stronger contributions and accelerates results. Mobility plays an important role as well. Movement within the organization helps people step out of comfort zones and continue learning. This becomes increasingly important as careers extend and workforce demographics continue to shift.

Balancing Care and Conviction in Leadership

Effective leadership requires a balance between care and conviction. Leaders who push too hard on performance risk creating aggressive cultures that erode trust over time. Those who focus only on care risk complacency and lower expectations. The balance shapes leadership behavior, organizational culture, strategy, transparency and trust. It requires staying close to people, understanding their concerns and supporting growth, while remaining firm about standards and accountability. Leaders must be willing to make difficult decisions when needed and clearly explain why those decisions matter.

Organizations that strike this balance build teams that perform with purpose. Caring and daring together create environments where people feel supported, challenged and aligned around shared goals.