Pepal is all about HR Innovation; finding ways to foster talent through becoming socially responsible. Pepal programmes offer development opportunities by partnering senior corporate managers with skilled individuals from non-profit organisations in developing and emerging markets to work together on projects that impact the lives of women, children and marginalised communities. Our new programme has been developed jointly with LSE and Gallup and starts with an intensive leadership and business model innovation training workshop. In a short period of time, participants learn to communicate effectively with partners who do not share their cultural background and world view; they learn to negotiate, resolve conflicts and deliver quality results. Above all, they learn how to make a difference in a new and challenging environment.

So what preoccupies me from a HR perspective is HR innovation; how to offer a different learning and development tool to existing ones. And one that younger generations and shifting mindsets value too.

I believe more and more companies will appoint a Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) reporting directly to the CEO. I also believe the HR function will upgrade its business knowledge and become a strategic partner in key decisions. With the growing competition for talent in the emerging markets, the HR function, five years from now, will be involved in strategic talent management on a global scale, which would involve global sourcing, development, mobility and retention of talent.

Pepal is driven by a vision. Through our programmes we hope to make a difference to some of the poorest communities in developing countries and emerging markets by bringing in new business skills. At the same time, we aim to make businesses more social by providing senior managers, tomorrow's leaders, with the opportunity to receive world class management training and work together with an NGO to develop new business models that impact on the poor.

During the recession, the biggest challenge was the lack of corporate decision-making.

Today, there is a strong interest, particularly from HR in the Pepal concept. However, it is a challenge to get HR and the business to do something different, and many seem to be more comfortable tweaking existing models rather than promoting something new. Any suggestions as to how to break through to the innovative HR leaders would be welcome!!

Yes, we have a senior HR professional on the non-executive boards of both Pepal Foundation and Pepal Limited and I am the CEO!

Nearly 11 years. I entered HR through a non-traditional route. I started my career as an economist; subsequently I became an investment banker, consultant, and project manager. 11 years ago I was appointed as Director of HR and Finance at an international development charity.

My first ever job was with the post office, sorting and delivering Christmas letters. I did that for six consecutive Christmases and was promoted in the last years to “delivery only”. I remember the bag being so heavy that I had to leave it at the corner of the street as well as the personal notes I used to write apologising for posting letters through the wrong letterbox!

I didn't set out to work in HR. Indeed, my earliest recollection of HR was when it was called “personnel” and seemed to be there to block all sensible activities. However, through general management, I learned the impact of good leadership and have seen the role that HR can play in contributing to leadership in an organisation. This has led me to become more involved in HR taking a direct role in shaping HR thinking in the companies in which I work.

From personnel, to HR administration, to HR as a strategic business partner.

I am motivated by my vision, by the successes of the programmes that we have run - the positive feedback from the participants about their learning journeys and the fact that we are making a difference on the ground. So when it's a bad day - and start-ups have many of these - I go to bed early and wake-up re-energised focusing on the vision, which I know is right; we will get there even though it is harder than anticipated.

Usually, it is an HR challenge. How to motivate, direct, allocate, and deploy limited resources; and how to resolve conflict and - as a start up – I don’t have enough resources and not all the right resources for all the tasks that have to be done. So I often spend my nights prioritizing and reprioritising.

Making Pepal sustainable and scalable so that we can achieve the social change on the ground needed to make a difference at scale.

My vision and ambition; but I get great support and challenge from the Board.

No, not formally, but I use the Board and anyone else I can find to bounce ideas off.

I'm sure it's not politically correct, but I still find the funniest experiences have occurred during interviews.

With my children and husband - desperately trying to keep up with teenage fiction and films and working out how to stay cool in the eyes of my children. I also have 3 non-executive roles which keep me busy, including as trustee of a Ukrainian organisation.

My advice would be to get experience outside of HR at some stage in your career, to stay in touch with the outside world, to benchmark and network. Stay up to date and “leading edge” from a business perspective and know more about the business than HR itself. Learn how to lead yourselves and your HR teams before you tell others how to do it. Become a good leader. And challenge and question the status quo.