Astrid Warren is a global HR executive, transformation leader, and founder of Degree23. With over two decades of experience leading organizational change across emerging and mature markets, she is known for combining strategic precision with empathy, humor, and a deep conviction that HR should be a true engine of business performance.

Astrid began her career in South Africa, where she joined the team driving Standard Bank’s digital transformation at the time. She went on to join Microsoft as HR Director for its South African subsidiary, then the company’s only office in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the next decade, she built the HR capability that supported Microsoft’s regional expansion, opening subsidiaries across Africa and later overseeing HR for the entire Middle East and Africa region.

As Global CHRO at SITA, Astrid led a total business model transformation — redesigning the organization, centralizing functions, and embedding an agile, performance-driven culture.

As Chief People Officer at IDEMIA, she rebuilt the HR function from the ground up, unifying 60+ countries through structure, technology, and purpose — helping the company integrate under private equity ownership and successfully prepare for strategic sale.

Throughout her career, Astrid has redefined what effective, forward-thinking HR looks like — constantly innovating, experimenting, and ensuring her teams stay ahead of the curve. Her curiosity keeps her learning; her leadership turns that learning into lasting impact. Astrid is direct in her feedback and decisive in ambiguity, always providing clarity which moves people and organizations forward. She leads through empowerment and trust, guiding teams to grow in confidence.

Based in Geneva, Astrid has lived and led all over the world. Ever curious, when she’s not transforming organizations, she’s hiking in the Alps or experimenting in the kitchen.

Valerie Tan is a global transformation leader with over 20 years of experience spanning both business and HR. She began her career in consulting, advising companies on strategy, process improvement, and operating models across Asia and Europe. Her time in growth ventures — from scaling a start-up to launching an e-banking division — gave her a deep understanding of how business strategy comes to life through people and structure.

That realization sparked her transition into HR, where she could bridge commercial priorities with people-focused transformation. Valerie has since led major reorganizations, carve-outs, and talent strategy initiatives, developing a particular expertise in matrix HR operating models that balance global scale with local impact. Her approach is pragmatic and people-centred: she believes transformation succeeds not through command, but through leaders who create space for collaboration and shared ownership.

Valerie has worked across technology, finance, aviation, and consumer industries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North America. Her work has delivered measurable impact — from multimillion-euro cost savings to cultural shifts that foster agility and collaboration across borders.

Today, Valerie partners with Chief People Officers and leadership teams to simplify complexity, strengthen capability, and elevate HR from transactional to strategic. She brings a dual lens — the analytical rigour of a business strategist and the insight of an HR leader — to help organizations turn ambition into execution.

Valerie holds an Executive MBA from IMD and certifications in Lean Six Sigma, Hogan Assessments, and Marshall Goldsmith’s Stakeholder Centered Coaching. Outside of work, she recharges by swimming in Lake Geneva, photographing street life, or exploring new melodies on the piano.

Cécile Cornu is a global HR executive and transformation leader with more than 20 years of experience helping organizations navigate complex change. She studied business and political science in France and Canada before co-founding a Montreal-based recruitment agency specializing in ERP integration talent—an early reflection of her interest in how people, technology, and structure drive business success. 

Her international career in HR began as an HR Business Partner covering North and Latin America, later expanding into management and leadership roles across Europe, Africa, and Asia. These experiences shaped her appreciation for cultural nuance, organizational complexity, and the focus needed to create clarity and alignment across borders. 

Over the years, Cécile has helped organizations rethink how they lead, organize, and support their people. She has guided global transformations—from M&A management and workforce redesigns to the digitalization of global HR processes. She has led both large international HR service teams and lean expert groups. 

As Senior Director of Global HR Services at SITA, she managed operations spanning 127 countries, redesigning the function’s operating model to build scalable services that improved efficiency while strengthening employee engagement.

She later led Reward, Performance & Inclusion globally—modernizing pay and recognition frameworks, digitalizing the employee experience, embedding inclusion into company practices, and evolving performance management toward growth, coaching, and continuous dialogue. In this capacity, she also managed the Remuneration Committee of SITA and its subsidiaries, ensuring alignment between business performance, governance, and people outcomes.

Most recently, as Executive HR Consultant at IDEMIA, Cécile created the company’s first HR Technology & Analytics function, designed and implemented its first global career and skills framework, and oversaw the people dimension of multiple global transformation programs—spanning reorganizations, entity realignments, and divestitures across 25+ countries. 

Cécile is known for her calm in complexity and her ability to bring structure and humanity to challenging transformations. She leads with empathy and clarity, focusing on what truly moves organizations forward: engaged people, aligned priorities, and a shared sense of purpose. 

As a Partner at Degree23, Cécile advises CEOs, CHROs, and leadership teams navigating high-stakes transformation.  

Curious by nature, she continues in her personal time to explore new ideas and perspectives through executive programs at Harvard, IMD, and Oxford Saïd Business School. Based in Geneva, she finds energy and balance through movement and exploration—whether sailing, hiking, or skiing her way through the Alps.