Virginia has over 25 years experience in international corporate businesses in technology, services and e-commerce. She has played a key role in transforming businesses in Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) and Latin America. Her business and operations background gives her a unique perspective when working on talent topics, aligning strategy and delivery with business requirements. She previously worked at Amazon, building and shaping the Executive Search function for EMEA during the biggest expansion period for Amazon in Europe, then helped build the consulting services and solution architecture practices for AWS in Europe. During her days at Amazon, she delivered over 300 Executive hires and over 2000 technology resources. She ran the talent function for Zalando SE, a DAX 40 company, and has delivered over 15,000 hires for Zalando in the past 3 years, from CFO to supervisory board members, and all talent in tech, commercial, and high volume. She has successfully built talent acquisition departments for some of the most successful companies in Europe, with a particular focus on the technology area including digital transformation, bringing her expertise in D&I, Workforce Planning, as well as all aspects of the employee lifecycle, from attract and hire to develop and retain. Most recently, she led the Talent function for Flutter UKI. Earlier in her career, Virginia worked for Oracle in the Americas and EMEA. She loves to travel and engage in sharing her knowledge and learning through communities of practice like the RL100.

What’s a professional achievement of yours from 2024 that you are proud of?

This past year I led the Talent function for Flutter UKI, As Talent Director reporting to the CPO, responsible for full-cycle talent strategy. Collaborating with Finance and HR, I introduced the first workforce plan, managing a £6M budget across Leadership, L&D, Recruiting, and Employer Branding. I revamped our L&D, Talent Review, and Performance Management frameworks, while strengthening EVP and recruitment marketing for Corporate and Retail teams.

Key initiatives included developing a low-cost location strategy for scaling tech teams globally, and designing a product recruiting strategy in Dublin. Responsible for leadership development framework and redesign of the Graduate Program to enhance academic partnerships and talent attraction. My efforts unified the Talent Development agenda across business teams, driving growth and leadership pipelines.

How has the RL Community helped you this year?

It is a rich network of leaders that can support and guide your through your professional journey, tapping in to a depth of knowledge and experience unique in our industry. The Resourcing summits and Recfest are also great learning forums and a wonderful platform to stay up to date on important and timely topics.

Finally, what is your prediction for the TA industry for 2025?

A lot is still in movement. Automation, simplification and integration will continue to lead the way.