CEO: Brain eBox | Workplace Learning Solutions | Host of the HR on the Brain Podcast | CEO: Lead with Sheree | Speaker | Passionate about developing leaders | Get in touch: sheree@thebrainebox.com

You’ve built a reputation for delivering great L&amp;D work - facilitating training, designing programs, and running onboarding. People trust you to get things done.But to grow into your next role, it’s not just about great work anymore.Now, it’s about influence, alignment, and leadership.You’ve got great ideas, but they’re not always landing.You want to be seen as a strategic partner, but you’re still treated like a service provider.You’re ready to grow, but what you need isn’t tucked inside another course.You need real-world support from someone who understands what L&amp;D excellence looks like - and how to lead it.That’s where I come in.I’m Sheree Comninellis, L&amp;D Executive and mentor for emerging L&amp;D leaders.I help L&amp;D professionals like you step into leadership.If you’re ready to lead, start here:📬 Executive Moves — my 5-minute weekly leadership edge for ambitious L&amp;D professionals.Each edition gives you:📌 1 bold insight to reframe how you lead📌 1 practical move you can apply immediately📌 1 growth resource to help you go deeper➡️ Get Executive Moves here: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/589169/98676779613423573/share.💡 Want to go further?Join the waitlist for The L&amp;D Professionals Collective - a monthly membership that helps you grow your confidence, visibility, and strategic influence, so you can be recognised as ready for L&amp;D leadership.Inside, you’ll get monthly live sessions, coaching, and practical tools designed to help you bridge the gap between delivering learning and leading it.➡️ Learn more and join the waitlist here: https://leadwithsheree.com/ldprofessionalcollectivewaitinglistMore about me:I live in Cape Town with my wife and beautiful children. I love historical fiction, good coffee, and my all-time favourite series is Gilmore Girls.

Sheree Comninellis (she/her)

Working with innovative companies to connect them with world class People & Talent profiles 🚀

Hi I'm Sam and I am an Associate Director at Alderson James.

I work with CPO/ HRD/ Founders/ CEO's who have ambitious growth plans for their company and are looking for a solution to growth and consolidation.

They often find they are exhausting too much time and money in the hiring process, only to find that the Talent doesn't match their expectations. We solve this. 

People & Talent professionals, we connect you with exciting and disruptive, people centric start-ups and scale-ups in need of expert capability to drive growth and performance. 

Since 2013 we have placed over 1000 Talent and People superstars across the world, at every level of the career development pathway, using data-driven techniques to platform role changes for success. We work with pace and quality, and are able to turn around process in an average of 18 days.

 We source and connect with great people, day in day out. We profile capabilities and attributes to align suitability over a Video call or Face to Face meet. We submit I curated portfolio of 5 candidates for any brief, usually within 48 hours of brief. We don’t overload candidates with opportunities, and share only relevant, specifically matched opportunities. We manage the process from sourcing to securing, and are always available to offer our support 

 I'm committed to finding the right person, and right role, and delivering fantastic candidate and client experience If you would like to know more about how I can help you - DM me on LinkedIn or email me on samantha.boatwright@aldersonjames.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Samantha Boatwright

PSA FROM YOUR FRIENDLY HR RECRUITER 👋

If you are a HRBP / People Partner / Senior BP / can I gently (LOVINGLY) ask you to PLEASE UPDATE YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE SO IT READS LIKE A CV 🙏

This genuinely makes my job SO. MUCH. EASIER. and helps me advocate for you properly.

Help a sister out💁‍♀️

What I would LOVE to see (and promise I will be forever grateful):

What level you are partnering at (CPO / CTO / CMO / CRO / exec team, C suite minus 1 or 2??)

WHO you’re partnering with (functionally + seniority)

HOW BIG your client group is (50? 200? 1,000? 5 million?)

WHERE your client group sits (UK / EMEA / Global / multi-site chaos?)

You can be excellent at your job - but if your profile just says
“HR Business Partner | Strategic | Passionate about people”

…I have no idea how to place you, position you, or champion you, and I might not contact you in the first place about something which could be perfect for you🫠

THIS IS ME, ASKING NICELY.
with <3
please & thank-you.
HELP A RECRUITER HELP YOU TODAY 😄  ❤️

Can't wait to recruit you ( once your LI is updated!!)

Head of People Practice at AJ | 30k+ followers | Specialising in CPO, Director & VP People for VC/PE-Backed Startups | Connecting Leaders with Growth Opportunities 🚀

As I reflect on last year, I keep coming back to how lucky I am with the clients I get to work with, and how proud I am of the work we did together. So let me tell you about some of the tangible examples if you are interested 😄 

Across a small number of high-growth tech and fintech businesses (Series B–C / scale-up stage), I partnered closely with leadership teams to build People functions properly, not just filling roles, but shaping teams with real intent.

Over 2025, that included:

😍 Supporting a high-growth enterprise risk management (ERM) scale-up by placing a Head of People, People Ops Specialist, and People & Talent Partner 

💗 Partnering with a hyper-growth infrastructure / AI business to place a People Director, Head of People Ops, and People Ops Specialist

💫 Working with an energy-tech SaaS company to build out their People team with a Head of People Ops, two Senior People Partners, a Head of Talent, and a People Experience Partner

👩‍⚕️ Supporting a biotech company by placing an HR Director, and later a 12-month FTC HRD to cover maternity leave

💰 Trusted partner to a global fintech across multiple hires, including Head of People Ops & Experience and several Talent Acquisition roles

Alongside these longer-term partnerships, I also supported a number of clients on more one-off or targeted hires, including on a wider note the AJ stepping in where businesses needed to quickly uplift capability across GTM or Exec functions, or making a critical Head of People hire at a pivotal moment of growth 🔥 

What I love most is working across the entire People ecosystem - leadership, ops, experience and talent; and watching the puzzle pieces fit together over time. These are some of my proudest pieces of work because they’re about long-term impact, not quick wins 🤩 plus I love going for coffee with a whole team I know💗 

Many of these clients now feel far more like partners (and friends), and I’m incredibly grateful for that.

Looking ahead to 2026, I’m excited to continue working this way and to partner with new businesses who want to build People teams with intention, not shortcuts. Let's do this 💫  

#recruitment  #exec #people #startup #scaleup #tech

Hi all <3

Update : I now have enough candidates for this role thank you ( Jan 12 evening 530pm :)) 

I am looking for a Senior HRBP for 3 months (initially) on a day rate to work on People projects and also some normal BAU work - this is a role to cover a busy period for one of my prestigious tech clients. 

5 years HRBP experience ideally needed here and the availability to get to Oxford minimum 3 days a week. Experience in a tech, fast paced environment is must here please. 

This is a day rate role at around £500 per day and to start within 1/2 weeks and report into a SHRBP. It could be extended.

European Pay Transparency is coming up in almost every senior HR conversation I’m having right now; and not in a theoretical way.

The EU Pay Transparency Directive might feel like a “2026 problem” on paper, but in practice, many tech start-ups and scale-ups are already feeling the pressure. HRDs and CPOs are being asked uncomfortable questions: Do we actually understand our pay gaps? Are our job levels defensible? Would our pay philosophy stand up to scrutiny if we had to publish it? For businesses that have scaled fast, hired opportunistically, or expanded cross-border, the honest answer is often: not yet.

What I’m seeing is that the biggest challenge isn’t compliance alone; it’s readiness. Pay transparency exposes weak role architecture, inconsistent levelling, legacy salaries, and “hero hires” on outlier packages. It also forces much closer alignment between reward, performance, DEI, and talent strategy. That’s why this has become a board-level conversation far earlier than many expected, particularly in VC-backed and PE-backed environments where risk, reputation, and cost control matter.

The most forward-thinking teams aren’t waiting for legislation to force their hand. They’re using this moment to clean up job frameworks, re-anchor pay to market and impact, and skill up their people leadership teams to have grown-up conversations about pay. Unsurprisingly, this is also driving demand for senior reward leaders, people transformation profiles, and commercially minded HRDs who can navigate change without creating noise or attrition.

From an agency perspective, it’s clear this isn’t a passing topic - it’s reshaping how people functions are built across EU tech. Those who treat pay transparency as a compliance exercise will struggle. Those who see it as an opportunity to professionalise and future-proof their people strategy will come out stronger 

The conversations I’m having suggest 2025 was the real preparation year, whether companies realise it yet or not 😊

Founder & CEO @HubEngage | Pioneering intelligent employee comms & engagement | Customer-funded from day one | Speaker & Panelist

My HRBP costs $262,000 fully loaded annually.
My top AE costs $240,000 fully loaded.
But the AE earns $340,000 in total comp after commissions and accelerators.

Guess who drove an additional $1.8 million in revenue last year?

Not the AE.
The HRBP.

That $190,000 HRBP salary becomes $262,000 fully loaded.
Meanwhile, my AE costs $240,000 fully loaded before commissions
and gets paid into the high $300Ks when they hit quota.

But the revenue jump didn’t come from Sales.

It came from HR fixing the people engine under Sales:

- ramp time dropped from 150 to 80 days
- mis-hires fell 40%
- manager-to-rep ratios improved
- enablement stabilized
- compensation clarity ended mid-year churn

Those improvements alone added $1.8M in incremental revenue.

The asymmetry is wild:

HRBP: $262,000 cost → $1.8M revenue unlocked

AE: $340,000 total pay → revenue dependent on HR’s system

This isn’t AE-bashing BUT it is misattribution.

HR is the hidden growth engine every founder overlooks.

Companies obsess over quota, CAC, and pipeline.

But they ignore the variables HR directly controls:

- ramp speed
- retention
- hiring quality
- team effectiveness
- performance systems
- manager capability

Without those inputs, no AE hits quota at any price point.

VP People: $290,000–$456,000 fully loaded
Director of Talent: $248,000–$350,000 fully loaded
Senior HRBP: $248,000–$334,000 fully loaded

These are multipliers.

The problem is the system that hides HR’s impact 
while over-celebrating whoever closes the deal.

A $190,000 HRBP doesn’t cost $262,000.
They multiply it.

Through performance.

taplio

The Battle

Sheree Comninellis (she/her)

Samantha Boatwright

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taplio

The Battle

Sheree Comninellis (she/her)

Samantha Boatwright

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Samantha Boatwright's LinkedIn Performance

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