Steph Warnery

About

Most recently: SVP People Solutions for Zalando, one of Europe's largest DAX-listed companies — leading a team of 250+ across end-to-end HR at the most senior table
Track record: led significant negotiations with multiple Works Councils and Employee Representative bodies to drive change sustainably; led large-scale cultural transformations inside some of Europe's biggest organisations; designed and built operating models from scratch
Also: Beiersdorf, Britvic — 25+ years across FMCG, retail, hospitality and tech/e-commerce, in the UK, mainland Europe and the US
Credentials: Advanced Practitioner Diploma in Executive Coaching (AOEC, ICF accredited) · Hogan Certified Coach
Governance: statutory board seats at Beiersdorf (UK and Northern Europe) and Zalando (China) — the legally required boards of those country entities, distinct from a group's main Supervisory Board
Steph Warnery

I'm going out on my own because I'm ready. I've spent my whole career in corporate HR — the last stretch of it leading People Solutions as part of Zalando's Senior Executive Team, one of Europe's largest DAX-listed companies. I've sat at the executive table through growth, restructuring, and everything in between: the organisation redesigns, the leadership successions, the hard conversations with works councils, the moments where a strategy meets the reality of the people who actually have to live it. All of it has given me something you can't manufacture: a deep, lived understanding of change, and an insider's view of the complexity, pressure and human dynamics that come with senior leadership.

Leaving corporate life wasn't an easy decision. I loved the company, and I loved the work — the energy, the collaboration, the feeling of building something together with a room full of smart, committed people. But years of heavy travel and time away from home caught up with me, and my son is now in his final stretch of school. I want a different shape to my working life — one built around the work I know I can do best, one built around where I can have the most impact.

Steph Warnery

Now I want coaching and supporting leaders through whatever transition they're facing — a new role, a career pivot, the leap they haven't told anyone about yet — to be my main work, not something I fit around a demanding corporate role. Making a difference for people, teams and organisations is my purpose.

People who've worked with me tend to describe the same combination: courageous and empathetic, a sharp, execution-focused communicator and storyteller who can lead teams effectively and contribute individually. Driven and focused, relishing a challenge, building relationships at every level, never shying away from the difficult conversation. I believe in the potential of people and can build trust and rapport fast — and that deep trust is built on honesty, even when the message might be hard to hear. I lead with backbone and heart, and I believe empathy and vulnerability are two of the most underrated capabilities in today's workplace — not soft options, but the fastest route to building trust, getting the best out of people and driving real, sustainable change.

How I work

Three things sit underneath all of it:

Rapport — being at ease with someone, sharing warmth and genuine interest, mutual attentiveness and positivity. The foundation everything else is built on.

Vulnerability — going first, being honest about my own experience so the other person feels safe enough to be honest about theirs. Without it, there's no real trust, no real learning, and no real growth.

Respect — an unshakeable belief that the person in front of me is fully capable and fully autonomous. That's exactly why I won't shy away from the direct, difficult conversation when it's needed: real respect means trusting someone enough to tell them the truth, not protecting them from it. My job is to create space for their thinking, not perform my own.

That combination now goes into four kinds of work — coaching, advisory, leadership team facilitation, and supervisory board work. See how it breaks down →

Backbone and heart, edge with empathy — that's not a slogan. It's the combination people tell me they experience in the room. I'd like to bring it to yours.

Read my full career story →  ·  Download my CV (PDF) ↓