Hello! My name is Leah (lay-uh, like the Princess). 👋🏼

VP of People & Talent Strategic Leader

I help growing companies turn values into operating systems — from hiring and performance to compensation and culture. I joined Help Scout as the 25th hire and built the People function as the company scaled to 130+ teammates globally. Today, I lead a team of seven across Talent, Total Rewards, Business Partners, and People Operations.

I’m known for:

Partnering with executives through growth, change, and hard people decisions
Designing performance systems that actually improve clarity and accountability
Building equitable, market-aware compensation frameworks that scale
Using data and AI to make People teams more strategic and less reactive
Creating dynamic, effective hiring processes that identify top talent
Building strong remote-first cultures rooted in trust and autonomy

How I operate:

People strategy is business strategy
The best People leaders help companies make better decisions — about growth, structure, risk, and tradeoffs — not just culture.

Systems over heroics
I design durable People systems that scale, reduce friction for leaders, and make good decisions repeatable over time.

Equity requires intention
Fairness isn’t sameness. I build transparent, market-aware systems for compensation, performance, and opportunity that hold up as companies grow.

Managers are the multiplier
Strong managers are the biggest lever for performance and engagement. I invest heavily in clarity, capability, and accountability at the manager level.

Advisory engagements

Advising and partnering with startups on product and GTM strategy across the people and talent ecosystem

Luna Park is a game engine designed for collaborative workplace games to help remote and hybrid teams connect more meaningfully through play.

CandorIQ is a unified platform to streamline compensation, headcount planning, and retention for people-focused organizations.

Selected talks, podcasts, and writing

I love partnering with companies, leaders, and communities who are thinking deeply about how People systems support long-term success. I’ve spoken at conferences, internal leadership offsites, podcasts, and company events.

If you’re looking for a thoughtful, experienced People operator who’s been in the seat — I’d love to connect.