Caroline Zilinski da Cruz

Reporting to a Regional HR structure and the country CEO, I´m responsible for leading the full Human Resources agenda in Brazil, supporting business transformation and strengthening organizational capabilities in a dynamic and growth-oriented environment. - Designed and started executing the People Strategy aligned with business priorities, ensuring integration between organizational needs, governance standards, and long-term growth objectives. - Act as a strategic partner to senior leadership, influencing decision-making on organizational design, workforce planning, and talent strategy, balancing business performance with people sustainability. - Lead the evolution of HR operations and governance, strengthening HR compliance, labour relations practices, and risk mitigation, ensuring adherence to legal and regulatory frameworks. - Drive leadership development and succession planning initiatives, enhancing the leadership pipeline and supporting executives through coaching, feedback, and capability building. - Advance a data-driven HR approach, structuring people metrics and insights to support decision-making and improve organizational effectiveness. - Support cultural transformation by reinforcing accountability, performance mindset, and engagement, while promoting an inclusive and collaborative work environment. - Partner with business and functional leaders to identify organizational gaps and implement pragmatic, scalable solutions across the HR portfolio. Key Contributions - Elevated the strategic positioning of HR within the business, enhancing leadership alignment and quality of decision-making. - Advanced leadership capability and organizational effectiveness through targeted development and talent initiatives.

As HR Director, I was responsible for all HR subsystems for approximately 2,000 employees in Brazil. In this role I: - Designed, implemented, and updated the short- and long-term People Strategy and Budget, aligning business needs, employee expectations, and market trends in People Management. - Developed and implemented People Data Management, from defining KPIs to analyzing metrics, providing leadership with insights (People Dashboard Analytics) and ensuring strategic alignment with business objectives. - Revamped the Leadership Development Program for all levels, training talents in the succession pipeline and updating leadership concepts for senior executives, strengthening the strategy for team growth and engagement. - Transformed the training culture into a continuous (Lifelong Learning) and digital approach, quadrupling training hours over four years, focusing on Technology and Soft Skills. - Established the Employee Experience area, enhancing processes from recruitment to offboarding (Hire-to-Retire), monitoring employee satisfaction, and driving continuous improvements in collaboration with related teams. - Partnered with key central areas such as Communication, IT, Health & Safety, among others, developing tailored solutions and mitigating labor and regulatory risks. - Reviewed and adapted benefits, employment contract models (from on-site to hybrid), and job structures to reflect market changes and employee needs. - Strengthened the Diversity & Inclusion Program by engaging executive leadership, improving recruitment and promotion practices, supporting talent development, and launching the Generational Pillar. These initiatives increased representation and earned four consecutive Diversity Badges from the São Paulo Government (2021-2024). - Represented the company in external forums, promoting best practices and innovation in talent management.

Responsible for Digital Industry (DI) and Portfolio Operating Companies (POC) with a total of approximately 1.000 employees. My main responsibilities were focused on the Executive leadership, where I: - Discussed and adapted the HR Strategic Plan based on the necessity of each business. - Analyzed and defined People Structure, People Allocation, Knowledge Management and Engagement with them to make decisions and implement necessary actions. - Managed and evaluated Performance, Potential, Succession Plan/Pipeline and Mapping of Talents. - Implemented innovative actions to University Relations, Employee Value Proposition (EVP), Trainee´s and Intern´s Program, - Led a high-performance team, autonomous and with high critical analyses that implemented all the HR tools and processes, understood the necessities of the business and developed efficient and innovative solutions to achieve the expected results. - Implemented projects and actions such as Parental Leave by surrogacy benefit to LGBTI+ public; Carve in and carve out of PD MD and Chemtech; Cultural Transition and Change Management to these businesses; Sales Boost through technical trainings, behavioral development; Increase the leaders pipeline and reduce the turnover.

As an Advisory Board Member of the Siemens Foundation, I contributed to defining policies, regulations, and strategies to guide the foundation’s activities, ensuring transparency, integrity, and alignment with its social and educational objectives. I oversaw and evaluated the progress of projects focused on innovation, technology, and social impact, ensuring the effectiveness of initiatives. Additionally, I represented the foundation at events and strategic forums, strengthening institutional partnerships and promoting actions aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). I actively contributed to the sustainability of programs, driving innovative solutions that reinforced the Siemens Foundation’s commitment to social transformation.

Supported approximately 600 employees across Sales, Marketing, Services, Corporate Areas, and Business Units. My primary responsibilities with my team were directly focused on business leaders, where I: - Defined the optimal organizational structure by analyzing current data and future business challenges. - Conducted in-depth talent assessments to guide and monitor employee development in the short, medium, and long term. - Developed succession plans for key business positions to build a strong leadership pipeline. - Empowered leaders with People Management skills to effectively execute these actions. - Provided Mentoring & Coaching to line managers and employees, helping them navigate business challenges, address management, development, and learning issues, and implement appropriate action plans. - Increased Employee Engagement survey results by more than 10 points across multiple areas. - Designed and implemented the HR KPIs Project, enabling a more strategic approach to People Planning through Business.

- Over nearly 5 years at Unilever, I held two distinct roles, starting as an HR Business Partner Analyst in the B2B Division for Latin America and later stepping into my first HR leadership position as HR Business Partner Coordinator in a factory. In these roles, I developed and implemented HR strategies aligned with business objectives, always focusing on evolving organizational structures and fostering people development. - In the B2B Division, I supported 300 employees across 6 countries, with a focus on executing corporate programs such as performance cycles, engagement surveys, action plans, recognition programs, and training. One of my key achievements was the creation and implementation of the Leadership Development Program for the sales team, along with increasing engagement scores by 10 points through initiatives focused on internal communication and team development. - At the Pouso Alegre factory, with 1,000 employees, I was responsible for diagnosing organizational challenges and implementing tailored solutions, as well as optimizing recruitment, training, and career planning processes. Among my achievements, I highlight the 12-point increase in engagement survey scores, leadership in the HR services transition project (in partnership with Accenture and ADP), and the implementation of the WCM Project (People & Development Pillar). - These experiences allowed me to develop a strategic HR perspective, focused on delivering tangible results aligned with local and corporate business needs.

Supported approximately 200 consultants in clients such as Estado´s Group, Citibank, Sony, Sky, EDS, Drogasil, DASA and Amil, with the objective of providing the complete onboarding of the consultants to the client and developing them professionally and personally for the good performance of their activities and possible growth within the company they were in. In order to help this happen I executed HR processes as: Onboarding, Functional Follow-up, 180º and 360º Feedback, Client and Consultant Needs Assessment, Technical and Behavioral Training, Motivational Campaigns, Coaching, and Reallocation of Consultants as a Career Plan.

Implemented the Human Resources Department through the development and management of projects such as: Recruitment by Competence, Onboarding, Training & Development and Termination Program. I also carried out the description of the functions of the Institution, implemented and executed a Psychological Shift to assist employees and an Evaluation & Performance Review.

During this period I had the opportunity to experience the attendance to different businesses through HR practices. I conducted Recruitment and Training activities, organized large HR events, and gained in-depth knowledge of labor relations, contracts, and documentation.