Initiative has appointed Erin Jakubans to the role of Chief People Officer, with the objective to engage, grow and retain the best talent across the company.
Jakubans brings a wealth of experience to the role, as well as a proven track record in areas like business and human resources strategy alignment, transformational change, talent management, leadership development, recruitment, inclusion and diversity, sustainability and people operations.
Jakubans’ appointment follows the resignation of Initiative’s previous Chief People Officer, Scott Laird, who today announced he was joining rival media company, GroupM, also as Chief People Officer.
Initiative CEO Melissa Fein thanked Laird for his time at Initiative, and welcomed newcomer, Jakubans, as a crucial part of the business, who reflected the agency’s award-winning commitment and focus on people and culture.
“Initiative is a business based on people and strong talent,” Fein said.
“I am confident we have found a fantastic leader in Erin, capable of strengthening our impressive talent base, whilst being a fierce champion of diversity, culture and nurturing our high-performance culture.
“We have found the most qualified person to collectively bring together the strengths of our most powerful resource – our people. I can’t wait to see how Erin takes our culture to the next level of maturity enabling Initiative Citizens to enjoy the best employee experience in the market.”
Jakubans – who is renowned for her expertise in leading the people, performance, and change agenda – joins Initiative following a distinguished global career in senior people leadership roles across the APAC and EMEA regions.
She was most recently Head of HR, UAE for Baker McKenzie in Dubai, prior to which she held senior HR leadership roles at GroupM and Omnicom Media Group.
Commenting on her new role, Jakubans said: “I am delighted to be given the opportunity to work alongside such a collaborative leadership team who are genuinely focused on talent and culture.
“It is people that create an extraordinary culture and results for our clients. I am looking forward to building an employee experience that attracts and retains world class talent through balancing people initiatives that engage “hearts” and “minds”.
“My goal is to strengthen Initiative’s best-in-class culture and ensure each and every one of our Initiative Citizens feel empowered and supported to do great work for themselves, their team and their clients, in an environment where they can bring their whole self to work, truly engage and thrive.”
Jakubans commences her new role from February 1, in which she will report directly to Fein.
