Chief of Staff to the CHRO: Inside HR’s newest strategic role

Is the People function becoming too complex for the CHRO to lead alone?

As HR agendas become broader, faster and more business-critical, a new role is emerging around senior People leaders: the Chief of Staff to the CHRO.

Sometimes seen as a strategic force multiplier, sometimes mistaken for a senior EA, and sometimes operating as the hidden engine behind the CHRO agenda, the role is becoming one of the most interesting — and least understood — positions in modern HR.

In this meetup, we’ll move beyond the job title to examine what the Chief of Staff to the CHRO actually does in practice, and what it reveals about the way modern People functions are led.

We’ll be joined by two leaders who know the role from the inside:

• Juleah Szopo, Chief of Staff to the CHRO at Netflix
• Mark Chamberlain, former Chief of Staff to the CHRO at BT Group

Together, we’ll explore where the role creates real strategic value, where it can become unclear or overextended, and what senior HR leaders should think about before introducing, shaping or relying on a CoS role in their own organisation.

This is not a case for or against the CHRO Chief of Staff. It is a critical conversation about leadership capacity, strategic execution, governance, influence and accountability inside the People function.

Because not every CHRO needs a CoS.

In some organisations, the role is a sign of maturity, focus and strategic ambition. In others, it may be a workaround for unclear priorities, slow decision-making, bloated governance or an overwhelmed leadership team.

And in many cases, the person with the most influence on the People agenda may not be the person with the most visible title.

This conversation is for senior HR leaders who want to examine how People functions really operate, how strategy gets translated into action, and whether the CHRO Chief of Staff role creates clarity, pace and impact, or simply adds another layer.

We’ll explore…

• Is the CoS a strategic operator, culture translator, execution engine or executive comfort blanket?
• Should every CHRO have one, or only the ones facing a specific leadership or execution challenge?
• How much influence should a CoS have without formal ownership?
• How does the role connect the People agenda to business strategy, decision-making and delivery?
• What does great look like, and how should impact be measured?
• Where can the role blur accountability, duplicate governance or mask deeper operating model issues?
• Why might the best Chief of Staff talent not come from HR at all?

You’ll leave with…

• A clearer view of what the CHRO Chief of Staff role is, and what it is not
• Honest insight into the problems the role can solve, and the problems it might accidentally hide
• Practical reflections on whether your People function could benefit from a Chief of Staff role
• A sharper understanding of how the role can connect HR priorities to business strategy and execution
• Peer perspectives from leaders who have lived the role in complex, high-profile organisations
• Better questions to challenge how your own People leadership team operates

Who should attend

This session is designed for CHROs, Chiefs of Staff, senior HR leaders and People executives working inside organisations.

To protect the quality and relevance of the conversation, priority will be given to in-house People and HR leaders.

It is for those thinking seriously about the future shape of the People function, and whether the way HR is led today is fit for what the business needs next.

More about the speakers

Juleah Szopo
Chief of Staff to the CHRO
at Netflix

Juleah Szopo is Chief of Staff to the CHRO at Netflix, working close to the People leadership priorities that shape talent, culture and organisational effectiveness inside one of the world’s most recognised entertainment companies.

In this role, Juleah sits at the centre of complex, high-impact work across the People function – helping connect leadership alignment, strategic execution and organisational insight as Netflix continues to understand, maintain and evolve its high-performance culture, strong talent philosophy and unconventional approach

Her work brings together a rare combination of perspectives across culture, talent, people analytics, learning, organisational development and employee experience. She has played a key role in shaping how Netflix develops talent, strengthens leadership and enables effective teams and organisations at scale.

With experience across high tech, entertainment, financial services and energy, Juleah brings a broad, strategic view of what it takes to make People strategy work in practice inside fast-moving, global organisations.

Mark Chamberlain
Former Chief of Staff to the CHRO
at BT Group

Mark Chamberlain is a Chief of Staff and transformation leader with deep experience operating at the intersection of people, operating model design, technology and organisational change.

During almost nine years at BT Group, Mark played a central role in major transformation work across one of the UK’s most complex enterprise environments. His work brought together HR operating model change, AI-enabled service optimisation, governance, leadership alignment, cost transformation and the practical mechanisms needed to make change executable.

At BT, Mark helped connect People strategy with operational reality – building the rhythms, decision rights, dashboards and governance that enabled senior leaders to move from ambition to execution. His perspective is shaped by the often invisible work behind transformation: aligning competing priorities, strengthening executive capability, surfacing organisational tension early and building the capability for change to keep delivering beyond the programme itself.

Mark brings a rare enterprise view of what it takes to modernise HR at scale: not just redesigning structures, but creating the leadership discipline, operating system and organisational muscle needed for complex transformation to land in practice.