Meet Badia Rebolledo Abud
In a corporate world often dominated by polished slogans and performative leadership, Badia Rebolledo Abud(who likes to be called Badi) stands out for one reason: she tells the truth and gets results. Based in Mexico City, Mexico, Badia has spent over two decades transforming HR across industries like FMCG, fintech, retail, and technology. She currently serves as a board member at LanAhora and was named one of the Top 10 Most Admired Women HR Executives in 2024 and Mexico’s Influential HR Leader Driving Strategic Change and Business Excellence 2025. Known for her ability to call out broken systems, realign strategy with people, and lead without a filter, Badia is also the host of the podcast PeopleCOn2GrandesRazones, where she breaks down workplace myths with unflinching clarity. Her belief in leading with integrity, not performance has made her a defining voice in modern HR.
Curiosity over Convention: A Career That Found Her
She didn’t launch her career with a five-year plan or a motivational quote pinned to her vision board. In her own words, she “stumbled in, curious, slightly broke, and a little too vocal for someone just starting out.” What she lacked in formality, she made up for in intuition. And what began as a practical decision quickly turned into a calling.
With a degree in Psychology from Simon Fraser University, Badia entered the workforce with no illusions and even fewer filters. Her early days at Procter & Gamble were less about climbing ladders and more about understanding what made people tick, what broke systems, and who really pulled the strings behind polished policies.
“I wasn’t chasing a title; I was chasing impact,” she reflects, and that impact began with listening harder, speaking up when others stayed silent, and saying yes to projects that made no promises but offered plenty of risk.
Her introduction to Human Resources came by accident or fate. During her P&G interview, someone saw something in her others might’ve missed.
“She described HR as the nerve center of the company, where people and strategy collide. I took the leap. Best impulsive decision I ever made.”
Climbing Without a Script
From there, Badia’s path through HR wasn’t carved, it was clawed. She didn’t take the elevator; “she took the stairs. In heels. Sometimes barefoot. And made sure every step left a dent.” She spent over a decade at P&G, growing into regional roles across Venezuela, Panama, and Mexico, handling everything from customer team management to leading HR for Latin America.
Her journey continued through some of the world’s most recognized organizations. At Nestlé, she introduced systems that optimized 50% of payroll processes for 6,000 employees. At Siemens, she eliminated 35% of manual workflows and launched organizational development tools across six production facilities. Beiersdorf saw her drive a 200,000-euro ROI through a three-year talent strategy while landing the company in the 97th percentile of Gallup’s global engagement scale. Yet her leadership style was never about metrics, it was about moments. The kind where culture is decided not in boardrooms, but in how people act when no one’s watching. Discover more here.
“Culture isn’t a slogan on a wall or pixie dust in the air. Culture is how people behave when no one’s watching.”
Redefining People-First Leadership
By the time she took on the role of Chief People Officer at Krispy Kreme Mexico, Badia had already learned to balance strategy with humanity. But this role brought a different kind of challenge: reshaping a company’s cultural DNA after acquisition, all while scaling retention, engagement, and leadership at the shop floor level.
“Success in People isn’t about ping-pong tables or engagement surveys with pretty graphs. It’s when people are genuinely growing.”
She didn’t just lead change. She redefined what people-first leadership actually looks like in an environment that demands both speed and stability. From shift scheduling innovations to communication overhauls, Krispy Kreme Mexico posted the highest employee engagement participation in the country’s division globally, rising from 72% to 85%.
On Leadership: No Politics, No Performances
Today, Badia is a respected board member at LanAhora and a vocal figure in the HR community. Her leadership philosophy is clear, unfiltered, and far from conventional: “Leadership isn’t about being the smartest person in the room, it’s about knowing when to shut up and listen.
She leads with radical transparency, a non-negotiable backbone, and a human-first approach. She doesn’t micromanage. She doesn’t posture. What she does is create space for ideas, discomfort, and innovation.
“You can’t ask people to be creative while micromanaging them into a coma.”
She champions autonomy, celebrates thoughtful missteps, and believes trust is built in the trenches not through slogans, but through presence.
Strategic Evolution in HR
Across every sector she has worked in, including FMCG, retail, fintech, and tech, Badia’s biggest victories come from strategic clarity. She has tackled everything from reengineering compensation plans to streamlining recruitment processes that scaled hiring over 300% in just months. She’s navigated rigid hierarchies in FMCG, high turnover in retail, and unchecked speed in fintech. Each challenge came down to one root issue: misalignment.
“Different industries, same truth: if you don’t align people strategy with business reality, you’re just spinning your wheels.”
And while she’s fluent in data analytics and integrates AI into HR processes, she keeps her sights on the outcome, not the buzzword.
“If your data isn’t tied to actual business outcomes or you’re using AI to automate bad processes, you’re just decorating reports.”
Championing Talent, Not Just Acquisition
For Badia, success isn’t about how many new résumés fill the pipeline, it’s about whether the people who already said “yes” are still growing, still speaking up, and still choosing to stay. “One finds the spark, the other keeps the fire going.” That’s how she defines the balance between talent acquisition and development.
She doesn’t believe in one-size-fits-all leadership development either. Mentorship and customized growth plans are part of her long-term strategy. And she sees the Employee Value Proposition not as a marketing line, but a product that must be tested and validated through lived experience. “If you say ‘flexibility’ but micromanage, they’ll run.”
Global Perspective, Local Integrity
In her work across borders and cultures, Badia embraces complexity. She doesn’t enforce culture from a slide deck. Instead, she listens deeply and leads with empathy, allowing space for regional nuance while maintaining strategic cohesion.
“Diversity only works if inclusion is real. You can’t lead across cultures if you’re not willing to listen across them first.”
She also doesn’t shy away from resistance. Whether it’s discomfort with HR transformation or pushback against cultural shifts, Badia names the tension early, faces it head-on, and keeps the message clear.
“Some resistance is valid. I listen to it. But I don’t let it stall progress.”
PeopleCon2GrandesRazones: The Podcast That Says What Others Won’t
Badia’s voice doesn’t stop at the boardroom, it breaks through the noise with her bold podcast, PeopleCon2GrandesRazones. In a landscape full of polished narratives and safe leadership talk, her show delivers the opposite: raw, uncomfortable truths about work, leadership, and the illusions many professionals are forced to navigate. For leaders and professionals alike, PeopleCon2GrandesRazones offers not just truth but permission. To question. To reset. To lead without the mask. The final intent is to bring solutions and ideas to the table so companies/professionals can take advise and ideas already tested and apply them, for them to know that it is not all bad and there are solutions that even with tight budgets can be done, but tough decisions need to be taken.
She sets the tone right away. “If you like corporate bullshit, this podcast is NOT for you.”
Each episode is laced with dark humor, sharp insight, and one key promise: discomfort in service of clarity.
“Burnout is NOT a trophy. But many companies sell it to you that way.”
“You can be replaced in 5 minutes, but the impact you leave is what matters.”
Her podcast isn’t just commentary, it’s a challenge to the entire corporate culture machine. Through these conversations, Badia doesn’t just echo what professionals feel, she articulates it with clarity and consequence. She’s created a space where unspoken frustrations become strategy, and where “career advice” doesn’t hide behind a performance.
“Small habits, big blunders… there’s a whole professional tribe out there perfecting the art of slowing down on their own.”
Reshaping HR for a New Era
In a world where HR used to mean policies and compliance, Badia is part of the movement reshaping it into a strategic engine. She champions the integration of AI and analytics, but only when tied to outcomes that matter.
From shifting job roles to building adaptive leadership pipelines, she’s building teams that grow businesses, not just fill gaps.
Her EVP strategy? Treat it like a product. Test it, measure it, and be bold enough to evolve when it’s not working.
Legacy Without a Mask
As one of the Top 10 Most Admired Women HR Executives in 2024, Badia doesn’t measure success by awards or titles. Her legacy is rooted in integrity, courage, and humanity.
“I hope my legacy is a loud, unapologetic reminder that leadership doesn’t have to come at the cost of humanity.”
Whether she’s on stage, in the boardroom, or behind a microphone, Badia leads with clear values: honesty, empathy, and accountability.
Her advice to young professionals? “Forget the polished path. This field needs brave, messy, sharp thinkers, not just rule followers.”
She wants to be remembered not as a model to copy, but as a signal that it’s okay to lead differently. “I don’t want to be a blueprint. I want to be a permission slip.”
Empowering Lessons from the Path of Badia Rebolledo
- “Fail fast, learn faster.” Success teaches little; growth comes from the aftershocks of getting it wrong and showing up wiser.
- “If you’re too comfortable, you’re already outdated.” Curiosity, not certainty is her most valuable leadership tool.
- “Leadership isn’t performance, it’s presence.” Badia leads by showing up with honesty, not by playing a part.
- “Don’t wait to be invited. Speak up.” Her call to action for future leaders: be bold, be messy, be meaningful.
Editorial Note
Badia Rebolledo Abud’s journey is a vivid portrait of leadership without pretense. Every insight, every transformation, and every breakthrough she has delivered comes from her own experience which is unfiltered and authentic. Her story is more than a narrative of professional growth; it’s a call for a more human, courageous, and transparent future of work.
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