Dara has had a fascinating journey within the entertainment and media industry, from a tough lead negotiator at HBO to her current role as an empathetic people leader at a multi-billion dollar, publicly-traded company. In this interview, Dara talks about her transition from law to HR, how she successfully navigated the infamous 18-month long Sirius and XM merger, and why it pays to get personal with your team.

After a brief hiatus to focus on a few other endeavors, we're back with the latest installment of our Lieutenants Series. Hiral spent more than 14 years at one of the largest IT services firms on the planet where he led a $3B portfolio but wasn’t afraid to write himself into an active role on a customer contract or take career inspiration from a gym poster.

In our newest Lieutenant’s Q&A we interview John Cowan, who is currently the VP of finance at the technology company Tile. We discuss his professional curiosity, why it’s important to make mistakes and learn from them, and how his "healthy sense of paranoia" and growth mindset has served him over the years.

Cat is the SVP of global education at ServiceNow and has had an incredible career in learning, leadership development and organizational change. She's redefined what training and learning programs look like in the enterprise.

Zoë Harte is the Chief People Officer at Upwork. In this Q&A she talks about how Upwork manages its own hybrid and remote workforce, her role guiding talent innovation at the company, how HR can be a guidepost for culture, and why speaking the truth is so important.

To say that I am a strong advocate for a remote workforce may be putting it mildly.

In 2012, while CEO of Appirio, I had the opportunity to sit down with Adam Bryant, who was writing the New York Times' Corner Office column, to talk about our company culture and some of my personal philosophies on the topic.

When it comes to hiring and working with sales leaders, there are a few who are exceptional, a few who are terrible, and many somewhere in-between.

I had the opportunity to speak with leadership expert Mike Robbins a few weeks ago for his podcast "We're All In This Together" about the culture we built at Appirio and some of the lessons I've learned over the years.

When thinking about what I’d do after leaving the helm of Appirio, I contemplated many options.

Building a great company culture is a lot like building a great brand.

I get to meet with a lot of growth-stage entrepreneurs in my current role at GGV, and some of the most common questions I get from these leaders revolve around scaling teams

I abhor conference calls. This might seem like a fairly dramatic statement, but as a former founder and CEO, an entrepreneur, and the current head of culture at a large international company, I believe conference calls can suck the life out of a company.

Many companies talk about it. But seeing the profitability in adapting a new type of management style, operations, recruiting and training, and setting goals that coordinate with a positive work culture isn’t always clear.

A few months ago I officially moved out of the CEO role at Appirio, a services firm I co-founded more than 12 years ago to take on the role of Global Culture Officer at Wipro.

Tomorrow’s leaders will be defined by the culture they craft, not the products they create. Some may argue against this statement, but let me explain why I believe this to be true.

Living with outdated technology is like living in a house with asbestos. Most homeowners know asbestos can hurt them, but the pain and expense of ripping it out is overwhelming enough that it remains.

Culture and cloud. Who knew such small, nebulous words could have such a big impact on a business?

As a CEO, I spend a lot of time thinking and talking with others about business priorities, and invariably, company culture rises to the top during these conversations.