Find out how Kimberly Kolb scales global HR at Sphera by prioritizing mission-driven agility and a focus on growth through diverse experiences.
Julie Colwell
Principal Strategist
Workday
When Kimberly Kolb talks about her career, she doesn't talk about following a roadmap. She talks about zigzags.
"A career path is defined by a company. It's the progression of titles on a specific career trajectory," she explains. "A career journey is what you define for yourself. It's the collection of experiences."
Kolb's own journey has been intentionally non-linear. From Accenture to the U.S. Futures Exchange to tech companies and consulting firms, she's taken sideways moves in pursuit of new experiences. "Sometimes I took steps that might have looked backwards, but for me, it was pursuing a new experience," she says. "I want to be in roles that let me learn new things and grow professionally."
As Chief Human Resources Officer at Sphera, that philosophy shapes how she leads. The company has grown over the past nine years through both organic expansion and acquisition, and Kolb has been building an HR function that can scale while maintaining what she calls a palpable mission-driven culture.
"I want to be in roles that let me learn new things and grow professionally."
Report
Sphera provides integrated risk management software and data. But Kolb describes it more simply. "We protect the Earth and her people. We want to ensure that people are safe, the planet is sustainable, and that companies are productive."
That mission attracts a particular kind of environmentally conscious employee. People who want their work to matter. Kolb's job is to build an HR infrastructure that can support them across more than 20 countries and multiple time zones while preparing for continued growth.
“HR does more than support operations. Not only do we handle the weeds and the landscape, but we’re also always scanning ahead.” For Sphera, that means anticipating growth through acquisition and geographic expansion, which requires the right people, the right technology, and the right processes.
Kolb sees three critical elements for supporting a global, growing organization.
First, be data-driven. "We can combine the information we have to give us workforce insight that lets us forecast, plan, and prepare for what's coming."
Second, global alignment with local flexibility. The ability to roll out programs that support global goals while accommodating regional regulations and cultural norms.
Third, support the employee experience to drive performance. "If we support personal and career growth, we can increase employee desire to stay. That drives their individual performance, subsequently team performance, and ultimately company performance."
"If we support personal and career growth, we can increase employee desire to stay. That drives individual, team, and ultimately company performance."
As a multinational technology company, talent acquisition and retention require constant adaptation. Kolb's team needs experts who can find candidates with specific skills in particular countries, and with the right language capabilities.
"Having a team with agility to find talent based on the dynamic marketplace is critical," she says. "As the world and technology change, how we support them needs to evolve as well."
The technology foundation enables this agility by handling routine information management, freeing HR to focus on higher-value work like designing engagement programs, supporting career development, and preparing the organization for what's ahead. Self-service capabilities let employees around the world seek information and get answers at their convenience. Less redundancy. More time for strategy.
Kolb has witnessed major workforce shifts over her three-decade career. She has navigated massive shifts—from the Y2K mass hiring surge and the 24/7 demands of the BlackBerry era, to the fundamental restructuring of remote work during the pandemic. Through each disruption, her mindset was to look for the positive. "I asked myself how I could contribute to being part of the solution."
She quotes a phrase she tries to live by. "It will all work out in the end. So if it hasn't worked out yet, we're just not at the end."
Outside work, Kolb's guiding principle comes from her father, who passed away three years ago. "He taught us that if you can help someone, you should. We would be driving around, and if we saw someone broken down, we stopped and he helped them."
That manifests both formally and informally. She's volunteered reading to the blind, worked at hospitals, and currently serves as a commissioner at her local firehouse. Informally, she gravitates toward helping people who are job searching. "Someone in my network is always looking for a job, and if I can help, I try."
When asked what she's most proud of in her career, which includes being a core team member on two IPOs, Kolb doesn't mention her own success. She points to the achievements of her colleagues. "I love helping other people be successful. One of my former staff is now a CHRO and another runs his own consulting firm."
Her goal as a leader is to create an environment where people feel enabled to show their best, to contribute their best, to learn as they go, and to grow in their own career. "If we do that for the individual, we actually benefit the company along the way as well."
As Sphera looks toward the future, Kolb sees AI as a tool to amplify human capabilities. "We're excited about AI's ability to support the HR team and certainly HR ops, the core of data for the company," she says.
The key is balance. Technology handles routine tasks, enabling people to practice what she calls the best part of being human - empathy, discernment, and critical thinking.
For someone whose career advice centers on journey over path, it's a fitting approach. Use technology to handle the routine, preserve human judgment for what matters, and keep asking whether you're learning and growing along the way.
"We're excited about AI's ability to support the HR team and certainly HR ops, the core of data for the company."
Report
In the past decade HR has undergone a major evoluton from a supportive role to a strategic one. However, as this report finds, HR teams are more conservative on AI than finance and IT. That makes the potential competitive advantage even greater—learn more below.