About Cecile
About Cecile Umaña
I've spent much of my career on the other side of the table.
About Cecile
I've spent much of my career on the other side of the table.
For more than three decades, I have worked in and around executive leadership — hiring leaders, developing talent, advising CEOs, navigating transformation and helping organisations make difficult people and business decisions.
I have led across countries, cultures and very different organisational realities. Along the way, I often became the person senior leaders came to when they needed to think out loud: not because I had a ready-made answer, but because I could listen without judgement, challenge their assumptions and help them see the situation more clearly.
I also know transition personally. I have navigated reinvention, international moves, uncertainty and changes that were not always planned. That experience shapes the way I work: practical, direct, human and grounded in the reality that professional decisions rarely exist in isolation from the person making them.
Today, I bring those perspectives together in my work with senior executives navigating pivotal moments in leadership and career.
The Role I Play
Sometimes you don't need another framework. You need the right person across the table.
01
A Sounding Board
A confidential, independent space to say what you may not be able to say elsewhere — and think through what is really happening.
02
A Truth Teller
I am not there simply to validate your thinking. When something needs to be questioned, we go there — with candour, perspective and respect.
03
A Strategic Mirror
Rather than handing you answers, I ask the questions that help surface patterns, assumptions and blind spots so you can reach stronger conclusions of your own.
International Perspective
Leadership changes across borders.
Leadership doesn't happen in a vacuum. Culture and context matter.
Having lived and worked across Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, I have seen first-hand that the behaviours that build trust, influence and credibility in one environment may land very differently in another.
That perspective is particularly valuable for international executives, regional leaders, expatriates and people navigating a new organisation, geography or culture.
Authority
Experience from inside the room.
30+ years of international leadership and People & Culture experience.
CHRO / CPO leadership experience.
Worked alongside CEOs, boards and executive teams across multiple regions.
Career experience spans Technology, Hospitality, Telecommunications and FMCG.
Co-author, The Pivot Architect (opens in a new tab).
Recognised as HR Leader of the Year (2025), Global 200 Power Leaders in HR (2024), 100 Most Influential Global HR Professionals (2018), and Top 50 HR Leaders in Asia (2017).