Yelena Yugova

• Executive People & Culture lead for Brazil (3,000+ headcount), partnering with the local executive committee and overseeing Agronomy, Market (Sales & Marketing), and Factory during a period of major business model and organizational transformation.
• Led and scaled a 30+ People & Culture organization, delivering enterprise-wide transformation across talent, performance, organizational design, and workforce productivity.
• Rebuilt governance and operating rhythm from zero baseline to >90% cycle completion, ensuring full JSOX readiness and strong internal controls
• Owned workforce and cost optimization agenda end-to-end, delivering a $4M business case with direct P&L impact through FTE optimization.
• Improved talent, engagement, and DEI outcomes under crisis conditions, enabling large-scale commercial and functional redesign and increasing Employee Engagement Survey results.

• Executive leader for People & Culture across a three-country cluster, leading a team of 12 and partnering with the cluster executive committee to deliver a 2-year organizational and cultural transformation supporting business growth and innovation.
• Drove a cluster-wide people strategy aligned with global direction, enabling major organizational change, leadership capability uplift, and readiness for the company’s Reduced-Risk future.
• Elevated HR performance and employer reputation, achieving Top Employer #1 ranking across all three countries for three consecutive years, and becoming the first company in the assigned countries to obtain Global Equality Standard (GES) certification, setting a market benchmark for DEI.
• Delivered strong and sustainable people outcomes, reducing employee turnover below market benchmark and increasing employee engagement from 59% to 86% in Hungary while maintaining consistently high levels (85%+) in Czech Republic and Slovakia.

• Appointed to lead the HR function in Hungary on a short-term transformation assignment, building and leading a local HR team from inception.
• Played a key role in integrating three countries into a newly formed cluster, supporting organizational alignment, cultural shift, and the introduction of new ways of working aligned with evolving business models.

• Led Employee Relations and Rewards for an organization of 3,000+ employees, managing compliance, labor relations, and competitive total rewards, and leading a team of 15.
• Played a pivotal role in post-acquisition integration following the Donskoy Tabak acquisition, supporting organizational stability, workforce alignment, and optimized financial outcomes.
• Contributed to a global compensation modernization program, strengthening pay positioning and reward competitiveness across JTI worldwide.
• Led a cross-functional project to exit the Pension Fund, safeguarding approximately $20M in investments, while simultaneously orchestrating a full redesign of the JTI Savings Plan

Led local C&B strategy and launched Shares Purchasing plan and Sales Incentive Plan, later scaled as a global best practice.

Managed international mobility and compensation processes, including cost planning and reward governance for expatriate populations.

Project role, where led strategic development of commercial capabilities, supporting business model adaptation to regulatory change in close partnership with Sales, Marketing, General Management, and Geneva HQ.

HR Business Partner for ~300 employees across Almaty head office and regional operations

Secondment assignment: same responsibilities as in Aug-May 2014

Supported compensation, workforce planning, and SAP HR implementation, including regional expansion across Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Mongolia).

• Performed financial statement audits in accordance with IFRS for local and international clients, primarily within the resources sector (oil, gas, uranium, gold)