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Interview
Oliver Sam
CHRO, VDart
Oliver Sam is the Chief Human Resources Officer at VDart Group, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. With over two decades of global experience across eight major cities, he brings a strategic blend of business insights and deep expertise in human capital, culture transformation, and organizational development. At VDart, he has led enterprise-wide initiatives in talent strategy, leadership development, ESG, and social impact, embedding the company’s purpose and vision into the core employee, client, and partner experience. Oliver has played a pivotal role in driving business diversification and international market expansion. An alumnus of the Tuck School of Business Executive Education program, his leadership approach has been recognized in Harvard Business Review and NACRA case study and co-authored on culture and resilience with Emerald Publishing. In 2025, he was honored as CHRO of the Year by the PeopleFirst Excellence Awards and named HR Leader of the Year by the Financial Express HR Awards.
Q:How do you see the very definition of “work” evolving in the next decade, and what role will HR play in shaping organizations where humans and technology coexist meaningfully rather than competitively?
A:• Today, work has evolved to encompass the virtues of agility, adaptability, learning and collaboration. With digitization and now AI, this has created a paradigm shift in the meaning of work. Like it or not, we are moving swiftly toward an era of AI dominance. For small and medium-sized organizations, ramping up digitization and leveraging AI is crucial to bridge the gap with enterprises that have already advanced beyond automation.
• What AI cannot completely replicate are human psychological complexities and connections, and that is where HR’s real strength lies. Technology in HR is already enabling data-driven insights, automating administrative work, and improving efficiency. To be truly strategic, HR must now use technology to become a business value generator through leveraging predictive analytics for hiring, skills, and well-being. The real differentiator will be how HR uses AI to create meaningful experiences and build a culture focused on prevention and continuous improvement, rather than reacting with costly fixes.
• What AI cannot completely replicate are human psychological complexities and connections, and that is where HR’s real strength lies. Technology in HR is already enabling data-driven insights, automating administrative work, and improving efficiency. To be truly strategic, HR must now use technology to become a business value generator through leveraging predictive analytics for hiring, skills, and well-being. The real differentiator will be how HR uses AI to create meaningful experiences and build a culture focused on prevention and continuous improvement, rather than reacting with costly fixes.
Q:In a world where connection is often virtual and teams are globally dispersed, how can leaders preserve culture, belonging, and purpose — and how must leadership itself be reimagined to remain relevant?
A:•The way leadership is perceived has changed fundamentally. It is no longer restricted to hierarchy, authority or proximity to power. Leadership is more about trust, influence, and purpose, anchored by the ability to envision and inspire. Leaders who demonstrate these behaviors naturally create a culture of belonging.
•When virtual work environments have become the norm, leaders must bridge the physical divide with intention through clarity and making people feel seen, respected, and valued. Leadership is less about control and more about coherence. The culture should be to promote psychological safety, intentional feedback and bonding rituals.
•Managers must evolve from merely being performance-evaluators to being value-anchored performance enablers, aligning people through trust and empathy so teams feel motivated and connected wherever they are. Leaders must reinvent themselves to create meaningful experiences that bring out the best in people to build great organizations.
•When virtual work environments have become the norm, leaders must bridge the physical divide with intention through clarity and making people feel seen, respected, and valued. Leadership is less about control and more about coherence. The culture should be to promote psychological safety, intentional feedback and bonding rituals.
•Managers must evolve from merely being performance-evaluators to being value-anchored performance enablers, aligning people through trust and empathy so teams feel motivated and connected wherever they are. Leaders must reinvent themselves to create meaningful experiences that bring out the best in people to build great organizations.
Q:As organizations shift from role-based to skill-based structures, what strategic pivots must HR make to build agile talent ecosystems that anticipate rather than react to change?
A:•When work itself is being redefined, it transforms how organizations view talent. Agility becomes strategy not based on hierarchy but on the fluidity of skills that can be moved or molded based on immediate business imperatives. For HR, this means pivoting from workforce planning to workforce sensing by being in sync with evolving capabilities, motivations, and aspirations within the organization.
•Again, HR must enable a culture of embedding learning in daily work where skills become the talent currency than credentials. HR has to create systems that leverage this fluidity to map, mobilize, and reward skills dynamically, supported by analytics that predict needs rather than respond or react to gaps. A Workday Study on Future of Work reported that 81% of leaders see skills-based strategies as a competitive advantage, being key drivers of productivity, innovation, and agility.
•The future-ready HR function will be one that shapes organizational intelligence where AI fuels growth- both of the business and the People to drive value.
•Again, HR must enable a culture of embedding learning in daily work where skills become the talent currency than credentials. HR has to create systems that leverage this fluidity to map, mobilize, and reward skills dynamically, supported by analytics that predict needs rather than respond or react to gaps. A Workday Study on Future of Work reported that 81% of leaders see skills-based strategies as a competitive advantage, being key drivers of productivity, innovation, and agility.
•The future-ready HR function will be one that shapes organizational intelligence where AI fuels growth- both of the business and the People to drive value.
Q:With automation and AI reshaping every function, how can CHROs ensure that transformation remains human-centered — where technology amplifies empathy, creativity, and inclusion rather than eroding them?
A:•Transformation should not be driven by herd-behavior or only to pursue efficiency . People Leaders need to be mindful that employees often look for signals during periods of change. Even small cues can fuel uncertainty or anxiety. Transformation has to be embarked upon thoughtfully, with objectives and goals aligned to ethical, inclusive principles.
•Transparency in communication about the implementation of AI-led tools or processes is necessary to allay concerns or fears, if any. They need to constantly advocate the significance of agility and continuous learning to evolve with the times. It should free people from mundane, repetitive tasks and empower them to discover new paths of growth, creativity and innovation, redefining work and performance. AI should enable leaders to understand patterns, identify and eliminate biases to plug inclusion and talent gaps. True transformation is creating an HR function that is insights-driven, ensuring every layer of technology from analytics to experience designing reflect values while simultaneously improving efficiency.
•Transparency in communication about the implementation of AI-led tools or processes is necessary to allay concerns or fears, if any. They need to constantly advocate the significance of agility and continuous learning to evolve with the times. It should free people from mundane, repetitive tasks and empower them to discover new paths of growth, creativity and innovation, redefining work and performance. AI should enable leaders to understand patterns, identify and eliminate biases to plug inclusion and talent gaps. True transformation is creating an HR function that is insights-driven, ensuring every layer of technology from analytics to experience designing reflect values while simultaneously improving efficiency.
Q:Employees today seek meaning, autonomy, and trust as much as career growth. How do you see the “social contract” between employer and employee evolving, and how should organizations redefine fairness and accountability in this new context?
A:•People's perceptions of employment, identity, and value have changed, and this has been considerably influenced by global socioeconomic and political events . Today, workplaces have become an extension of life and this has raised the expectations for respect and meaning. Employees . want to be seen as individuals who seek purpose in what they do, who possess qualities beyond technical skills and be empowered to lead.
•In this evolved context of work, fairness becomes more about equity and transparency, providing people what they need to thrive rather than a standard or default approach of treating everyone equally. This involves shifting accountability from hierarchical control to shared responsibility and ownership. For organizations, it means reinforcing psychological safety and nurturing ownership, rethinking how feedback, recognition and consequences are applied and reflecting values irrespective of positional authority.
•So, the evolved social contract is a shared, intentional commitment where employers take the lead and employees reciprocate.
•In this evolved context of work, fairness becomes more about equity and transparency, providing people what they need to thrive rather than a standard or default approach of treating everyone equally. This involves shifting accountability from hierarchical control to shared responsibility and ownership. For organizations, it means reinforcing psychological safety and nurturing ownership, rethinking how feedback, recognition and consequences are applied and reflecting values irrespective of positional authority.
•So, the evolved social contract is a shared, intentional commitment where employers take the lead and employees reciprocate.
Q:The CHRO’s role is no longer confined to people operations but extends to shaping business strategy. How do you envision the CHRO’s influence evolving as a co-architect of organizational resilience and purpose in the years ahead?
A:•We are in an era shaped by black swan events like the pandemic, the dominance of AI, widespread digitization and even social awakening movements. Organizations need CHROs who can intelligently straddle both business and people needs. This expanded role now demands the ability to steer a company that is agile and resilient, grounded in purpose and values with its People.
•Take the idea of a company’s Brand Promise. It’s often viewed as a domain of Sales or Marketing, something that is experienced by clients and customers. But for Brand Promise to hold real meaning, it has to move beyond words and become a lived experience by its employees which becomes the responsibility of the CHRO.
•CHROs need to be prescient, able to anticipate shifts in technology, talent expectations, and even social priorities building systems that are adaptive, inspiring and visionary rather than reactive. The CHRO who brings long-term thinking to the table earns not just a seat at the board but a decisive voice in shaping the organization’s future.
•Take the idea of a company’s Brand Promise. It’s often viewed as a domain of Sales or Marketing, something that is experienced by clients and customers. But for Brand Promise to hold real meaning, it has to move beyond words and become a lived experience by its employees which becomes the responsibility of the CHRO.
•CHROs need to be prescient, able to anticipate shifts in technology, talent expectations, and even social priorities building systems that are adaptive, inspiring and visionary rather than reactive. The CHRO who brings long-term thinking to the table earns not just a seat at the board but a decisive voice in shaping the organization’s future.