All Recooty Articles, HR Tutorials and Tips, Trending Topics16 Top HR Professionals You Must Follow in 2026
All Recooty Articles, HR Tutorials and Tips, Trending Topics 
These 16 profiles cover talent acquisition leadership, technical recruiting, global hiring, employer branding, GTM recruiting, recruiting operations, and people leadership.
An applicant tracking system gives a hiring team one place to follow candidates and hiring stages. Use the list to find voices that match your current hiring question, then verify each person’s current role and recent work before relying on an old profile.
Key takeaways
- TA leadership: Suchitra R, Amy Schultz, Francis Chng, and Kelly Minella cover senior recruiting ownership and team scale.
- Technical and product recruiting: Andrei Campean, Connor Fehmel, Helenja Wolfaardt, and Alex Flatbush cover technical or technology-company hiring.
- Regional and global recruiting: Trina Thornton, Luke Shepherd, Prathap Maruthi, Alan Doherty, Erin Edmondson, and Annalise Diehl represent different hiring environments and functions.
- Employer brand and people leadership: Violette Léger and Gabrielle Sirner-Cohen add employer-brand, HR, and people-leadership context.
- Verify every role, employer, specialty, and recent activity before applying advice to your own hiring workflow.
Introduction to the 16 top HR professionals
HR teams often need practical ideas about sourcing, employer brand, candidate experience, and people leadership at the same time. SHRM’s talent landscape report describes a candidate-driven market, which makes it useful to learn from people who work on these problems every day.
The profiles below are a starting point, not a ranking or a substitute for your own context. Follow one or two people whose current work matches your goal, compare their advice with your process and data, and adapt only the ideas your team can support.
The 16 Top HR Professionals You Must Follow:
1. Suchitra R – Talent Acquisition Manager, Razorpay
Suchitra is working on the position of Talent Acquisition Manager and bringing exceptional talent to Razorpay. She is a highly experienced hiring professional who has shown her skills in this field numerous times.
Before Razorpay, she worked with Freshworks which is an enormous software company. Suchitra worked as lead in talent acquisition and corporate functions there.
She’s skilled in Leadership Hiring, Employer Branding, Sales/GTM Recruitment Executive Search & others. All in all, make sure you follow her on her social media platforms to get her precious tips on hiring and other HR-related stuff. She is one of the Top HR professionals Managers in the world.
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2. Amy Schultz – Head of Talent Acquisition, Canva
Being the Global Head of Talent Acquisition at Canva, a graphic designing platform, Amy leads Canva’s global recruitment team based in Sydney.
She has previously worked for start-ups and later-stage MNCs across different fields namely Recruitment, Pharma, Tech, and Services. By working there Amy was able to gain an enormous amount of experience in the Talent Acquisition field.
Also, Amy specializes in Recruitment, People Management, Recruitment Technology, Project Management, plus Mergers and Acquisitions.
Daily, she has a lot of knowledge that she shares online, so be sure you follow her. With all of this in her background, indeed she is among the best hr leaders in the world.
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3. Andrei Campean – Sr. Tech recruiter, Intercom
Andrei Campean joined as Senior Tech Recruiter at Intercom. A platform used by Amazon, Shopify, and IBM, designed for customer communication covering the whole customer journey.
Before Intercom, he worked with the world’s major companies namely Nokia, Verizon Connect & Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Andrei has completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Bucharest.
If you are looking for an HR practitioner who shares knowledge, tips, and experience in HR & HRM, then he’s among the best ones. Andrei, with no doubt, is among the top HR professionals.
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4. Trina Thornton – Sr. Talent Acquisition Partner, DocuSign
Trina is Senior Talent Acquisition Partner at DocuSign, a cloud-based platform that lets companies manage electronic agreements.
She has more than 20+ years of experience in marketing, in-house GTM, sales, solution, and agency recruiting for the world’s high-tech, rapidly flourishing companies.
She has more than 20+ years of experience in marketing, in-house GTM, sales, solution, and agency recruiting for the world’s high-tech, rapidly flourishing companies.
When it comes to candidate sourcing, attraction, and engagement she is among the most trusted HR professional you can find in the HR industry. On top of it, she has conducted full life cycle recruiting in NA, LATM, APAC, EMEA, and Canada.
Also, she was ranked in the Top 1% of LinkedIn Recruiting professionals globally. Regularly, she guides Human Resource Practitioners on hiring, leading hiring teams, making data-driven hiring decisions, and so on.
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5. Connor Fehmel – Sr. Technical Recruiter, Mixpanel
Connor is the Senior Technical Recruiter at Mixpanel, where he is building. Mixpanel is a product analytics tool that gives and lets you analyze data on user interaction with your product.
He has an impressive background in the talent acquisition domain. He has done his Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from California State University, Long Beach.
In addition, he mostly talks about hiring, jobs, remote jobs, software engineering job jobs, and tech startups.
His presence can be seen on LinkedIn where he regularly shares a variety of posts on different topics mostly on HR. Do connect with this excellent and famous hr leader.
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6. Luke Shepherd – Team Leader in Recruiting, HubSpot
Luke Shepherd is the Team Leader in Recruiting (G+A RevOps, Marketing) at HubSpot. He started as a Recruiter and made his way up to his current position in HubSpot and worked in ANZ & APAC regions.
Along with hiring the topmost candidates for HubSpot with a focus on gender diversity, he also gave Resilient training to employees across the APAC region.
Luke has completed his Bachelor of Business degree from the University of Technology Sydney. You will find him sharing his ideas on recruitment and HubSpot life on LinkedIn.
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7. Prathap Maruthi – Talent Acquisition Specialist, Paypal
Prathap has 9+ years of experience in the fields of Recruitment and Training. He is a global hiring specialist who’s working on the position of Talent Acquisition Specialist – Global Talent Acquisition at Paypal.
His experience in working with enterprises and start-ups enables him to find hidden talent quite effortlessly.
Among other things, he also has experience in the HR aspects like International Recruitment, Tech & Business Hiring, and Hiring Strategy to name a few.
He posts different types of techniques, tips, and practices that’ll let you make your hiring process smoother than ever. These qualifications and experience make him one of the best top HR professionals.
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8. Alan Doherty – Recruiting Manager, Slack
Alan is one of the best HR professionals, working currently at Slack as Recruiting Manager. He started working at Slack 6 years back.
Before that he worked as Sr. EMEA Talen Acquisition Partner at LinkedIn, EMEA Technical Recruiter at Facebook, etc. The list of his experience in the HR field is quite long.
Through various online mediums, he regularly shares his expertise in the HR field which makes him the best HR guide for you to follow. We assure you his tips and guidance will help you navigate through the daily challenges of the HR professionals.
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9. Helenja Wolfaardt – Sr. Talent Acquisition Manager, Wave HQ
Helenja is an HR & recruiting professional in the tech space who currently works as a Sr. Talent Acquisition Manager at Wave HQ. Wave HQ offers software and financial services to small companies.
At Wave, she’s building dynamic teams with individuals who got inspired by their mission of empowering small businesses.
Helenja got her degree of BA in Sociology from the University of Guelph. Also, she got Diploma in Human Resource Management from George Brown College.
For getting info on what’s happening in the HR world, you can count on her. She is, in fact, one of the most famous HR Managers across the globe.
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10. Alex Flatbush – Talent Acquisition Manager, Asana
Alex is Talent Acquisition Manager at Asana, a web & mobile project management platform for businesses of any size.
His background as an HR professional is quite rich because he has worked with some of the biggest corporates like Lime, Uber, and Google. Alex did work in various positions including Head of Technical Recruiting, Talent Partner, Sr. Sourcing Lead, and others.
All in all, he is well qualified to be a leader in the HR field. Quite a talented HR that you need to follow right away.
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11. Francis Chng – Head of Talent Acquisition, Zoom
Francis is working on the position of Head of Talent Acquisition at Zoom Video Communications. Zoom is one of the largest and most used video communication platforms.
He’s an excellent recruiting professional who has worked in the HR industry for over 15 years. Francis is an expert in finding strong talent for companies so they can jump-start and build their presence in the APAC region.
Throughout his career, he has made hiring decisions for close to 500 executive-level positions. Besides that, he specializes in Talent Acquisition, Executive Talent Sourcing, Employment, Staffing, Recruitment Training, Talent Relationship Management, etc.
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12. Erin Edmondson – Talent Acquisition Lead, Mailchimp
She presently works for Mailchimp as Talent Acquisition Lead, started working there in the year 2026. Mailchimp offers marketing automation and email marketing services to different companies of any kind & size.
Erin lives in Atlanta Metropolitan Area, Georgia. Kennesaw State University is where she completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Science.
Additionally, she acquired her certificate from LinkedIn’s Unconscious Bias Course.
She’s a talented recruiter who always successfully finds great talent for her company as per their needs. On top of that, her expertise in building meaningful relationships between the company and employees is what makes her a great HR leader.
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13. Kelly (McDonald) Minella – Head of Recruiting, Calendly
Kelly is the Head of Recruiting at Calendly and is an expert in recruiting, work-life balance, and workplace health. Calendly is a cloud-based scheduling platform used by millions of users globally.
From the Florida State University, she has completed her Bachelor’s Degree of Arts in Communication; Mass Media Studies.
She has worked in both the agency and corporate firms on the position of various positions including Recruiting Manager, HR Specialist & others. Before stepping inside the top HR professionals she was working in media for 2 years.
You can find her on her social media accounts. She is quite active on these platforms plus she shares crucial knowledge about the HR industry. Her deep knowledge and a strong background in Human Resources & Recruiting make her one of the top HR professionals worldwide.
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14. Violette Léger – Human Resource Officer, Waalaxy
She works in the position of Human Resource Officer at Waalaxy. Violette is amongst highly talented top HR leaders whose experience in recruiting, employer branding, and other TA activities make her stand out.
A job description generator can turn responsibilities and requirements into a clear first draft.
Her qualifications include a Bachelor’s & Master’s Degree in HR from CESI Higher School of Work-Study and two more educational qualifications.
She creates an optimal recruiting process and attractive job ads. In addition, Violette is proficient in sourcing amazing talent for technical and non-technical positions. In her career, she helped companies to build an exceptional workforce in the companies where she worked. Surely, you can learn a lot from her about almost all of the human resources activities.
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15. Annalise Diehl – Head of GTM Recruiting, Notion
Annalise is a hiring professional who works as Head of GTM Recruiting at Notion. The University of California is where she completed her BA graduation in communication.
She has worked in various roles in pretty interesting companies like Asana, Zendesk, and Google before joining notion. During her career of 17 years in Human Resources, she has been able to acquire great experience and expertise in it.
She actively engages with the HR posts and shares some unique tips to help you build your dream office team. Follow her on LinkedIn to start learning from her about everything HR.
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16. Gabrielle Sirner-Cohen – Chief People Officer, FullStory
Gabrielle is the Chief People Officer at FullStory, a platform that provides customer experience analytics to its users. She leads a team of enthusiastic professionals who want to create a perfect online experience for its users.
For 2 years she also had worked for Google.
She was working there as People Operations Communications Manager, Employment Branding Manager, and Chief of Staff & Diversity Communications Lead.
Gabrielle’s passion for creating great work environments, hiring, growing, and keeping talented employees allows her to produce magical results. Certainly, she’s among the top HR professionals, famous for making data-driven people decisions, building lasting relationships, and getting things done.
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Top HR professionals to follow: verify expertise before relying on old titles
Current HR influencer guides commonly use relevance, demonstrated expertise, professional credibility, and ongoing contributions as selection criteria. The current People Managing People influencer guide offers a useful comparison point. For this list, use each linked professional profile as the first verification step because employment titles and responsibilities can change.
| Verification question | What to check | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Is the role current? | The person’s current LinkedIn profile, company page, or personal website | An older employer or title can change the meaning of the advice |
| Does the specialty fit? | Recent posts or work related to recruiting, sourcing, HR operations, leadership, or culture | A respected professional may still be outside your immediate problem |
| Is there practical evidence? | Case examples, methods, research, talks, books, or clearly explained work | It helps separate actionable insight from general commentary |
| Does the advice fit your context? | Region, company size, hiring volume, industry, and workforce model | A practice that works in one environment may not transfer directly |
| Is the advice commercially motivated? | Consulting, recruiting, software, sponsorship, or training relationships | Disclosure helps readers judge recommendations fairly |
Follow a small mix of voices rather than trying to consume every update. For example, combine one recruiting practitioner, one HR technology specialist, one people-leadership voice, and one source focused on candidate experience. Recooty’s guides on recruitment techniques, employer branding, and candidate experience can help connect professional advice to a hiring workflow.
A practical learning routine for HR professionals
- Choose one business or hiring problem to understand.
- Select two professionals whose current work directly relates to it.
- Save one evidence-based idea from each person.
- Compare the idea with your existing process, data, and constraints.
- Test one change and review the result with the hiring team.
Use the list for focused learning
Choose a current hiring problem, follow two relevant professionals, and save one idea from each person. Before changing a process, compare the advice with your team’s data, candidate experience, company size, and applicable employment rules. Recooty’s blog has more practical hiring resources for the next step.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are the roles and employers in this list still current?
Not necessarily. The profiles were described at an earlier point in time, so verify the person’s current role and employer through the linked profile or official website before relying on the description.
How should I choose an HR professional to follow?
Start with your learning goal. Choose someone whose current work matches your need, such as technical recruiting, employer branding, sourcing, candidate experience, leadership, or people operations.
Can I copy a professional’s hiring strategy directly?
No. Use the strategy as a starting point, then adapt it to your market, role requirements, team capacity, candidate pool, and applicable employment rules.
How many HR professionals should I follow?
Follow a small group that covers your current learning needs. A focused list is easier to evaluate and apply than a large feed filled with unrelated updates.
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Hardik Vishwakarma
Hardik Vishwakarma – AI Recruitment Strategist | HR Automation Expert | Applicant Tracking Software Specialist Hardik Vishwakarma is a recognized leader in HR automation and...
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