Top 10: People Leaders in Manufacturing

The global manufacturing sector is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by technological advancements, shifting geopolitical landscapes and an intensified focus on sustainability. 

Throughout this change, the HR function has become more important than ever – with people leaders having to build an organisational strategy that is designed to guide businesses through challenges such as a switch to EV production or further implementing AI. 

Below, we look at the people leaders driving change and delivering excellence in the manufacturing sector.

10. Sarah Armstrong

Company: Rolls-Royce

Revenue: US$21.2bn

Location: London, UK

Sarah Armstrong first became Chief People Officer of Rolls-Royce in 2022, having first joined the company as the Head of HR Corporate Headquarters in 2006.

She has over 30 years of HR experience, and has led many initiatives for the company – including the delivery of a key restructuring programme in her role as the People Director of Civil Aerospace at Rolls-Royce. 

Leading a Human Resources team of more than 500 globally, she is responsible for the people and culture strategy, organisational effectiveness, talent and attraction, employee relations and learning and development.

9. Mairéad Nayager

Company: Unilever

Revenue: US$59.47bn

Location: London, UK

As Chief People Officer for Unilever, Mairéad Nayager is responsible for the company’s global people strategy, talent, culture and organisation initiatives, as well as its people communications strategy. 

She has also played a key role in the company’s Growth Action Plan 2030 which is designed to transform the company into a higher performing business by simplifying the organisation and focusing on key brands and priority markets. 

Prior to joining Unilever, she held HR leadership positions at Haleon and Diageo. 

8. Toru Ihara

Company: Nissan

Revenue: US$79.6bn

Location: Kanagawa, Japan

Toru Ihara first joined Nissan in 1991, progressing from an HR Advisor for the company to the Chief Human Resources Officer role, which he took on in 2024. 

This involves developing a people strategy that follows Toyota’s philosophy of ‘Producing Happiness for All’ – leading with compassion and expertise that can have a positive impact on others, and promoting initiatives around the pillars of diversity and growth to build a company where anyone can take on new challenges at any time. 

7. Carmen-Maja Rex

Company: Airbus

Revenue: US$89.5bn

Location: Blagnac, France

Airbus Chief Human Resources Officer Carmen-Maja Rex has held a wide range of HR roles in both the private and public sector – working for organisations such as UNICEF, Siemens and Heidelberg Materials. 

In her role as HR Group Director at Heidelberg Materials, she played a key role in digitising the company’s global human resources processes, helping establish standards and transparency in more than 50 countries. 

She has held the CHRO role at Airbus since April 2025, where she is developing a people strategy to meet the needs of the company’s workforce of approximately 150,000 people.

6. Uma Amuluru

Company: Boeing

Revenue: US$89.5bn

Location: Virginia, US

As Chief Human Resources Officer and EVP of Human Resources for Boeing, Uma Amuluru is responsible for the company’s overall people strategy – which spans talent planning, learning and development, compensation and benefits, employee and labour relations, performance management and culture initiatives.

First appointed to this role in April 2024, Uma has held several positions across Boeing, such as General Counsel for Boeing Defence, Space and Security and Chief Compliance Officer, where she was responsible for the company’s ethics and compliance programme. 

This programme is designed to enable business success through its organisational culture, ensuring it is aligned with ethical conduct, workplace and product safety and compliance with laws and company policies. 

5. Kristen Mulholland

Company: Johnson & Johnson

Revenue: US$94.2bn

Location: New Jersey, US

As an advocate for purpose-filled careers, Kristen Mulholland, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for Johnson & Johnson, has led several initiatives at the company to help build a caring and inclusive culture for all employees. 

This includes co-founding the Johnson & Johnson Military Veteran Leadership Development programme – a structured initiative designed to attract, retain and develop veteran talent and support veterans and their families in the workplace and in the community.

In an earlier role as Head of Global Total Rewards and HR for Enterprise functions, Kristen established benefits programmes designed to support physical, mental, emotional and financial wellbeing for staff. 

4. Arden Hoffman

Company: General Motors

Revenue: US$185.02bn

Location: Detroit, US

Arden Hoffman was appointed Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer in January 2023. Prior to this role, she served as Cruise’s Chief People Officer, leading the company’s People strategy by creating a high-performance culture. 

General Motors’ people strategy hinges on reskilling its internal workforce to ensure employees are prepared and suitably upskilled to handle the EV shift – with the company having invested US$500m in US manufacturing apprenticeships and upskilling programmes over the past five years.

Outside of her role as Chief People Officer of General Motors, Arden serves as an advisor to fast-growing technology companies that are looking to scale global HR functions and teams.

3. Jennifer Waldo

Company: Ford

Revenue: US$187.3bn

Location: Michigan, US

In her role as Chief People and Employee Experience Officer for Ford, Jennifer Waldo is instrumental to the execution of the company’s global deployment and success of its Ford+ strategic plan for growth and value creation. 

She leads the development of Ford’s high performance culture, develops talent strategies to recruit employees with new kinds of talents and boosts the company’s overall organisational capability – with a focus in technology and innovation. 

Prior to this role, she held the position of Vice President on Apple’s People Team, which involved leading the team supporting all non-retail people-related functions. 

2. Rishabh Nagpal

Company: Samsung Electronics

Revenue: US$227.1bn

Location: Suwon-si, South Korea

Rishabh Nagpal has held the position of Chief Human Resources Officer since May 2024, with a background of more than 25 years of HR experience across companies such as Huawei, IBM and Tech Mahindra.

The company’s ‘People First’ people strategy focuses on encouraging high-performance through a creative and ethical environment. It invests significantly in employee development, and encourages its workforce to complete self-directed learning through its SDI platform – where staff have unlimited access to over 360 courses.

It also hosts Samsung Talent Review Week (STaR) twice per year, which allows employees to explore and enrol in a wide range of training courses. 

1. Kimberly Cockrell

Company: Toyota 

Revenue: US$304.66bn

Location: Aichi, Japan

Kimberly Cockrell first joined Toyota in 2006 as a HR manager for Toyota Financial Services Corporation, the company’s finance and insurance brand. 

Since April 2025, she has held the role of Senior Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Human Resources Officer. In her role, she is responsible for the company's IT, Privacy and Governance, Corporate Shared Services and Human Resources functions. 

The company’s culture focuses on its kaizen philosophy – or the process of continuous improvement. 

To ensure its workforce is best equipped to deliver continuous improvement, the company’s HR team has put what Kimberly describes as a “tremendous,” effort into employee wellbeing in recent years – including adding new programmes and initiatives to support the mental, physical and financial health of its team members and their families.