Cristina Escallón

After completing her MBA at INSEAD in 1995, Cristina moved to New York and later London where she joined Accenture as a strategy consultant. After several years, she took on the role of Human Capital Strategy Director for the firm, working with the CEO and the Executive team. With a global team, Cristina developed the Human Capital function and strategy for Accenture worldwide, defining leadership, culture and talent requirements for the organisation; she also facilitated and worked with leadership teams of key regions like China, India and the US.

Since 2005, Cristina has worked independently. Her corporate work ranges from strategy to leadership effectiveness and culture change; largely focused on transformation through design and facilitation of senior team sessions and company-wide or cross-organisational change programmes.

Having worked both with corporates and business schools, Cristina deals with the practical, as well as the academic aspects of leadership and culture. At INSEAD, she developed an executive education programme on managing global virtual teams and worked with faculty on research looking at new models of leadership and high performing CEOs. She is currently working on a research project looking at the role of the CEO- the ‘on-boarding’ of new Chief Executives and the most common challenges for more tenured ones, as well as the relationship between Board and Executives.

Common topics include leadership development (leading self, team & world), neuroscience, purpose, mindfulness, stress, changing behaviours, values, fears, triggers, team effectiveness, executive teams (common challenges, learnings, how to be more effective), cultural differences, trust, the role of the CEO (& the relationship with the Board), culture change, strategy and leadership.