The People Factor Podcast with Thomas Kohler

With over 20 years of experience in people, culture and organizational development, Francia is passionate about creating and implementing strategies and scalable processes that align people capabilities and talents with the overall business mission. Francia enjoys working along side, sparring, coaching and developing leaders who are empathetic, visionary, and who are committed to creating an impact and making a difference in the world.

Wiebke began her professional journey studying business and sociology, which laid the groundwork for her career. She first joined the sourcing department at Zalando and later transitioned into broader roles in People & Culture. Her experience spans startups, agencies and corporates, showcasing her versatile skill set and strong interest in organizational development. Within just seven years, Wiebke became a VP at Linearity, a powerful graphic design software known for its remote-first approach.

Barbara Imm leads the People & Culture department of roadsurfer and has +10 years of experience in scaling and leading a people function that operates globally. In this episode she discusses the strategic role of company culture in roadsurfer’s success, detailing how a well-defined cultural framework can offer a competitive edge. She shares insights into the company’s approach to scaling up blue-collar hiring — achieving a remarkable feat of 500 hires in a season — and the implementation of Ashby ATS to enhance recruitment processes. Barbara also reveals how roadsurfer maintains its growth trajectory and cultural integrity through data-driven hiring assessments and robust employee feedback mechanisms. Join us as Barbara unpacks the complexities and triumphs of managing people and culture amidst rapid corporate expansion and operational challenges.

Steve is the Founder & CEO of Gem. Gem is the leading all-in-one recruiting platform powered by AI: ATS + CRM + Sourcing + Analytics + Scheduling + Talent Marketing & Events + Career Site. talent marketing, and career site management. Before Gem, he was an early engineer at Dropbox, where he quickly rose to lead several engineering teams, focusing heavily on recruiting and scaling the company’s talent acquisition strategy.

As Dropbox grew from 25 to 1,500 employees, Steve observed a paradigm shift in recruiting: companies started proactively seeking top talent, similar to how sales and marketing teams don’t just wait for customers to come to them. This approach required a unified system to track and manage pre-application recruiting efforts, which didn’t exist at the time, so he built Gem.

Dr. Yasmin Kurzhals verfügt über mehr als 20 Jahre Expertise und sie war in unterschiedlichsten People & Culture Funktionen tätig, davon 15 Jahre in Führungspositionen. Die promovierte Diplom-Psychologin ist ausgebildete systemische Business Coach und systemische Organisationsberaterin. Ihre Leidenschaft gilt den Themen Leadership, Mental Health sowie Kultur- und Organisationsentwicklung, insbesondere im Kontext von New work.

Dr. Lynn Schäfer, Head of People & Culture at homee & stromee (Berlin based smart home and renewable energy provider), TM enthusiast – more than 20 years working experience in the HR/TM area at McKinsey & company, Bertelsmann, start-up and also led a European Institute on TM at ESCP Business School.

Romy is a seasoned HR professional with over a decade of experience in both corporate and startup environments. She believes that the key to success lies in the perfect balance between structure and agility. Romy’s passion is to help people and organizations grow both strategically and operationally. With a strong focus on HR development, she has expanded her expertise to include all aspects of HR management and is a skilled networker who loves to connect with people.