How SonderMind’s VP of People Is Scaling Managers, Culture, and AI Readiness

What does it take to scale teams, culture, and leadership at the same time?

In this episode of The Leader Lab, Sara Marzitelli-Sanchez, VP of People at SonderMind, shares how she’s helping leaders grow alongside their organizations by focusing on manager development, human-centered leadership, and practical AI adoption.

From her unconventional path into HR to her belief that “people are complex beings,” Sara explains why the fundamentals of People leadership stay consistent across industries, and why this role is more industry-agnostic than most think.

She also shares how meeting every employee helps her build trust (and make HR feel less “scary”), how it gives her a 30,000-foot view of the business, and how that insight shapes smarter People strategies.

🎧 Tune in to learn:

• Why investing in manager training is a core business strategy & not just L&D
• How to remove the “HR is scary” barrier and build trust across teams
• What it looks like to lead with a 30,000-ft view of team function and challenges
• Why brain science-backed training creates more effective, scalable managers
• How to navigate the shift from individual contributor to people leader
• What it takes to build AI fluency across an organization

A practical, grounded conversation for People leaders building resilient, scalable teams in a fast-changing world.