Paris-headquartered Sendinblue, a global digital marketing platform for small and medium-sized businesses, has announced the appointment of Laure Rudelle Arnaud as the company’s new Chief People and Impact Officer, effective since May. The role is a newly created one, responsible for overseeing the company’s talent management, employer brand, and competitive benefits.

In addition, Rudelle Arnaud will oversee Sendinblue's social and environmental strategy. Such dual roles are slowly becoming more common for people management leads, partly because employee participation in an organisation's social, community, and sustainability initiatives falls under HR's purview.

Rudelle Arnaud brings 15 years of human resources, strategy consulting and public affairs experience to her new role. Most recently, she was the Head of People for NFT startup LaCollection.io, and previously, she was SVP of Human Resources for HQ & Group Executives for food services and facilities management company Sodexo.

In a post on her personal LinkedIn page, Rudelle Arnaud said she has a particular interest in talent development and social impact. "Indeed I am deeply convinced that they are the 2 pillars of a healthy and impactful growth.," she wrote. "The Sendinblue team has created a strong sense of employee belonging, and I look forward to showcasing a flexible workplace model that prioritizes mental health and well-being, and fosters the next generation of leaders."

Armand Thiberge, founder and CEO of Sendinblue, said that Rudelle Arnaud's professional track record is invaluable to the company, and highlighted that she has already taken concrete action to drive Sendinblue’s commitment to equal opportunity in the tech industry. According to the company's official announcement of her appointment, Rudelle Arnaud has been instrumental in Sendinblue’s move to sign a parity agreement in France, which promises to accelerate gender equality among startups. The commitments under this agreement include: increasing the threshold of women on boards of directors to 20 percent, drive internal education sessions to combat discrimination, and publish job descriptions that are amenable to both men and women. 

“We’re excited for Laure to oversee HR and company engagement, and build a top-notch global team, while weaving more diversity and inclusion initiatives into our mission and vision,” Thiberge said.

In addition to its Paris headquarters, Sendinblue also has offices in Seattle, Berlin, Bangalore, Sofia, Noida, and Toronto.