Pioneer Profile: Oana Iordachescu
Meet Oana Iordachescu, founder of Fair Cultures in Barcelona. With a career spanning talent strategy roles at companies like Facebook, Booking.com, Criteo, and Wayfair, Oana has made DEI a core focus. Now, through Fair Cultures, she’s dedicated to enhancing workplace inclusion across Europe and building a more resilient business ecosystem.
12th Nov 2024
• 5 minutes
It’s time that we recognise the people behind the evolving world of work. Our working lives have shifted to being more inclusive, more people-centric, more flexible, and just plain better for both employees and companies.
These changes didn’t just happen: they were put into place and upheld by individuals and teams working to create a better working future for everyone.
So we’re finally putting the spotlight on the people who make great companies great: the people-people.
People-people are crucial to the success of every company. They find you the talent that drives you forwards, and they’ve taken on an increasingly strategic role in the past few years – often taking on responsibility for mental health, diversity and inclusion, culture, EVPs, Employer Branding and team happiness.
Read more about the Pioneers List and go behind the scenes to understand how and why we’ve selected our Pioneers.
We were lucky enough to speak with Oana Iordachescu, founder of Fair Cultures.Tell us a little bit about your career history, and how you got to where you are now. What were the key milestones?
My journey in talent strategies has been shaped by several milestone experiences. Starting in recruitment agencies, I progressed through roles at major tech companies like Facebook in Dublin, Booking.com during their hyper growth phase, and leading global TA initiatives at Criteo and Wayfair. In each role, I found myself naturally championing DEI initiatives, which became a defining aspect of my career. The pivotal moment came in 2023 when I founded Fair Cultures in Barcelona, a consulting firm focused on improving the European workplace inclusion practices and increasing the resilience of the business ecosystem.When did you become interested in the future of work?
My interest in the future of work evolved organically through my experiences leading distributed teams across multiple countries. I witnessed firsthand how workplace dynamics were rapidly evolving, especially in tech companies. I realised that in a world where career paths are increasingly fluid, we need to create an ecosystem of organisations that maintains high standards of inclusion, fairness, dignity, and equal opportunity.What is the most impactful change that you’ve implemented?
The creation of Fair Cultures is, I can say, the most impactful for me at the moment. While I led several pioneering initiatives around hiring, internal mobility and culture in the various organisations I was in, now we can create bespoke solutions for many more organisations. We've developed a systemic approach to cultural change that starts with audits and goes beyond traditional DEI initiatives.
Through our workplace inclusion consulting, conferences, masterclasses, and specialised internal events, we're helping organisations create a more sustainable approach towards DEI. The Annual Workplace Inclusion Conference in Barcelona - Fair Barcelona is a particular highlight, bringing together thought leaders and practitioners to share best practices and innovative approaches to workplace culture.