I’m Julie Dopko. I’ve led HR across multiple countries for a global medical technology company. Now I do that work for a handful of organizations, leaders and individuals at a time.
Fewer clients, closer work. Few enough at a time that I can stay close to the actual problem, and tell you what I think about it.
For twenty-five years the hardest part of my job was never the policy. It was the moment a leader closed the door and asked what they should actually do.
Most of them were carrying more than their title suggested. Good at the job, and quietly running out of room in it. That conversation is the one this practice is built around.
I sit on your leadership team and own the people function, from organizational design to succession to culture, until you’re ready to hire someone full time.
Read about it →An hour every other week with someone who has done the job, on the decision in front of you. No curriculum.
Read about it →Twenty years of building severance packages from the employer’s side. Now I read yours, and tell you what’s actually negotiable.
Read about it →The leaders I work with are rarely stuck on strategy. They’re stuck on the arithmetic underneath it: a job that expects everything, people at home who need them present, and a version of themselves they recognise a little less each quarter. Most have quietly concluded that this is simply what the level costs.
It isn’t, but the fix is more specific than “balance”. It means deciding on purpose what the job gets and what it doesn’t, building rhythms that survive a bad month, and leading well without spending down the person doing the leading. That work sits inside the coaching, and for a good number of clients it turns out to be the whole thing.
Before that I ran HR for Advanced Bionics through a year of transformation and built a shared services centre at Sonova. At Communitech I built innovation lab talent pipelines for large partners like GM, Deloitte, Canon and TD Bank, and directed Tech Job Connex, a $1M programme that helped more than two thousand displaced BlackBerry employees into new roles. I first ran People Matters Consulting from 2009 to 2012, advising founders through Series A and B growth. This is a return, not a start.
I sit on nonprofit boards, chair an HR committee, and work mostly with mission-driven and values-led organizations. Outside of work you’ll find me with my family, on a long walk, or trying to travel and explore 100 countries.
Most engagements begin with a thirty minute call. We’ll work out whether I’m the right person for what you’re facing, or I’ll point you to someone who is.