Sema Lakhani

Advisor to early-stage and scaling tech and creative businesses, designing people infrastructure that accelerated fundraising readiness and reduced onboarding time by 35% while cutting compliance errors 90%.

Built People function supporting $1.2B LATAM and EMEA expansion, hired 45 roles across four countries in 60 days with 95% retention, and implemented remote hiring playbooks and compliance frameworks to accelerate asset acquisition by eight weeks.

Partnered with SMEs and venture-backed startups on compliance and scalable HR foundations, resolving high-risk ER exposures and protecting $15M+ in enterprise value for acquisition-bound clients.

Built people infrastructure for an AI-driven personalization SaaS, doubling headcount in 18 months while improving engineer retention by 40% and increasing DEI representation by 35% ahead of acquisition by Clearbit.

Led HR operations for cross-border payments with 300+ remote agents across nine regulatory regimes, automating compliance and payroll integrations to reduce payroll errors 75% and KYC onboarding time 50%.

Scaled talent and performance systems across construction and property teams during multi-state expansion, increasing promotion readiness by 25% and reducing external hire costs by $380K annually.

Led people operations in high-intensity legal environment, deploying trauma-informed ER protocols and workload analytics to maintain 95% attorney retention during intensive case cycles.

Integrated acquired entities and standardized employee experience across a large portfolio, achieving 98% data accuracy and cutting onboarding time by 40% through HRIS migration and cross-training playbooks.

Built compliance and training infrastructure for field operations, overhauling OSHA/FLSA compliance and digitizing certification tracking to reduce violations by 80% and secure a $2.3M airport contract.

Completed a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with coursework in core business disciplines and management principles.