3 Burning Questions for our New Chief People Officer

We’re starting 2024 with remarkable momentum by welcoming our new Chief People Officer, Genevieve Vancutsem-Zednik.

Coming at a keenly important time in GetYourGuide's growth story, Genevieve brings extensive expertise in global organizations such as Deloitte and Zalando. Most recently serving as Chief People Officer for Europe & Asia at Wayfair, she has nearly two decades of HR leadership under her belt.

Beyond an impressive talent strategy and employee relations background, Genevieve is also a self-proclaimed avid world traveler who speaks five languages fluently. So it's safe to say she'll feel right at home in our multicultural team of over 75 nationalities here at GetYourGuide. 

With us, Genevieve will be responsible for setting human resources and people strategy across our 17 offices around the world. As we continue to expand our talent presence in key markets — Germany, the United States, and Switzerland, to name but a few — Genevieve will also spearhead strategic investments to foster GetYourGuide's values-driven culture further. 

"I could not be more excited to welcome an experienced global human resources leader like Genevieve to the GetYourGuide team," said co-founder and CEO Johannes Reck. "As we continue our growth and investment plans for 2024, GetYourGuide is ideally suited with Genevieve as our Chief People Officer to guide our team of 800 in the next phase of our business journey," Reck added.

[Hear more from our co-founders Johannes and Tao in the GetYourGuide's 2023 recap.]

With the global travel experiences industry expected to hit $375 billion by the end of 2024 and our upcoming 15th anniversary in June, we're confident Genevieve's arrival couldn't come at a better time.  Although she won't officially join us until March this year, we couldn't resist asking a few intro questions to get to know her. 

What drew you to GetYourGuide?

GetYourGuide is at an incredibly interesting stage as a company. It's no longer the student-run startup of fifteen years ago but now a global company. I look forward to working with the team as it enters the next stage of its growth journey.

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Speaking of growth – 'personal growth' is a value truly lived by the people I've met at GetYourGuide. It's refreshing to see how humble leaders have been, how they really want to listen and learn.

What is first on your to-do list after joining?

My perspective as an executive is to stay away from applying readymade solutions or forcing a particular playbook on day 1. Instead, I look forward to getting to know and understand the people, the company, and its culture.

What about our mission inspires you?

I love to travel with my kids. It's something that we've done together since they were babies. 

We travel to meet locals, see nature, and check out various science museums around the world. When you start traveling at a young age, everything seems natural – they develop a high degree of adaptability, low judgment, and, of course, curiosity.

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Thanks, Genevieve! We're excited to have you on our journey.