Andrea Carenini

Andrea Carenini

Head of Talent Acquisition - Europe & Pacific, Reckitt

For Andrea, talent acquisition was never something she accidentally fell into.

While many recruiting leaders describe discovering the profession unexpectedly, Andrea knew from an early stage in life that recruiting and talent leadership were exactly where she wanted to build her career.

“Most people just fall into talent acquisition from different angles and different careers or journeys,” Andrea explained. “I’m probably one of the rare exceptions.”

Even during high school and university, Andrea was fascinated by the idea of helping organizations identify the right talent and create meaningful matches between people and opportunities.

That early passion led her to pursue formal studies in Human Resources, eventually completing a master’s degree focused on HR and recruitment.

From the very beginning of her career, Andrea intentionally built her path around talent acquisition.

“I found something fascinating about being able to select people, finding the right match, and being able to contribute to an organization,” she shared.

She immediately began working in-house within recruitment organizations, where she quickly developed a deep understanding of talent strategy, recruiting operations, and leadership.

Over the years, Andrea built an international career across multiple markets and global organizations, gaining experience in both operational excellence and strategic talent acquisition leadership.

Her career has consistently centered around one core belief: recruiting is about far more than simply filling positions.

For Andrea, great recruiting creates long-term impact for both businesses and candidates.

That people-centered mindset continues to define the way she approaches leadership today.

What Shaped Her Leadership Philosophy

Throughout her career, Andrea has been deeply influenced by leaders who challenged her, trusted her, and helped her grow into larger opportunities.

One of the earliest and most influential leaders in her career was Sue Bennett, whom Andrea worked with during her time at Nike.

At the time, Sue led talent acquisition operations and played a major role in shaping Andrea’s understanding of recruiting efficiency, organization, and operational excellence.

“She was a great leader in shaping how to really organize and make my work efficient,” Andrea explained.

According to Andrea, Sue taught her how strong systems, data management, operational discipline, and process optimization allow recruiters to focus more energy on high-quality talent work.

Andrea also credits Kylie Penn as one of the most influential leaders in her career.

Kylie became the first leader who truly took a major chance on Andrea’s potential.

“She was the first leader to take a big bet on me,” Andrea shared.

Kylie entrusted Andrea with building an entirely new tech hub in Poland despite Andrea having no prior recruiting experience in that market.

Beyond that, Kylie also advocated heavily for Andrea’s international promotion and relocation opportunity from Europe to the United States.

“She really went against everything to make that happen,” Andrea explained.

That experience significantly shaped how Andrea now approaches leadership within her own teams.

Today, Andrea intentionally looks for opportunities to take calculated risks on high-potential individuals the same way others once did for her.

Another leader who had a lasting impact on Andrea was Stephen Thompson.

Andrea credits Stephen with helping elevate her understanding of high-level recruiting execution, especially within highly competitive technology talent markets.

“He really taught me how to be an amazing recruiter after the top of the top talent out there,” she explained.

According to Andrea, Stephen’s attention to detail, sourcing precision, and commitment to excellence continue to influence her work today.

How AI Is Reshaping Recruiting

As AI rapidly transforms recruiting, Andrea believes the technology is already fundamentally changing how talent acquisition teams operate.

One of the biggest shifts she sees is AI’s ability to remove administrative burden from recruiters.

“I think AI is really helping to take over a lot of admin tasks out of recruiters,” Andrea explained.

According to Andrea, automation is allowing recruiting teams to spend more time focused on relationship-building, strategic partnership, and creating stronger candidate experiences.

She also sees AI becoming increasingly valuable in sourcing and identifying highly specialized talent.

“It’s coming into place a lot for the sourcing aspect of things, to really find those diamonds in the rough and those niche roles,” she said.

At the same time, Andrea believes the rapid adoption of AI is creating entirely new challenges around transparency and trust.

One issue she already sees emerging is confusion from candidates around whether they are interacting with real recruiters or AI systems during the hiring process.

“In our company, we’re already receiving questions from candidates whether they doubt if their application is actually screened by a human or if it’s just a bot,” Andrea shared.

Because of this, Andrea believes talent organizations must begin developing stronger AI ethics frameworks, communication standards, and recruiting policies.

For her, transparency will become one of the defining themes of recruiting over the next several years.

“Companies need to start to think about AI ethics and also re-look at their policies, their guidelines, and their communication towards both candidates and the business,” she explained.

Andrea believes organizations that clearly communicate where AI is being used — and where human interaction still exists — will create significantly stronger experiences for both candidates and hiring teams.

“If you are clear up front, then the experience for everyone is much better,” she said.

Andrea’s Advice for Talent Leaders in 2026

As recruiting continues evolving alongside AI, Andrea believes talent leaders must focus on balancing technology with authenticity and human connection.

While automation can improve efficiency, she believes recruiting will always remain fundamentally people-driven.

For Andrea, AI should serve as an enhancement to recruiters rather than a replacement for meaningful interaction.

She also believes leaders must become far more intentional about building ethical frameworks around AI adoption.

According to Andrea, organizations that fail to address transparency concerns early may struggle with trust issues from both candidates and employees.

At the same time, she sees enormous opportunity for recruiters who embrace AI thoughtfully and strategically.

By removing repetitive administrative work, recruiters can spend more time focusing on advisory work, business partnership, candidate engagement, and long-term talent strategy.

Andrea believes the future of talent acquisition will belong to leaders who can successfully combine operational excellence, strong human relationships, and responsible AI adoption.

That balance of strategic thinking, global recruiting expertise, operational discipline, and people-first leadership is exactly what makes Andrea a deserving member of the Talent 100.