Adanya, you’ll be missed. Thanks for transforming Glovo. The four things I highlight from your journey with us.

During our last Culture Day in July, we shared with all the company the news of Adanya (Rodrigo) ????? stepping down as our VP of People, and the reasons why.?

I said it loud and clear: Adanya is one of the strongest professionals that I have worked with. I’ve had a fantastic time working next to him for the last three years, and learned so so so much.?

Our People leader has been one of my strongest team members in the executive team. When I shared this with other tech business founders, I realized this statement was a bit of an exception, and I felt so proud of it. This is how we’ve been able to scale the company from 1k to 4k employees across 25 countries while strengthening our culture and our ways of working, without anything breaking on the way.?

The journey has been incredibly intense and I can’t express enough gratitude for Adanya’s impact and dedication to Glovo. When reflecting on these three years, I would like to highlight four things Adanya has shined on and I am especially thankful for:

• Bringing senior, world class talent. One of the first things Adanya impressed us with was his interviewing and talent attraction skills. Barcelona tech ecosystem was and still is in its early days and often we have to go abroad to find the best candidates. As our VP of People, he knew bringing top-notch leaders to our HQ in Barcelona was probably the biggest lever to propel the business forward. Adanya has been personally involved in pretty much all of the senior hires for the last 3 years, and he’s been fundamental at both keeping a high bar and inspiring top talent to move, often with their families, to Barcelona to join this crazy adventure. So many of our current leaders are here, in part, thanks to Adanya.
• Being strict with the executive team (the “VPs”). There’s one thing in common in the vp’s group: Glovo is everyone’s biggest job so far. As leaders of thousands of people, we have a huge responsibility and Adanya has been very strict with us, always making sure that we delivered on it. Thanks Adanya for all the push and high bar here, and thanks for saying NO to many of our requests that were not priorities or misaligned with our people strategy.
• Diversity and Inclusion. I’ll be very honest here: when Adanya arrived in 2019, D&I was not seen as something important, not out of lack of care but of ignorance. As leaders, we were not rightly informed and aware of the importance of it. This is something that Adanya identified as a high priority, and the work done has been incredible. Today Glovo is recognized by our employees as a very inclusive workplace - in fact that is the highest score we have in our engagement survey questions. Thanks Adanya for your work here, it has been transformational at a personal and company wide level. D&I will remain one of our pillars of focus in our People strategy.
• Fighting against entitlement. At Glovo we deeply care for our talent, and my tendency as a young leader was to give, give and give… What I’ve learnt is, if you are a lot more generous than demanding, especially while growing fast in headcount, you’ll inevitably see some toxicity and entitlement building up in the structure. Adanya was very aware of this since he joined, and he had a zero-tolerance policy for entitled behaviours. At Glovo we want to treat people well and with a lot of care, but we expect everyone to stay very humble and recognise how privileged we are.?

Adanya, you’ll be missed. Thanks for transforming Glovo. Your legacy is admirable, and you leave a group of leaders ready to continue developing your mission. I wish you all the best and we will all be rooting for you.?

So, what’s next? I’m very excited to publicly announce that Cristina de la Rosa Zaragoza is taking the challenge as an interim VP of People for at least one more semester. Cris started in Glovo five years ago leading Operations in Latam, then promoted to Regional Manager in Latam, and finally took Regional Manager of Africa and Central Asia. I’ve been very close to Cris since she joined; she is one of the best executors we’ve seen at Glovo and a big ambassador of our culture. She comes with a huge global business experience and she’s eager to use all of that business-knowledge to take People at Glovo to the next level, keeping our 6 values always at the center of all our decisions: Gas, Stay Humble, High Bar, Care, Glownership and Good Vibes.

Go Glovo ????