Caroline Rawes
Principal Consultant
Caroline is an experienced people and leadership adviser with more than 30 years’ experience in global, people-based businesses, including private equity and major professional services firms. She works with Managing Partners, CEOs, boards and executive teams to strengthen business performance through clear strategic direction, effective leadership and inclusive, aligned cultures.
AboutÜber Caroline
Caroline has held senior executive people leadership roles across private equity and leading international law firms. She was most recently Chief HR Officer and Partner at Cinven, where she established the firm’s first CHRO role to support its international growth and advise on leadership, organisational development, talent, succession, inclusion and culture.
Previously, she was Chief People Officer at Ashurst and a member of the Executive Committee, with responsibility for shaping and delivering the firm’s people priorities during a period of significant profitability growth. Additionally, Caroline held roles including HR Director at Taylor Wessing, where she sat on the UK Executive Board, and HR Director for the UK, Eastern Europe and Middle East at Linklaters, where she was a member of the London Management Committee.
Caroline brings deep expertise in partnership performance, cultural change, international post-merger integration, leadership succession and emerging talent development. She is known for helping senior leaders cut through complexity, create space for clear thinking and work through the issues that matter most.
Her clients value her direct, thoughtful approach, her ability to build trust quickly and her skill in drawing out practical solutions with lasting impact. Caroline also facilitates board and executive team sessions, supporting teams to build trust, align around shared goals and hold one another to a high standard of collective performance.
Caroline is a trustee of Missing People and has previously served as a trustee of a multi-academy trust and a business school.
ExperienceBerufserfahrung
- Leadership: Advising senior leaders on strategy, performance and change, building trusted relationships and providing constructive challenge.
- Organisational Development: Designing leadership, governance and operating structures that support growth, effective decision-making and organisational performance.
- Recruitment: Leading senior executive and non-executive appointments, strengthening the employee proposition and improving selection processes.
- Learning & Development: Developing leadership and career programmes that build capability, improve performance and embed a strong learning culture.
- High Performance: Aligning performance, reward and values with strategic objectives to drive accountability and commercial outcomes.
- Talent & Succession Planning: Building future-focused talent pipelines, active career management and robust succession for critical roles.
- Diversity & Inclusion: Shaping inclusive culture strategies that improve awareness, psychological safety and diverse talent progression.
- Internal Communication and Engagement: Leading engagement, communication and change activity that supports transformation and strengthens global connection.
- Functional Leadership: Leading multi-location HR teams, setting strategy and improving delivery, policy, process and service quality.
Education and qualifications
- Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development
- Manchester University - BA (Hons) in Geography - 2.1