CEO Mindset, HR Heart: How Kate Brunning Is Redefining People Leadership for Acquisition-Led Growth
Kate Brunning knows firsthand that a deal can look flawless on paper and still fall apart in practice if the people side is treated as an afterthought. After leading people strategy through significant growth and acquisition at Virtual1, where she helped build an award-winning workplace culture, she founded People Station to bring that same discipline to other ambitious, growing businesses.
Today, People Station positions itself as "the people partner for acquisition-led growth," helping leadership teams connect the commercial logic of a deal with the human reality of bringing organisations together, from due diligence and TUPE through to culture, communication and integration.
In this Q&A, Kate shares what her time at Virtual1 taught her about scaling with intention, why the gap between signing a deal and truly integrating it is so often underestimated, and what she means by bringing a "CEO mindset and HR heart" to People leadership.
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Q: Having led the people strategy at Virtual1 through significant growth and acquisition, what did that experience teach you and how did it shape your decision to launch People Station?
At Virtual1, I was fortunate to work with a CEO who genuinely believed in putting people first. Crucially, he didn’t see that as something for HR alone to deliver. His entire leadership team was responsible for making it happen. That collective ownership was ultimately what enabled us to become an award-winning best place to work.
It was very much a team effort, although I became slightly obsessed with understanding the formula behind it! We worked deliberately on the plan, the roadmap and the everyday actions needed to create a brilliant employee experience while the business continued to grow.
Communication was one of the most important parts of that formula. I don’t believe you can overcommunicate when a business is growing or going through significant change. People need to understand where the organisation is going, what is happening around them and how they fit into the bigger picture. It takes consistency, transparency and an aligned leadership team, not simply a series of HR initiatives.
The experience also showed me how much more important these principles become during an acquisition. A deal may make complete sense financially, but its value can quickly be diluted if communication, leadership, culture and integration are treated as secondary considerations.
I founded People Station because I wanted to take what we had learnt; the formula, the discipline and the belief that people must be a genuine business priority and help other ambitious organisations apply it. Many growing businesses need experienced People leadership and practical delivery, but may not need, or be ready to employ, a full-time People Director and an entire in-house team. People Station gives them access to that capability at the point when it can make the greatest difference.
Q: People Station describes itself as “the people partner for acquisition-led growth.” What do businesses often underestimate about the people side of growth and integration, and how does People Station help solve that?
Businesses often underestimate the distance between completing a deal and successfully integrating the people within it.
The legal transfer or acquisition may happen on a particular date, but people integration begins much earlier and continues long afterwards. Employees are trying to understand what the change means for their job, their manager, their pay, their identity and their future. At the same time, leaders are expected to retain key talent, maintain performance and bring together different cultures, systems and ways of working.
Without a clear plan, the value the acquisition was meant to create can begin to leak away.
People Station works alongside leadership teams to connect the commercial deal with the reality of bringing organisations together. We support everything from due diligence, TUPE and workforce planning through to organisational design, communication, culture, leadership and People systems. We bring strategic thinking, but we are equally comfortable getting into the detail and making things happen.
That combination is important. Businesses rarely need another report telling them what they should do; they need an experienced partner who can help them do it.
Q: You talk about bringing a “CEO mindset and HR heart” to your work. What does that mean in practice, and what is your longer-term vision for People Station?
“CEO mindset. HR heart.” captures the balance I believe great People leadership requires.
The CEO mindset means understanding how the business creates value, where it is going and what could prevent it from getting there. It means being commercially confident, making pragmatic decisions and holding the People function accountable for business outcomes, not simply activity.
The HR heart matters just as much. Businesses can make difficult decisions while still treating people with honesty, dignity and care. In fact, I believe businesses perform better when people understand what is happening, know what is expected of them and feel that their contribution matters.
My vision is to build People Station into the leading people partner for acquisition-led businesses: a business that can support organisations from the early stages of a deal, through integration and into their next phase of growth.
I also want us to challenge the traditional consultancy model. We are developing more scalable tools, technology and repeatable ways of working so businesses can access high-quality People infrastructure and insight without creating unnecessary complexity.
Ultimately, I want People Station to prove that commercial performance and a genuinely human approach are not competing priorities as the strongest businesses are built by bringing the two together.
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