Antoinette Irvine is a distinguished HR strategist and change leader, globally recognized for her ability to transform leaders, teams, and organizational culture to be more inclusive and future-ready. She specializes in helping clients diagnose and develop concrete action plans that transform organizational norms, structures, and systems to embed inclusive leadership and foster genuine employee engagement. Antoinette believes that “people perform at their best when they believe they can be themselves and bring their best every day to work.”
Born in South Africa, Antoinette brings a deep understanding of diverse cultural dynamics and the importance of inclusive leadership in global organizations. With 30 years of HR expertise, she has championed equitable workplace practices, fostering environments that embrace diversity and empower individuals to thrive across different cultural contexts.
Antoinette’s expertise is backed by years of hands-on experience in HR leadership roles accountable for commercial outcomes, including high-impact roles spanning Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and China. As the former Chief HR Officer for Business Operations at Unilever, she was responsible for HR partnering across global supply chain and business operations teams. Her tenure at Unilever is marked by significant achievements, including a remarkable increase in female leadership within the Supply Chain organization. During this role, she rewrote the talent management for the Global Supply Chain, creating a talent powerhouse, which was instrumental in securing Unilever Supply Chain’s placement in Gartner’s Masters category for the fourth consecutive year.
She also played a pivotal role in integrating the company’s Global Sustainability and Human Rights strategy across the Global Supply Chain and Procurement ecosystem. She worked to embed Unilever’s commitments to social and economic inclusion within its broader People, Diversity & Inclusion, and CSR programs, which involved leading cross-functional initiatives to align departmental agendas—ensuring that sustainability, human rights, and inclusive workplace practices were not siloed but instead formed a cohesive and impactful roadmap. Anto’s contribution helped shape a more unified approach to responsible business, driving systemic change and embedding ethical practices into the core of operational and talent strategies for Unilever global supply chain.
Through her international experience, Antoinette has an appreciation for diverse cultures and teams, and an understanding of the nuances of adapting leadership interventions to various cultural contexts. Her approach is centered on unlocking the full potential of leaders and teams through a comprehensive diagnostic that evaluates team culture, capability, and the commercial climate to drive high performance and impactful leadership. By ensuring that leaders and their teams have the right programs and frameworks, she develops inclusive leadership styles with confidence to achieve the right business outcomes.
Antoinette is passionate about coaching leaders to be more inclusive. She finds great joy in mentoring and guiding leaders to embrace diversity and inclusion, helping them to understand the value of diverse perspectives and to create environments where everyone feels valued and empowered. Her coaching approach is tailored to each leader’s unique needs, fostering growth and development that leads to lasting, positive change for the individual and impactful results for their organizations.
What sets Antoinette apart is her ability to bridge strategic vision with practical implementation, directly linking to organizational commercial objectives. She combines deep HR expertise with a hands-on, results-driven approach—working closely with senior leaders to achieve meaningful diversity transformation, foster inclusive high-performing teams, and cultivate leadership excellence.
Antoinette currently holds a NED position on the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport UK and has recently been elected as a Vice President on the non-executive board. She is married to Craig and has two children, Matthew and Chelsea. She relocated with her family in 2016, moving from South Africa to their new home on the outskirts of Surrey, London.