When Sarah Warren joined AlixPartners more than 11 years ago, she wasn’t sure how long the opportunity would last.
“I had this connection who was looking for someone in a temporary capacity to cover a maternity leave at the firm,” Sarah smiled, reliving the memory. “I interviewed with Caralyn Marketos, who is still my boss today, and was offered the role. Six months later, I took a risk and convinced her to let me stay full-time."
Sarah has a knack for working her way into spaces where she wants to make a difference.
Primarily, Sarah serves as a People Business Partner for our Private Equity and Performance & Technology teams in the Americas. She loves learning about what makes people tick and finding ways to help them reach their personal and professional goals.
“I think I’ve been able to be successful at it because I’m pretty good at forming relationships with people by being honest, but also kind. Here, the people are our business. So, if our people are not happy or functioning appropriately, they’re not going to be able to go do their job,” Sarah said.
Even if you need something that is outside of her purview, Sarah will work to make it happen. She’s also taken on roles outside her day-to-day, including serving as the Global Lead of the NextGen Employee Resource Group.
During her 3-year tenure as NextGen’s Global Lead, Sarah worked to encourage mentorship and relationship-building between AlixPartners employees, across generations, departments and roles.
“This was an opportunity to have folks, in some degree, reporting to me,” Sarah explained. “We were helping to build out structures and programming, which was really cool. I found that [NextGen], to be a worthwhile place to gain some visibility.”
Listen to hear more about NextGen’s role in connecting employees at AlixPartners:
That visibility led to a long-term secondment to the Diversity, Inclusion, and Responsible Business (DIRB) team. There, she’s helped spearhead a Partner and Managing Directors (PMDs) Analysis Project that ensures DIRB-focused goals are integrated into yearly plans. She’s also encouraged the firm’s People Team to receive D&I focused upskilling.
“The idea kind of started out as a rotational thing. I would come for a year, and in theory, someone else would take my place. But we got to the end of the year… and I liked it,” Sarah laughed. “The team liked having me and asked if I wanted to stick around. I said ‘Yeah, try to get rid of me, because this is just fun’.”
It's that combination of fun and meaningful impact that’s kept Sarah going all these years. She’s also driven by the experiences of her eldest son. In the third grade, he was diagnosed with Dyslexia and ADHD, which prompted Sarah to go into “mama bear mode.”
Seeing how things outside of her control impacted her child, made her want to change things she could. Sarah figured, “If I can make a difference with the people that I influence, then I can feel like I’m doing something for the greater good. It’s just the right thing to do.”
Sarah’s version of “the right thing to do” is centered around making opportunities for others. It’s what led her to create her next side-of-desk project, the Leave a Legacy initiative.
In partnership with the leadership team of NextGen and the AlixAlumni program, the project would give retiring PMD’s the opportunity to share their experiences and words of wisdom with the firm, while receiving their proverbial flowers.
“I’ve seen some people retire here and I feel like it’s so nice to have a time where all eyes can be on you,” Sarah said. “You can say whatever you want to say, and people can praise you and love on you.”
The initiative hasn’t launched just yet, but when it does Sarah will make sure her colleagues hear about it.
Because while she’s working to celebrate other people’s legacies, she’s slowly building her own.