As Managing Director and Global People Leader at Sabre India, Rency Mathew champions a culture of leadership, innovation, and excellence. With over 20 years of experience, she had led global HR teams through complex transformations including mergers, acquisitions, and digital HRIS rollouts. Rency thrives in cross-cultural environments and has successfully supported teams across APAC, the US, and Europe. Beyond her workplace, she is passionate about contributing to social cause and believe travel expands our understanding of human connection in a globally diverse world.
In conversation with Women Entrepreneurs Review Magazine, Rency Mathew makes the case for empowering teams where people feel supported and valued. Speaking for women, she emphasizes the need for continuous learning through forums, digital learning resources, and structured upskilling pathways. Talking about AI reshaping the workplace, she views continuous evolving with the industry to remain future-ready. She advocates the power of aligning HR and communications teams to drive consistent messaging and foster local ownership.
How do you coach leaders to effectively build and sustain high-performing teams when face-to-face interactions are limited? What leadership qualities have become critical in this new normal?
The pandemic demonstrated our capability to work effectively from anywhere. As employees adapted to remote work, returning to traditional office routines became less appealing. We embraced this shift by promoting flexibility and guiding our managers to do the same. At Sabre, we offer both hybrid and remote models, but we encourage early-career talent to spend time in office. In-person interactions drive networking, informal learning, and career growth in ways remote setups cant’s fully replicate.
In today’s world where personalization is the key, effective leadership requires deep empathy.it starts by trusting your people. Define outcomes, not every step. Letting the teams thrive on autonomy lets leaders understand their needs, offering direction than control. Managers must understand individual needs and lead with emotional awareness. The evolving model of servant leadership, where leaders empower from behind rather than direct from the front, is the path forward as it offers support and not control.
What strategies have you found most effective in identifying and developing emerging leaders who can thrive in today’s dynamic business environment?
We create learning opportunities, through forum and digital resources, to help women stay current with industry shifts. With rapid advances like AI, professionals must evolve with the times. It is not about doing the same job for years, but about growing with the industry to stay future-ready.
We have established a voluntary group called Women in Technology to unite women across tech roles. The group drives empowerment through exposure to emerging technologies, cross-team knowledge sharing, and skill-building, like GCP certification, aligned with our broader cloud partnership. By offering free or reimbursed GCP certifications, we have significantly boosted adoption across our tech teams. Notably, women network now hold a higher number of certifications than peers in several other regions, a testament to targeted support and opportunity.
Can you share a leadership development approach you implemented during an M&A that helped smooth the transition and aligned leadership behaviors across different cultures and geographies?
To stay future-ready, we make bold, forward-looking decisions. One such move was divesting our Hospitality business to private equity firm EPC, enabling us to realign priorities and invest in high-growth areas. Effective change management starts with clear communication and structured execution. At Sabre, especially through recent M&A, we have created dedicated verticals with accountable leaders to manage transactions smoothly and ensure consistent messaging across all levels. Transparent communication is the key during transitions. Leaders must openly share the reason behind decisions and clearly convey the expected benefits to build understanding and trust cross the organizations.
We take a multi-tiered approach to communication, engaging customers externally, briefings senior leadership internally, and supporting impacted employees. This is made possible through a strong partnership between our HR and Communications teams, along with business-aligned change champions who drive message consistency and local ownership. Beyond the operational logistics ensuring employees engagement and alignment through clear, ongoing communication is fundamental.
How do you design leadership coaching programs that are scalable and impactful across global teams while respecting the cultural nuances of each region?
Effective mentorship requires a balance, structured guidance with room for flexibility. By creating adaptable frameworks, we ensure that sessions are purposeful and rewarding for both mentor and mentee, fostering a two-way learning experience. Mentees are encouraged to identify areas of alignment and prepare thoughtful questions in advance, turning mentorship into a goal-driven learning experience.
In today’s fast-paced world, the divide between countries have blurred. The way we work and live is now increasingly global. When developing initiatives, we do not create region-specific content. Instead, we ensure our programs are inclusive, adaptable, and relevant across our global network. Our core principle is to design programs with global relevance, local customization is only done when legally or culturally required. This approach ensures inclusivity across geographies, time zones, and experience levels, making our solutions scalable and impactful worldwide.
How do you leverage feedback from employee engagement and organizational climate surveys to tailor leadership development initiatives that drive real behavioral change and business results?
At our company, innovation is driven by a culture of curiosity. One way we cultivate this is by hiring freshers every year and encouraging them to question the status quo. We urge them to ask ‘why’, challenging long-standing practices and bringing fresh thinking to routine tasks. Every six months, we organize innovation challenge centres on practical, executable solutions. This not only sparks creative thinking but also keeps our teams engaged by offering them opportunities to learn, grow, and contribute meaningfully.
Our culture promotes accessibility, with leaders who lead by example and welcome dialogue. This approach inspires trust and reinforces the idea that career growth can be multi-directional and have non-linear paths. Retention and engagement improve when individuals see personal growth, feel aligned with leadership, and find purpose in their work. Especially for the newer generation, contributing to societal good is becoming just as important as career progress.
Gender diversity and women in leadership remain key focus areas, yet women leaders still face unique barriers. What practical advice would you give to aspiring women leaders?
Societal roles have evolved and today’s social dynamics are paving the way for women to be viewed through a more equitable lens. As traditional biases fade, new opportunities emerge, something I feel fortunate to witness and be part of during a time marked by increasing representation and support for women in leadership. Earlier generations of women have limited role models in leadership, but now that is changing.
Many barriers women face are internal, rooted in self-doubt, to industry bias. As more women rise to leadership, they create visible paths for others. Success begins by overcoming mental limitations and intentionally building the skills needed to thrive. Progress comes from being proactive, track industry shifts, ask bold questions, and seek input form colleagues and leaders. Do not replicate someone else’s path. Instead, refine your own fingerprint of excellence through self-driven learning and growth.
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