Leading with Heart: How Izaba Paras Is Redefining HR for the Next Generation of Work
A people‑first builder, coach, and founder helping startups create workplaces where humans thrive and businesses grow.
When you talk to Izaba Paras about her work, one thing becomes clear almost immediately: HR isn’t just a job for her. It’s a calling.
She speaks about people with a level of sincerity you don’t often hear in the corporate world—not as headcount, not as resources, but as humans who deserve to be understood, supported, and treated with care. In a world where workplaces are becoming more complex by the year, that perspective is rare, necessary, and deeply influential.
A Career Built on Rolling Up Her Sleeves
Izaba didn’t enter HR through theory—she learned the work by doing the work. Her decade-long career spans recruiting, onboarding, payroll, compliance, immigration, compensation, benefits, performance management, leadership coaching, and the full spectrum of employee relations.
She grew by saying yes to the hard work, the messy work, and the unglamorous work. Over the years, she became the person organizations turned to when they needed stability, clarity, or someone willing to sit with a challenge until the right solution revealed itself.
What makes her story powerful isn’t a single title—it’s the consistency with which she showed up for people.
Scaling, Building, and Transforming HR from the Ground Up
At each step in her career, Izaba built systems that lasted long after she left the room.
At GAC/GMX Part 135, she didn’t just lead HR—she rebuilt it. She acted as a strategic partner to executive leadership, led workforce planning, modernized people operations, and implemented scalable HRIS systems tailored for both speed and compliance. She supported everything from payroll and benefits to FAA and DOT regulatory compliance in a safety-sensitive environment—no small feat in aviation.
Before that, she guided teams at Opportunity@Work, Clarabridge, and Production Solutions, shaping HR functions that supported rapid growth, hybrid workforces, and increasingly complex employee needs. Whether leading a team, managing sensitive employee relations, designing development programs, or supporting immigration cases, she brought both structure and compassion.
Leaders trusted her. Employees confided in her. Workplaces improved because she was there.
The Heart Behind Her Leadership
Ask anyone who has worked with Izaba, and they’ll tell you the same thing: she leads with empathy—not as a buzzword, but as a practice.
She believes in meeting people where they are.
She believes in listening before fixing.
She believes in creating cultures where people don’t have to choose between being successful and being human.
These values weren’t formed in conference rooms. They were shaped through countless moments when someone walked into her office overwhelmed, uncertain, or hopeful—and walked out feeling seen.
To Izaba, HR has always been personal.
Becoming a Founder
After years of helping organizations scale and evolve, Izaba took a leap and launched her own HR consulting firm dedicated to supporting startups.
Why startups? Because early-stage companies need HR more than they realize—not as an afterthought, but as a foundation.
Through her consulting work, she helps founders:
- Build people-first infrastructure
- Create fair and competitive compensation
- Navigate compliance the right way
- Coach new and emerging leaders
- Reduce costly turnover
- Build cultures that attract and retain top talent
Her superpower is translating chaos into clarity—giving founders the structure they need while giving teams the support they deserve.
A Legacy of Lifting Others
Influential women are rarely recognized solely for what they achieve. More often, they’re recognized for the impact they have on others.
That is where Izaba shines most.
She has coached leaders through difficult moments.
She has advocated for employees who didn’t know how to advocate for themselves.
She has built programs that helped people grow, stay, and belong.
She has created pathways for women, first-generation professionals, and those who needed someone to say, You can do this.
And she has done it not for recognition, but because she believes in what work should feel like.
What’s Next
Izaba is only getting started. Through her consulting work, leadership philosophy, and unwavering dedication to people, she’s redefining what modern HR looks like: strategic, compassionate, inclusive, and deeply human.
Her journey is a reminder that the most influential leaders aren’t always the loudest.
Sometimes, they’re the ones building behind the scenes—transforming workplaces, elevating others, and making people feel safe, valued, and capable of more than they imagined.
And that is why Izaba Paras stands exactly where she belongs: among today’s most influential women.
