Within the quiet machinery of organizational growth, a promotion often marks not just a title change but the recognition of years spent building the invisible architecture that allows companies to scale with intention. Reema Bhullar's elevation to Head of People at Maker Lab is precisely that — a five-year journey from talent acquisition partner to the steward of how an entire organization finds, develops, and retains its people. Her appointment, arriving alongside new CEO and commercial leadership, suggests Maker Lab is not simply growing but deliberately constructing the human foundations it
Reema Bhullar Named Head of People at Maker Lab
People strategy isn't a support function—it's central to how we compete.
Mark
Why does a promotion like this matter? It's an internal move at a consultancy.
Mimi
Because it signals how the company sees itself. When you consolidate talent, experience, and HR under one leader, you're saying people strategy isn't a support function—it's central to how we compete.
Mark
What does she actually do differently in this role than she did before?
Mimi
Before, she was building pieces—recruitment systems, onboarding flows, internal mobility. Now she owns the whole picture. She can see how hiring decisions affect culture, how culture affects who stays, how retention affects capability planning.
Mark
She's been there five years. Is that a long time to wait for a promotion?
Mimi
Not really. She moved through three distinct roles, each expanding her scope. That's deliberate progression, not stagnation. And she came in from outside the company, so she had to prove herself first.
Mark
What's the Asia background about?
Mimi
It matters because Maker Lab operates globally. She's placed talent across competitive Asian markets where you can't just post a job and wait. You have to understand local talent ecosystems, what people want, how to build networks.
Mark
So this is about growth?
Mimi
Exactly. The CEO appointment, the Head of Growth hire, Bhullar's promotion—they're all saying the same thing. We're ready to scale, and we need the people infrastructure to do it without breaking.
Le Pouls
- Maker Lab is undergoing a simultaneous reshaping of its top leadership — CEO, Head of Growth, and now Head of People — signaling that this is a coordinated organizational transformation, not a routine reshuffle.
- The consolidation of talent acquisition, employee experience, and HR under one leader creates both opportunity and pressure: Bhullar must now hold together functions that were previously distributed across separate mandates.
- Her decade-plus background placing digital and technology talent across Asia gives her a practitioner's understanding of competitive hiring markets — a critical edge as Maker Lab scales across multiple geographies.
- The company's embedded operating model — working inside client teams to reshape how marketing organizations are built — means Bhullar's people strategy must be flexible enough to serve both internal growth and client-facing capability demands.
- The trajectory is one of deliberate infrastructure-building: Maker Lab appears to be laying the organizational groundwork before accelerating, rather than scaling and scrambling to catch up.
Within the quiet machinery of organizational growth, a promotion often marks not just a title change but the recognition of years spent building the invisible architecture that allows companies to scale with intention. Reema Bhullar's elevation to Head of People at Maker Lab is precisely that — a five-year journey from talent acquisition partner to the steward of how an entire organization finds, develops, and retains its people. Her appointment, arriving alongside new CEO and commercial leadership, suggests Maker Lab is not simply growing but deliberately constructing the human foundations it believes its next chapter will require.
Reema Bhullar has been appointed Head of People at Maker Lab, bringing the company's talent acquisition, employee experience, and HR functions under unified leadership. The promotion is the culmination of a five-year progression that began when she joined as a Talent Acquisition Partner in 2021 and advanced through roles as Talent Acquisition Lead and Talent Experience Director — each step expanding her remit into onboarding, workforce planning, and employee engagement.
Before Maker Lab, Bhullar spent more than a decade in specialist recruitment at firms including The Edge Partnership, Salt, and Morgan McKinley, placing digital, marketing, and technology talent across Asia. That foundation in competitive, capability-driven hiring markets shaped the strategic instincts she has since applied to Maker Lab's own growth.
In her new role, she will guide how people strategy supports Maker Lab's embedded operating model — the consultancy's distinctive approach of working directly within client teams to rethink how modern marketing organizations are structured. Keeping that model coherent and scalable as client needs evolve will be a central challenge.
The appointment is part of a broader leadership restructuring that also includes Intan Mokhnar as incoming CEO and John Marsden as Head of Growth. Taken together, the three appointments read as a deliberate signal: Maker Lab is building the organizational depth it believes its next phase of expansion will demand.
Reema Bhullar has been promoted to Head of People at Maker Lab, a move that consolidates the company's talent acquisition, employee experience, and human resources functions under a single leadership umbrella. The appointment marks the capstone of a five-year climb through the organization that began in 2021, when she joined as a Talent Acquisition Partner.
Over that span, Bhullar built the infrastructure that allowed Maker Lab to scale its hiring across multiple markets and geographies. She moved from regional recruitment delivery into broader strategic territory, holding roles as Talent Acquisition Lead and, most recently, Talent Experience Director. Her portfolio expanded to include onboarding, internal mobility, workforce planning, and employee engagement—the full architecture of how a growing company brings people in, moves them through the organization, and keeps them engaged.
Before Maker Lab, Bhullar spent more than a decade in specialist recruitment, working at firms including The Edge Partnership, Salt, and Morgan McKinley. Her focus was placing digital, marketing, data, and technology talent across Asia, which gave her deep exposure to how companies source and build capability in competitive talent markets. That background in digital and technology recruitment positioned her well for a role at a marketing consultancy navigating rapid growth.
In her new position, Bhullar will shape how Maker Lab's people strategy supports the company's embedded operating model—the way the consultancy works closely with client teams to rethink how modern marketing organizations are structured and staffed. She will oversee the continued development of systems and practices that allow the company to adapt its capability mix as client needs shift, and to deliver work at scale without losing quality or cultural coherence.
The promotion arrives as Maker Lab undergoes a broader leadership restructuring. John Marsden has taken on the role of Head of Growth, leading global commercial strategy and helping brands reimagine their marketing team composition. At the same time, Intan Mokhnar was appointed CEO, signaling the company's intention to build the leadership depth and operating model needed for the next phase of expansion. Together, these three appointments suggest Maker Lab is preparing for significant growth and wants the organizational infrastructure in place to support it.
Citations marquantes
Bhullar will lead the continued development of a people-led operating model that enables Maker Lab's teams to work closely with clients, adapt to changing capability needs, and deliver outstanding work at scale.— Maker Lab (organizational statement)
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