Cover Story
Suzanne Rurode: Leading Beyond Borders, Building Growth That Lasts
Leadership is often measured through numbers: revenue growth, margins, market expansion, acquisitions, or operational performance.
For Suzanne Rurode, however, those outcomes are only part of the story.
Her career has been shaped by a deeper question: how can leaders build organizations that perform today while remaining capable of transforming tomorrow?
That question has followed Suzanne from her early career at The Nielsen Company to senior global leadership roles spanning multiple industries and markets. Her experiences have taught her that successful leadership requires curiosity, adaptability, discipline, and, above all, an ability to understand people.
Leadership Journey
Suzanne’s leadership journey began after graduating from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, when she joined The Nielsen Company and worked on the Kraft Foods account.
The experience allowed her to combine analytical thinking with consumer and brand insights. She remained with Nielsen for 17 years, benefiting from its high-potential leadership programs while building a strong foundation in consulting, strategy, and customer understanding.
Over time, her career expanded into commercial strategy and operations before ultimately leading businesses and P&Ls around the world.
Working across different markets fundamentally changed her perspective.
She discovered that strategies cannot simply be copied from one country to another. Consumer behavior, expectations, relationships, and business practices are shaped by culture and context.
As Suzanne puts it, “Snacking in Brazil, India or Indonesia is completely different than it is in Singapore, Germany or Japan.”
That global exposure transformed her into what she describes as a citizen of the world.
From Strategy to Global Transformation
Suzanne’s move into tech-enabled services marked another important chapter in her career.
When she entered the background-screening industry, she did not bring extensive industry-specific knowledge. Instead, she brought transferable leadership capabilities: growing revenue, scaling global organizations, developing long-term client relationships, and identifying people based on their skills and potential.
At First Advantage, she helped transform separate regional operations into a cohesive global organization.
Her responsibilities extended across client teams, operations, product, finance, information security, legal, and HR. Under her leadership, margins grew 20% and revenues increased 50% in less than two years.
At DISA Global Solutions, she later expanded a business operating entirely in the United States into an organization servicing clients in more than 100 countries within 12 months.
She also created a five-year business plan that was delivered in just two years and drove 10% revenue growth in a market where competitors had declined by 7% to 10%.
These experiences reinforced a lesson that remains central to her leadership philosophy: Growth must be built to endure.
The Human Potential Behind Performance
For Suzanne, one of the most important responsibilities of a leader is developing people.
Throughout her career, she has built high-performing teams from the ground up, including organizations that grew to 400 people across the globe.
She has also been recognized for building “destination teams,” environments where talented professionals actively want to work and grow.
At one point in her career, she had a waiting list of employees who wanted her as their mentor, despite having more than 75 mentors available within the organization. Her approach to talent is based on trust.
Suzanne believes exceptional people should sometimes be promoted before they feel completely ready. When talented individuals know their leader believes in them, they often rise to meet the challenge.
“The very best people will always step up to the role when they know you believe in them.”
For Suzanne, leadership is therefore not simply about identifying capability. It is about creating the confidence for people to use it.
Leadership Philosophy
Suzanne’s philosophy has evolved significantly since the beginning of her career.
Early on, she believed leadership meant being the perfect role model, personally driving results, and having the answers.
Experience taught her something different.
Today, she believes leaders should listen before leading, ask better questions, create alignment, and empower people to perform at their best.
This philosophy also shapes how she approaches business decisions.
The right decision cannot be measured only through data and financial outcomes. Leaders must also consider its long-term effect on people, trust, culture, and organizational capability.
Building Growth That Lasts
Across industries and markets, Suzanne has found that the fundamentals of sustainable success remain remarkably consistent.
Organizations must create meaningful customer value while developing the capability to deliver that value consistently.
Technology changes.
Business models evolve.
Markets shift.
But strong people, disciplined execution, clear purpose, and adaptability remain essential.
Suzanne’s approach is built around balancing immediate performance with long-term value creation.
Rather than pursuing short-term gains at the expense of future capability, she believes organizations should continue investing in innovation, talent, customer relationships, and strong operational foundations.
Culture Is What Leaders Consistently Model
For Suzanne, culture is not something that exists only in values statements or internal communications.
Culture is created through what leaders consistently model, reward, and hold people accountable for.
A strong organization emerges when leadership behavior, operating systems, incentives, and culture all reinforce the same priorities.
The desired culture cannot simply be something employees hear about. It must become how the business actually works. Trust follows the same principle.
Suzanne believes lasting trust comes from consistency, transparency, and integrity, especially when circumstances become difficult.
Doing what you say you will do creates credibility.
But the strongest partnerships go further. They are built on respect, candor, and a shared commitment to long-term value.
Many of Suzanne’s closest friends today are former clients, a reflection of the relationships she has built throughout her global career.
“Lasting results come from decisions that strengthen both business performance and the people responsible for delivering it.”
Leading Through Change
Transformation has taught Suzanne that meaningful change rarely happens simply because the strategy is right.
People must understand the change.
They must trust the direction.
They must see their role in it.
And leaders must have the resilience to listen to resistance rather than immediately dismiss it.
Suzanne learned early in her career to treat setbacks as feedback rather than failure.
That mindset has allowed her to approach transformation with persistence and curiosity while maintaining respect for the people responsible for making change happen.
She also believes client success, company performance, and employee success can be achieved together.
When leaders become deeply aligned with their clients and understand their goals, they can create plans that address multiple objectives at the same time.
Mutual success then strengthens the partnership.
The Executive Behind the Leader
Suzanne’s journey as an executive woman has also been shaped by life outside the boardroom.
She is a mother who has spent years balancing the responsibilities of leadership with the everyday realities of family life.
For 16 consecutive years, she served as a Room Parent for her three children on a rotating schedule. She bought school supplies, scheduled appointments, attended physicals, prepared for picture days, and handled the countless details that come with raising a family.
She does not describe those responsibilities as a burden.
Instead, she sees them as precious opportunities to spend time with her children.
That perspective reflects something fundamental about Suzanne’s approach to life.
Leadership is not confined to an executive title.
It is expressed through the way a person shows up, serves others, manages responsibility, and chooses to respond to pressure.
Lessons for Future Leaders
If Suzanne could give future global leaders one experience, it would not be another management seminar.
She would tell them to get on an airplane.
Go somewhere you do not speak or understand the language.
Experience a culture that is unfamiliar.
Listen.
Observe.
Learn.
Her own experience across more than 50 countries has shown her that some lessons cannot be learned through books, films, or someone else’s stories.
They have to be experienced personally.
That exposure changes how people understand customers, colleagues, cultures, and ultimately themselves.
It also creates the humility required to lead across borders.
Vision for the Future
As business moves toward 2027 and beyond, Suzanne expects leaders to face an environment defined by continuous disruption.
Artificial intelligence and technology will reshape organizations. Customers will expect more personalized and seamless experiences. Geopolitical uncertainty will continue to influence business decisions.
Organizations will need to become more agile while investing in AI, data-driven decision-making, and continuous workforce development.
Yet Suzanne believes technology alone will not determine who succeeds.
The organizations that endure will combine innovation with resilient, people-centered cultures.
The real leadership challenge will be balancing rapid technological advancement with customer expectations, organizational focus, trust, purpose, and human connection.