When you look back on 2025, what’s the one people milestone you’re most proud of?

When I look back on 2025, what stands out most is that we kept the Akur8 culture strong and consistent while scaling internationally. What I’m proudest of isn’t a single event, but the fact that our people, wherever they are, feel part of the same story, with shared expectations, shared rituals, and the same level of support.

We did this by making very intentional choices to keep our culture tangible: how we onboard, how we bring teams together, how we support managers, and how we create moments for cross-team collaboration. As we grew, we didn’t want to “standardize for the sake of standardizing”; we wanted to protect what makes Akur8 special; humility, excellence, empathy, and the ambition to keep pushing further. 

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‍With Akur8 continuing to expand globally, including the opening of our new Madrid office this year, what are the cultural “non‑negotiables” you’re reinforcing everywhere, and where do you intentionally adapt your approach to reflect the needs and realities of each regional team?

Scaling globally forces you to be very deliberate about what you consider “core.” For us, the non-negotiables are our values and the way we translate them into everyday behaviors.

When we open a new office like Madrid this year or Montreal last year, we focus on two things in parallel. First, we create a shared foundation: a strong onboarding path, early connections with teams across the company, and moments that immerse people in Akur8’s ways of working. Second, we leave room for local ownership: the rhythms of the office, the team rituals, and the initiatives that make sense culturally and operationally in the country.

What matters is consistency of experience and expectations, not uniformity. If someone moves from Paris to Montreal to Madrid, they should recognize Akur8 immediately. At the same time, each office should feel empowered to bring its own energy and to support its teams in the most relevant way.

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‍After integrating Arius and now Matrisk, what have you learned about successful integrations at Akur8,  and what does your integration playbook look like today to protect culture and employee experience?

Success comes from balancing structure with humanity. While you need a clear plan with set deadlines and deliverables, you also need to invest in trust, listening, and building real relationships.

Our playbook starts with understanding the team we’re welcoming: their culture, what makes them proud, and what they may be worried about. We prioritize early, transparent communication and a strong cadence of touchpoints. Then we focus on practical integration mechanisms: aligning on ways of working, giving managers the tools to support their teams, and creating opportunities for cross-team collaboration.

Delphine Marsh is Chief People Officer at Akur8, where she leads the global People & Office strategy across all offices. With over a decade of experience in the tech ecosystem, she began her career at SThree supporting French tech startups and later joined Genetec, where she led recruitment and talent management across the EMEA region. At Akur8, Delphine drives the company’s people strategy to support its rapid international growth. Initially based in Paris, she relocated to Montreal in 2025, where she drove the relocation and led the opening of the Montreal office.

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