About Me

Meet Barbara

I'm Barbara Roos (pronounced "rose"), and through Trailhead Communications, I partner with executives and leadership teams navigating the human side of AI adoption—helping them align leaders, build trust, and create the honest, rigorous strategies required to move teams from resistance to capability.

 

I bring more than 25 years of experience in strategic communications, change leadership, and organizational transformation, including 10+ years in senior roles at Intel leading initiatives that affected thousands of employees and drove measurable business impact. My work sits at the intersection of strategy, culture, and leadership—helping organizations turn complexity into clarity and move forward when the path feels uncertain.

What I Bring

My strength lies in integration: seeing strategy, people, politics, and emotions in a single frame—and helping leaders understand what's actually driving (or blocking) change. I earn trust quickly across executives, peers, and teams, and I bring people together around shared narratives even in moments of stress or uncertainty.

I'm Known For:

  • Bringing clarity to ambiguous situations and creating alignment in challenging environments

  • Naming what's really happening—the organizational dynamics, resistance, and hidden patterns others often avoid

  • Building the systems and tools that make transformation feel tangible and actionable: global change champion networks, leadership alignment workshops, enterprise-wide change playbooks

 

At Intel, I led transformations across 5,000+ employees, stood up a Center of Excellence for change and program management, and helped leaders drive clarity through rapidly shifting priorities. My work supported $100M+ in revenue enablement and $11M in cost savings—not by avoiding the hard parts, but by creating the alignment, trust, and capability required to make change stick.

Who I Work With

I partner with founders, executives, and senior teams navigating transformation they know is complex, uncertain, and high-stakes. I work best with leaders who want a peer-level collaborator—someone who will help them see their system clearly, align on reality, and do the hard relational and strategic work required to make change stick.

 

I'm drawn to builders: people creating, scaling, or transforming something meaningful, often at the intersection of AI, culture, and organizational change.

 

I'm not a fit if you're looking for surface-level messaging, quick fixes, or someone to execute a plan without questioning whether it's the right plan.

Testimonials

Mark Hocking

Former VP of Sales Excellence, Intel

Barbara is an excellent leader. She quickly learns issues from all sides and builds change and communication strategies that align business goals with what people on the ground truly need. Her team consistently gave her top scores because she created clarity and support in an environment of rapid change. Barbara brings people together, builds trust quickly, and drives high-quality work to completion.

Laura Barbaro

Former VP of Customer Experience, Intel

Barbara was brilliant in building our customer advocacy and customer-first culture strategies that inspired our customers as well as our employees. Her staff and co-workers consistently raved about her leadership style and coaching. She’s collaborative, always looking for ways to build a win-win, and she listens and follows through on her promises.

Amit Perry

CEO & Co-Founder, ApplAI

Barbara has been a game-changer for our team. She excels at turning complex ideas into clear, actionable strategies and communicating them even to those unfamiliar with the subject. She’s a strategic thinker, a strong leader, and someone who improves outcomes simply by being in the room. Her impact on our group’s success cannot be overstated.

Pete Kronowitt

Founder, Face the Music Collective

Barbara provided invaluable knowledge which allowed us to jumpstart a seemingly impossible project. Our entire team was guided to become more productive and skilled in a short amount of time. Barbara also helped assess how to practically use and understand AI and its limitations. What truly set her apart was the thoughtful preparation she brought to every session, ensuring our time together was consistently focused and impactful.

Lina Stukov

Former Senior Sales Leader, Intel

Barbara leads change initiatives with exceptional skill and dedication. What stands out most is her ability to connect with sellers in a way that makes complex changes easy to understand and adopt. Her clarity, empathy, and communication style helps build trust and engagement across teams.

Gareth WIlliams

Digital Transformation Consultant

Barbara is that rare partner who thinks strategically and can also activate that strategy with effective change management and communications frameworks. She turns complex, enterprise-scale change into something people can understand and act on. Barbara brings sharp thinking, clarity, and incredible stakeholder focus. If you need a strategic partner to clarify and lead major change that sticks, she’s exactly who you want.

Isabella Villegas-Torres

Global Sales Enablement, Civica

Barbara has a natural talent for organizing large, complex teams and objectives with remarkable clarity. Her attention to detail, people-first approach, and ability to streamline processes while keeping morale high make her an invaluable leader.