Founder & CEO · InnoTrue Hub

"I have built my career twice — once before life intervened completely, and once after, from the ground up, in a new country, when everyone said it was the wrong moment."

Doina Popa is the founder of InnoTrue Hub — a human development platform built on a single thesis: organisations and professionals who navigate the AI transition best develop human capability deliberately, not as a soft add-on but as the actual work. She brings this conviction with authority — as a Salesforce Certified Technical Architect, ICF PCC executive coach, CTO, and CIO who has operated at every level of the architect-to-executive journey her clients are navigating.

25+
Years in tech and leadership
15k+
Training & coaching hours delivered globally
3,200+
Salesforce specialists trained and developed
250+
Person global team led as CTO & CIO
Doina Popa
Doina Popa
Founder · ICF PCC · Salesforce CTA · Review Board Judge
3rd Female CTA
In the World
First outside the US · 2014
C-Suite
CTO · CIO
Capgemini · Barclays
Active
CTA RB Judge
ICF PCC · EMCC SP
The story behind the work

Shaped by what
actually happened.
Not by a career plan.

In 2006, a family crisis brought Doina to Germany under circumstances that had nothing to do with career ambition. Her newborn son had been born with serious birth defects. After four operations in Romania in two weeks, with doctors unable to stabilise him, she found a surgeon in Germany willing to accept a critically ill infant. They moved him by emergency air rescue. He survived — and over three years of intensive care, oxygen dependency, and further surgery, he stabilised. He is now a young adult.

"When my son was four, I decided to go back to work. Everyone around me thought it was the wrong moment. I disagreed — and rebuilt from scratch, in a new country, from the technical foundations up."

That period shaped everything that followed. The resilience, the clarity about what actually matters, the refusal to accept a ceiling as permanent — all of it was formed in those years. When Doina talks about rebuilding from scratch, earning your place, or choosing growth over comfort, it is not motivational language. It is autobiography.

By 2014, having rebuilt her technical depth and earned the CTA credential, she noticed a pattern nobody was addressing — technically excellent people failing the Review Board and stalling before the C-suite, not because of what they knew, but because of how they showed up. InnoTrue was founded in 2019 to close that gap.

Doina Popa — at work
Doina Popa
Founder · ICF PCC · Salesforce CTA · Review Board Judge
The unique position

Two worlds.
One rare intersection.

Most people who can teach the technical side cannot coach the leadership side with lived authority. Most coaches have never held a CTO or CIO title in enterprise technology. Doina operates in both — and that combination is genuinely uncommon.

Technical Authority
  • Salesforce Certified Technical Architect
  • 28 Salesforce certifications
  • Active CTA Review Board Judge
  • Salesforce Workforce Development Partner
  • Salesforce Certified Instructor — Architecture track (Trailhead)
  • Top EMEA Advisory Services FY16
  • 15,000+ training hours delivered
  • 3,200+ Salesforce professionals trained
Only here
Judge who coaches.
Not a coach who passed.
ICF PCC rigour +
C-suite lived experience
Technical credibility
in the room
Earned My Seat —
from the inside
Leadership & Coaching Depth
  • ICF PCC — Professional Certified Coach
  • EMCC Senior Practitioner
  • Solutions Academy Team Coach
  • Hogan Certified Assessor
  • CTO Salesforce — Capgemini
  • CIO Salesforce — Barclays
  • 250+ person global team leadership
Credentials & Accreditations

Rigorous credentials.
No shortcuts.

Education & Executive Learning
  • Executive MBA, Innovation & Business Creation — TU Munich & UnternehmerTUM, Germany
  • Executive Certificate in Management and Leadership — MIT Sloan School of Management, US
  • Executive Certificate in Strategy and Innovation — MIT Sloan School of Management, US
  • Applied Neuroscience — MIT Sloan School of Management, US
  • Professional Certificate in Executive Coaching — Henley Business School, UK
  • Negotiation and Conflict Resolution — Macquarie Graduate School of Management
  • MSc & Advanced Studies in Computer Science — Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Romania
  • Character Strengths Interventions — VIA Institute on Character
  • Certificate Program in Design Thinking — QGLUE
Accreditations & Certifications
  • EMCC SP — European Mentoring and Coaching Council Senior Practitioner
  • ICF PCC — International Coaching Federation Professional Certified Coach
  • Solution Focused Team Coach — Solutions Academy
  • Hogan Certified Assessor — HPI, HDS, MVPI, 360s, HBRI, Team & Leader tools
  • 28 Salesforce Certifications — including CTA
  • Salesforce Certified Instructor — teaches Architecture track classes on behalf of Salesforce through Trailhead
  • Strategyzer Certified Innovation Coach — Innovation Bootcamp, Building Invincible Companies Masterclass
🏅
Coaching
ICF PCC — Professional Certified Coach
The International Coaching Federation's Professional Certified Coach credential — the second of three levels, requiring demonstrated coaching competency, supervised hours, mentor coaching, and performance evaluation. The gold standard in professional coaching.
International Coaching Federation
🎖️
Coaching
EMCC SP — Senior Practitioner
The European Mentoring and Coaching Council's Senior Practitioner accreditation — recognising advanced coaching and mentoring practice with demonstrated competency across the EMCC global competence framework.
European Mentoring & Coaching Council
👥
Team Coaching
Solutions Academy — Team Coach
Specialist team coaching certification covering solution-focused team dynamics, trust-building, alignment facilitation, and the team diagnostic tools used in the Venture Edge and corporate Breakthrough engagements.
Solutions Academy
Salesforce · Landmark
Salesforce Certified Technical Architect
The most rigorous Salesforce credential — a live Review Board examination requiring candidates to architect, present, and defend under real examination conditions. 3rd female CTA in the world. First outside the United States. Salesforce Certified Instructor (Architecture track) since 2017. Active Review Board Judge since 2018.
Salesforce · 2014
🤝
Salesforce · Partnership
Salesforce Workforce Development Partner
An official Salesforce designation for organisations delivering high-quality Salesforce skills development — awarded in collaboration with the Salesforce Architect Product Team. A formal recognition of InnoTrue's role in the ecosystem.
Salesforce · Official Partner Status
🧠
Assessment
Hogan Certified Assessor
Certified to administer and interpret the full Hogan Assessment Suite — HPI, HDS, and MVPI — used in leadership coaching and development engagements to surface personality, derailers, and core values with evidence-based precision.
Hogan Assessments
💡
Innovation
Strategyzer Certified Innovation Coach
Certified in Innovation Bootcamp and Building Invincible Companies Masterclass — applying Strategyzer's evidence-based innovation and business model frameworks in leadership and organisational development.
Strategyzer
28
Salesforce Certifications
Across the full Salesforce certification spectrum — architecture, development, administration, consulting, and specialisation tracks. Not accumulated for appearances: each reflects a body of real delivery experience in that domain. The breadth underpins InnoTrue's ability to develop Salesforce professionals across the full spectrum of the ecosystem.
Architecture Development Administration Consulting Integration Data Security Identity
The journey

A career built at the
intersection of both worlds.

The credibility that underpins every InnoTrue program is not constructed — it is the direct result of a career spent navigating the exact transitions her clients are working through.

~2002
First bold move — the transfer
Early career · Romania
Two years into her first role, Doina identified a leader she deeply admired and technologies she believed represented the future. She asked to transfer — a move that felt bold at the time but instilled a lifelong commitment to excellence and taught her that growth begins the moment you advocate for your own potential.
~2004
First product line — pitched to the CEO, built from scratch
Business line ownership · Romania
Identified the potential for a new product within her company. Pitched it first to her direct manager, then directly to the CEO — a particularly demanding individual. Got approval. Built the entire product line end-to-end: R&D, engineering, sales, professional services, support, and marketing. Her first experience of owning a vision completely and translating it into reality. The blueprint for everything InnoTrue would become fifteen years later.
Product Leadership End-to-End Ownership CEO Stakeholder
2006–
2010
Germany. A restart nobody recommended.
Personal · Professional · Both
A family crisis brought Doina to Germany — not a career move but an emergency. Her newborn son, born with serious birth defects and unable to be stabilised in Romania after four operations in two weeks, was transferred by emergency air rescue to a surgeon in Germany who would accept him. He survived. Three years of intensive care, oxygen dependency, and further surgery followed.

When her son was four, Doina made the decision most people around her thought was irrational: she went back to work. She rebuilt her career from the technical foundations up, in a new country, without shortcuts. The resilience, the clarity, and the refusal to accept a ceiling as permanent that define her coaching today were all built in this period.
Resilience Rebuilding from zero Technical depth
Pre-
2014
Joining Salesforce — after being rejected
Salesforce · Enterprise delivery
Applied for a Technical Architect role at Salesforce — her dream role at the time. Auto-rejected almost immediately through screening. Instead of accepting it, she contacted a recruitment leader directly. They saw something in her profile and gave her the opportunity to engage. Within a month, she joined. Five years followed that shaped her profoundly — technically, as a global leader, and in terms of what she believed was possible.
Salesforce Architecture Global Delivery Direct outreach over passive acceptance
2014
Salesforce Certified Technical Architect
3rd female CTA in the world · First outside the US
One of the most rigorous technical certifications in the enterprise software ecosystem — a live Review Board session in which candidates must architect, defend, and adapt under real examination conditions. Passing it placed Doina in a cohort of fewer than a thousand people globally at the time. She joined the Review Board as a Judge in 2018.
CTA Credential Review Board Judge 28 Salesforce Certifications
Salesforce
HQ
Senior Principal Program Architect
Salesforce · Top EMEA Advisory Services FY16
Led major enterprise advisory programs globally as part of Salesforce's own advisory organisation. Recognised as the top performer in EMEA Advisory Services — a role that combined deep technical authority with the executive stakeholder management and consulting skills that define the architect-to-leader transition.
Top EMEA FY16 Global Advisory Enterprise Architecture
CTO
CTO · Salesforce Capgemini UK
Global distributed team leadership
Moved from technical expert to technology executive — leading Salesforce architecture and delivery across Capgemini's global client base. Built and led distributed teams, navigated complex enterprise stakeholder dynamics, and operated at the intersection of technology strategy and business outcomes. This is the transition most of her clients are working towards.
C-Suite Leadership Global Teams Technology Strategy Capgemini
CIO
CIO · Salesforce Barclays
250+ person global team
Led a 250+ person globally distributed Salesforce organisation inside one of the world's major financial institutions. Board-level technology leadership, major transformation programs, full C-suite operating context. The role she coaches others towards — having lived every dimension of what it takes to earn it and operate in it effectively.
250+ Global Team Board-Level Leadership Transformation Barclays
VP
Global VP Head of Sales Technology
UiPath · Munich
Led sales technology at scale for one of the world's leading enterprise automation companies — aligning technology strategy with global go-to-market and building capability across the organisation.
UiPath Sales Technology Global Leadership
Advisory
Digital Transformation & Advisory Consulting
Enterprise clients · Global
Independent advisory consulting for organisations navigating large-scale digital transformation — bridging the gap between technology strategy and organisational readiness. The work that made it clear: the bottleneck in enterprise transformation is rarely the technology. It is almost always the human capability to lead through it. The direct precursor to InnoTrue's thesis.
Digital Transformation Advisory Consulting Enterprise Strategy
Now
Founder & CEO
InnoTrue GmbH · Germany · Operating globally
InnoTrue exists because the gap between technical capability and human readiness is where most transformations fail — and closing it requires someone who has operated on both sides. The platform, the programmes, and the coaching all serve one thesis: organisations that develop human capability deliberately will be the ones still leading when the AI transition is done.
ICF PCC EMCC SP Salesforce WFD Partner CTA RB Judge Certified Instructor
What InnoTrue stands for

Close the gap between
capability and recognition.

InnoTrue Hub exists for one reason: too many technically excellent professionals are not getting the careers their capability deserves — because visibility, narrative, and leadership presence are not taught in any Salesforce curriculum or enterprise training program.

The platform delivers both sides of what it actually takes: the technical rigour that earns credibility in the ecosystem, and the leadership development that translates that credibility into recognised, influential, high-impact careers.

For individuals navigating the architect-to-executive transition. For organisations building the Salesforce leadership capability they say is a priority. For women in technology who need a coach who has walked the exact path, not a generic program with a diversity module attached.

🎯
Evidence-based and results-driven
Every program is built around measurable outcomes — not vague transformation language. Candidates pass boards. Leaders get promoted. Organisations build capability they can measure.
🪞
Honest before comfortable
Coaching is most valuable when it is honest. InnoTrue does not tell people what they want to hear. It tells them what they need to hear — with rigour, care, and the credibility to back it up.
🌍
Built for people who are serious
The programs are not cheap and they are not passive. They are designed for professionals who are genuinely committed to closing the gap — and who want a partner with real skin in the game.
Technical credibility is non-negotiable
Leadership development that does not understand the technical domain it is operating in cannot be fully trusted by the people it is trying to develop. InnoTrue does not ask clients to separate their technical identity from their leadership identity. It develops both.
From Insight to Impact

What leaders say
about working with Doina.

More testimonials from Salesforce training and CTA preparation are on the CTA Immersion page.

"

What started as leadership coaching with Doina evolved into a complete strategy shift. Our team became more aligned, faster in decision-making, and far more innovative.

A
Andrei Frangeti
CEO, CEX360 Omnichannel CX Planning
"

When Doina leads a program, it creates lasting impact. She combines strategic insight with genuine care for people's growth, guiding teams to connect purpose, performance, and potential. Her rare mix of technical depth and leadership makes every engagement inspiring and transformative.

S
Sovan Bin
Founder and CEO, Odaseva
"

This experience fundamentally changed how I think and decide as a leader. It brought clarity, confidence, and purpose to how I create impact — every senior leader should experience that kind of growth.

N
Nicoleta Stanciulescu
Global Process Lead, Global Finance Transformation
Where to go next

Explore the programs.

Salesforce Track
CTA Immersion
The most rigorous CTA preparation in the ecosystem — built by a judge, grounded in ICF PCC coaching methodology, and differentiated from every other prep program by the intelligence that only comes from the other side of the table.
Explore CTA Immersion
🎯
Leadership Track
Coaching & Leadership
From the Clarity Session entry point through the Breakthrough Accelerator — a structured journey from visibility to influence to executive presence. For individuals and corporate cohorts. Grounded in lived C-suite experience, not observer coaching.
Explore Coaching & Leadership
Women in Tech Leadership
Earned My Seat
A dedicated coaching strand for women in Salesforce and technology leadership — developed by a coach who was the 3rd female CTA in the world and has led 250+ person global teams as CTO and CIO. For professionals who want a coach who has walked the exact path.
Explore Earned My Seat
Start the conversation

One session.
Honest clarity.

The Clarity Session is a single 60-minute conversation with a written summary. No obligation to continue. Fully credited if you do. The fastest way to find out whether this is the right fit.

Or email directly: hello@innotrue.com