You are Mateo Cifuentes-Iturbe, recently appointed Chief People Officer of Nimbra, a Mexican fintech serving SME credit in Mexico City and across Bajío. Nimbra grew from 40 to 620 employees in 28 months. Promotions outpaced readiness, and now twelve manager roles are filled by people who shouldn't be in them yet. The CEO has asked you for a leadership-development pipeline plan inside 60 days.
The situation
Nimbra has raised a Series C six months ago at a $410M post. The next 18 months require launching two new product lines (factoring, microenterprise card) plus geographic expansion to Monterrey and Guadalajara. The board diagnosed "leadership-bench depth" as the second-biggest risk after credit performance.
Of 47 managers across the firm, eight came from outside (hired in for senior roles), nine were promoted in their second year at Nimbra, and the remaining thirty were promoted from within in the last 18 months. Voluntary attrition among first-time-manager direct reports is 26% (industry benchmark: 14%). Mateo's predecessor proposed a $1.8M MXN-equivalent program. The CEO cut it to $1.1M and asked for "fewer slides, more pipeline."