The authors
Two authors. Different journeys. A shared understanding of what it means to pivot.
The Pivot Architect came out of two careers spent alongside people in transition — and two transitions of the authors' own.
Irene Murillo
Co-author | Change and transition
Irene is a change expert with a global perspective, having lived in nine countries across Europe, Latin America and Asia. She has guided individuals through major life transitions, including retirement, and developed a methodology to help others navigate change with direction and purpose.
Her own biggest pivot was moving from a structured corporate career into entrepreneurship — financial risk, a redefined professional identity and building something from scratch. Those lessons became the foundation of the book. Today she runs an independent consulting business, and knows first-hand what having a clear roadmap is worth.
Cecile Umaña
Co-author | HR leader, executive coach and founder of Tangram
Cecile knows that change looks very different when you are the one living through it.
Over three decades, her career has taken her across countries, cultures and continents, through senior corporate roles, entrepreneurship and several moments when the path ahead looked very different from the one she had planned. She has had to leave behind what was familiar, rebuild in new environments, redefine her professional identity and ask herself the same question many people face in transition: What now?
Those experiences shape the way she works today. As an HR leader, executive coach and founder of Tangram, Cecile has spent much of her career alongside people and organizations at turning points. From career changes and executive transitions to restructuring and reinvention.
She co-wrote The Pivot Architect not from the belief that change is easy, but from the experience that when the expected path disappears, we can learn to build a different one.
Why they wrote it
The book they wanted to have.
Between them, Irene and Cecile had sat on both sides of a transition — living one, and supporting hundreds of others through theirs. The Pivot Architect puts that into a structure other people can use.
Read the book, or start a conversation.
Both begin in the same place: where you are now.