As the closing date for submitting entries for this year’s Personnel Today Awards approaches, it’s time to meet some of the industry leaders who will be making the decisions in the 21 categories, many of whom are previous awards winners themselves. Entries close on 9 June 2017.
Lucy Adams
Lucy created Disruptive HR after having held board-level HR roles in a variety of sectors, most recently at the BBC. While she was at the broadcaster she was responsible for employee relations, reward, training and managing redundancies, as well as the move to Salford and a 30% reduction in management. The aim of Disruptive HR is to help HR directors and business leaders to do things differently to equip their people for a disrupted world. Lucy is also the author of HR Disrupted, which offers practical ways to innovate in HR.
Robert Aldrich
Robert Aldrich is an experienced HR director, currently working as the interim people director for retail and consumer finance at the Lloyds Banking Group. Robert has a background in financial services, including HR Director at Nationwide Building Society. Exigency HR, specialising in executive outplacement, is also part of his portfolio. Robert’s other roles include a non-executive director of a social enterprise looking after adults with learning disabilities, a board member of a charity providing loans to social enterprises, a governor at Taunton School and executive coach for Working Transitions.
Sheila Attwood
Sheila is managing editor for pay and HR practice at XpertHR. She is responsible for the HR and reward content, including the pay settlement tracking service. Sheila conducts surveys of employer practice on all aspects of reward and benefits, and writes and edits comprehensive practical guidance on the subject. She has worked for XpertHR – and before that, IRS Employment Review – for 17 years. Sheila is a frequent media commentator on pay issues and has appeared on the BBC and Sky News.
Daniel Barnett
Daniel is a leading employment barrister and co-author of nine books, including the Law Society Handbook on Employment Law. He practises from the Outer Temple Chambers in London and is frequently instructed by HR departments under the Bar’s Public Access Scheme. Daniel also runs the UK’s largest email update service on employment law, and is the resident lawyer on London’s LBC radio, where he co-presents a weekly slot.
Sharon Bridgland-Gough
Sharon, who was named Personnel Today’s HR Director of the Year in 2016, is chief HR officer of Cardtronics, the world’s largest non-bank ATM operator. Prior to this role, she led Cardtronics’ European HR team and was responsible for leading several initiatives, including the company’s values and recognition programs and its global talent planning process.Sharon oversees HR strategy, talent acquisition, people development, compensation and benefits, employee engagement and employment relations, and previously held numerous senior HR roles.
Marcus Body
Marcus is part of the Brand and Insight team at recruitment communications agency ThirtyThree, focusing on employer brand and employer value proposition (EVP) projects for clients such as BP, CERN, PwC, Barclays and the London Business School. He has more than 10 years’ experience in the industry, and previous roles include research analyst at Work Communications and senior account manager at TMP Worldwide.
Diane Brown
Diane has held diverse roles in food, health, housing, local and central government, education and publishing sectors, with extensive business, operations and research expertise at board level. Her most recent role was as diversity manager at The British Library. Diane is a fellow of the CIPD and a member of its Senior Diversity Network. She has a host of experience in helping organisations to promote collaboration and teamwork, leading challenging strategic and practical projects and in supporting employers to effect change.
Wendy Cartwright
Wendy is the HR lead for the Palace of Westminster Restoration & Renewal Programme. She is also a non-executive director for the Ministry of Defence’s People and Training Board, and chair of the advisory board for consulting company Global Diversity Practice. Prior to her current role, Wendy was HR director for the Olympic Delivery Authority – the organisation responsible for developing and building the venues and infrastructure for London 2012. Wendy is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and has a Master’s degree in Employment Strategy. She is a member of the Engage for Success Task Force, and sits on a number of HR-related advisory boards and panels.
Martin Couzins
Martin is the director of content and communications agency Itsdevelopmental Ltd. He works with organisations to help them tell their stories by creating and curating compelling content. He is also an innovator in learning and development, helping start the L&D Connect Unconferences, successfully designing and delivering four massive, open online courses (MOOCs) and launching LearnPatch, a curation platform for L&D. He won the award for special achievement in L&D at the Training Journal awards 2016.
Martin Edmonston
Martin is the CEO and founder of Gradcore, a social enterprise focused on graduate employment and employability. Martin has more than 17 years’ experience working across graduate recruitment and higher education. He has led a wide range of graduate recruitment and employability projects, including running global graduate schemes for a range of large employers, delivering employability performance improvement in universities, and chairing graduate employment conferences. He also helped to establish the ‘city graduate scheme’ concept that helps places to attract and retain graduates more effectively. Martin was a member of the steering group for a Government report into graduate employment in SMEs and is a well-known commentator in the UK, Europe and the US.
Eugene Farrell
Eugene is qualified in radiotherapy, health economics and psychology and has more than 30 years of experience in the UK healthcare arena. For the past 20 years he has specialised in the development and provision of employee support services, including the development of integrated healthcare, psychological pathways, absence management, employee assistance, wellbeing and occupational health services. Eugene manages crisis and trauma support services for corporate clients, dealing with workplace crisis situations ranging from sudden death to fire, explosion, crash and terrorist incidents. He has worked with mental health providers, charities and government advising on the management of mental health in the workplace, as well as the management and delivery of organisational crisis support.
Madeleine Graham
Madeleine Graham is managing editor of employment law at XpertHR, where she manages a team of 13 employment law specialists. Prior to joining XpertHR, she worked for a number of years as a solicitor specialising in employment. During her time in practice, she has advised both employers and employees on all aspects of employment law and represented both at tribunal. Madeleine also has a Master’s degree in Law from King’s College London, for which she gained a distinction. Her recent areas of focus have included XpertHR’s innovative LiveFlo product and data protection regulations.
Laura Guttfield
Laura is HR business partner at ITN and in 2016 was named Personnel Today’s HR Business Partner of the Year. In her current role, she heads up HR for the Oscar-nominated ITN Productions, and the ITN Technology division. Laura also led HR for Channel 4 News for four years. Before joining ITN, Laura worked in talent management for PR agencies including Lexis and Ketchum. Laura is particularly interested in the areas of talent management, employee engagement and developing people strategies that support business growth, and has spoken at conferences on talent management. She has also been a member of the CIPD Code of Conduct Investigation and Disciplinary panel pools.
Darren Hayman
Darren is a managing director and co-owner of Macmillan Davies, a leading HR recruitment consultancy. He has over 20 years’ recruiting experience, specialising in delivering consultative HR recruitment services to multi-sector clients. Darren currently leads the interim team at Macmillan Davies and has delivered global assignments in the UK, Europe, Australasia and the Middle East., Darren is a regular speaker at HR industry events and has recently authored a number of thought leadership whitepapers and blog posts. This will be Darren’s fifth year judging the awards.
Steve Herbert
Steve is an award-winning thought leader and commentator on pensions and employee benefit issues. He runs a highly successful seminar series and frequently writes articles and blogs on the subject, aiming to better communicate the value of employee benefits. He is a regular contributor to forums at the Department of Work and Pensions and Government consultations on pensions and benefits issues. Steve is also head of benefits strategy at Jelf Employee Benefits.
Faye Holland
Faye is founder of Cofinitive, a strategic communications and engagement company. She works with a range of technology firms as an external consultant providing strategic, implementation and communications expertise. She has a strong HR network around the globe of advisors, analysts, providers and enterprise customers, and stays ahead of all the latest developments through writing for industry blogs and judging HR technology awards. Faye has recently been shortlisted locally and nationally as an unsung hero and female Entrepreneur of the Year.
Mark Horley
Mark is executive creative director and co-founder of recruitment advertising agency Tonic, which he set up five years ago with colleague Tom Chesterton. The company has built campaigns for The British Army, Police Now, Vodafone, RBS, AkzoNobel and Marshall. Mark has also worked for a number of other agencies, including AIA, Work Group and TMP Worldwide.
Michael Jenkins
Michael is CEO of Roffey Park, the renowned leadership institute. His previous roles include director of the Foreign Languages Centre at the University of Bath, director of INSEAD Executive Education in Singapore and managing director of the Center for Creative Leadership Asia Pacific. Michael has contributed to the Singapore Ministry of Manpower’s publication Asian Leadership: What Works (edited by Dave Ulrich and Robert Sutton) and to the EFMD Global Focus magazine. Michael is currently working on links between compassionate leadership and mental wellbeing in the workplace.
Gareth Jones
Gareth is partner and chief innovation officer at The Chemistry Group, an award-winning people consultancy. One of his key focuses is building the Chemistry Lab, a dedicated innovation facility to research and develop new technology and approaches to predict potential in human beings using big data. Over the past 30 years he has held multiple roles across HR, technology, business development, consulting, customer relationship management, marketing and recruitment. Gareth is a regular speaker and blogger on technology and the future of people in business.
Denise Keating
Denise launched the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion (enei) in 2011 in response to employers asking for a coordinated offer that helps to create inclusive workplaces. Denise leads on membership engagement, determining key campaigns and maintains a close relationship with government stakeholders and the media. Denise was also instrumental in creating the (now former) Employers Forum on Age in 1996 and served as a board director and trustee between 2002 and 2009, when she was appointed its chief executive. Her other previous roles include Head of People Proposition at Marks & Spencer and Head of Corporate HR at Nationwide Building Society, where she worked on change programmes that positioned both organisations as employers of choice.
Andy Lancaster
Andy has more than 25 years’ experience in learning and organisational development in commercial, technological and not-for-profit organisations and has also worked in a consultancy role. As Head of Learning and Development Content at CIPD Andy is responsible for professional development and learning products, digital content and qualifications for L&D, coaching and mentoring, management and leadership and business psychology. Andy was also part of the team that developed CIPD’s new L&D qualifications, he oversees the Leaders in Learning Network and is pioneering digital learning at the Institute.
Lawrence Mitchell
Lawrence is chief customer officer of SumoSalad, a successful Australian salad chain. He is also founder of Get Raw Energy, creator of an award-winning Living Well programme at Reed Business Information, a speaker and author of three books including Success without Stress. During his time at RBI, he was part of a leadership team that transformed the company from a declining magazine business into a fast growth, high-margin, digital data and analytics portfolio business.
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Closing date: 9 June 2017
Neil Morrison
Neil has recently begun a new role as HR director of utilities company Severn Trent. He has held a number of roles in FTSE 100 companies, including Rentokil Initial and GUS (which became Home Retail Group). Before joining Severn Trent, he was responsible for strategic people issues at Random House Group, the publisher. He was one of the main leads in helping to steer and finalise the global merger between Random House and Penguin. Neil has won numerous industry awards and is a regular commentator on workplace issues. In 2015, Neil was appointed as a non-executive director to the board of the CIPD.
Darren Newman
Darren has been writing and talking about employment law for over 25 years, helping lawyers and HR professionals make sense of this fast-moving and vital subject. He has represented both employers and employees at employment tribunals across the country and is the former head of employment law and social affairs for the Chemical Industries Association. As well as being a consultant editor for XpertHR, where he writes a monthly’ ‘Perspective’ column, he is the author of a wide range of guides and specialist articles. Darren also trains HR professionals in the latest employment law developments and is the author of the ‘Range of Reasonable Responses’ blog and podcast series.
Caroline Nugent
Caroline is the Director of HR and OD at oneSource, a shared back office of 1,100 staff for the London Boroughs of Havering, Newham and Bexley. She is also president of the Public Services People Managers Association (PPMA), and has more than 25 years’ experience in HR. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, ILM7 qualified in Executive Coaching and Leadership mentioning, Level A & B trained in psychometrics and has been an accredited workplace and employment mediator. Before her current role, Caroline was a director of VineHR, an award winning not-for-profit company of Essex heads of HR who created significant savings and improvements in collaborative working.
Angela O’Connor
Angela is the founder and CEO of boutique HR consultancy The HR Lounge. Her experience in HR spans over 30 years with roles as Chief People Officer at the National Policing Improvement Agency, HR director of the Crown Prosecution Service and HR director of three London local authorities. Angela has received many awards, including three HR Director of the year awards. She was the first civil service president of the PPMA in the organisation’s history. Angela is President of the HR Society and a member of the employer advisory panel for the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. She is a visiting professor at London Metropolitan University and she was recently named as one of the top 10 HR practitioners of the last decade.
Laura Overton
Laura Overton is founder and CEO of Towards Maturity, an independent, not-for-profit organisation that helps people professionals deliver improved performance through learning innovation. Since 2003, over 5,000 people professionals have used the Towards Maturity Benchmark to help them establish an effective, technology-enabled learning culture. Towards Maturity also conducts research directly with learners in the workplace with the Towards Maturity Learning Landscape Audit – helping L&D teams understand how staff learn what they need for their jobs. To date, over 25,000 learners have been involved in this research.
Emma Parry
Emma is Professor of Human Resource Management at Cranfield School of Management. Her research focuses on the impact of the changing context on HRM, specifically the impact of national context, changing demographics and technological advancement on managing people. Emma is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute for Employment Studies (IES), an Academic Fellow of the CIPD and a Visiting Fellow at Westminster Business School. Emma leads a number of global research projects. She manages “Cranet”, a worldwide network of over 40 business schools that conducts comparative research into HRM, and is a director of 5C – a global research project of 30 institutions around the world, examining cultural differences in attitudes towards careers.
Gillian Quinton
Gillian started her career in retail management with the Kingfisher Group, but is now a well-known public sector HR figure and past president of the Public Sector People Managers Association (PPMA). She joined Buckinghamshire County Council in 2005 as director of HR and OD, and is now managing director (resources), which means she is responsible for finance, legal, HR & OD, ICT, customer services, communications, business support, property and business transformation. She leads a number of change programmes including the council’s corporate transformation programmes, delivering more than £35m in savings to date. Gillian was recently named as one of the top ten most influential HR practitioners of the decade.
Saima Poorghobad
Saima is Commercial Product Manager at XpertHR, part of RBI. In her role she is focused on developing new products and services that meet the changing needs of HR professionals. More recently, she has been building out XpertHR’s suite of data and analytics tools. Prior to her current role, Saima worked in the corporate strategy team and RELX Group (RBI’s parent company) where she supported each of its business units with innovation and growth initiatives. Before joining RELX, Saima started her career as a strategy consultant at Deloitte.
Laura Jane Rawlings
Laura is founder and chief executive of Youth Employment UK CIC. Prior to this role, she worked for many years in the recruitment sector, where she was well placed to see the challenges facing young people leaving education. Recognised as a passionate campaigner for youth employment, she has also offered insight to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Youth Employment and Education and the Education and Skills Sub Committee. Laura has also worked on consulting projects with organisations such as Cambridge Local Authority and the National Citizen Service.
Dr Fiona Robson
Fiona is deputy director at Roehampton Business School, University of Roehampton, where she leads collaborative partnerships and a number of strategic projects. Prior to this role, she was principal lecturer in HRM and International Champion at Newcastle Business School. Fiona has produced a number of toolkits for the CIPD on absence management, induction, and learning needs analysis, and also helped to develop the script for its presentation skills DVD. In 2013, Fiona was one of only six people to receive a CIPD Award of Merit. Her key areas of interest are absence management, employee retention and supporting culturally diverse groups.
Kirsten Samuel
Kirsten is the CEO and founder of wellbeing company Kamwell. Kamwell works with global organisations and SMEs to transform the health and wellbeing of their people and create purposeful, high-performance, human-centred workplace cultures. Before this role, Kirsten worked in the City for several large technology companies, most latterly at Hewlett Packard. Kirsten believes her unique experience in the corporate sector and her understanding of what it really means to drive change, enables her to deliver significant value and advice to organisations looking to transform their health and wellbeing culture.
Jabbar Sardar
Jabbar is an award-winning HR professional, whose current role is director of HR for BBC Studios, the TV production arm of the BBC. He joined in January 2016, and oversees all HR activity for production, reporting into BBC group HR director Valerie Hughes D’Aeth. Prior to joining the BBC, Jabbar was director of HR & OD at Cafcass, where he spent nine years. He is frequently nominated as one of the most influential HR directors in the UK.
Andrew Spence
Andrew is HR transformation director at Glass Bead Consulting. He has long been an active champion of HR tech and takes a holistic view of technology as an enabler to solve business problems. He has a Masters in Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science, combined with over 20 years’ experience as a business transformation specialist working with organisations including BP, John Lewis Partnership, Novartis, United Health Group, and the NHS. Andrew speaks at conferences around the world and his articles have been published in a number of journals. He also curates “HR Transformation Magazine” on ScoopIt, and “Future of Work and Organisations”.
Perry Timms
Perry Timms is a globally recognised speaker and consultant on the future of work. He runs transformational HR consultancy, PTHR, and a range of networked partnerships. Perry is a WorldBlu certified freedom at work consultant and coach and a TEDx speaker with more than 20 years’ experience in technology-driven change, organisational development and learning. He is a chartered member of the CIPD and advises the organisation on social media. In October 2017, Perry will publish a book with Kogan Page called Transformational HR.
Martin Tiplady OBE
Martin runs HR and management consultancy Chameleon People Solutions, providing change management, organisational development and general HR and investigative services to businesses. His previous roles include director of HR for the Metropolitan Police and other HRD roles at The Berkeley Group, Westminster Health Care Holdings Plc and The Housing Corporation. Martin is regularly listed by the HR press as one of the most influential people in HR and is a Chartered Companion of the CIPD and was vice president of the CIPD from 2006 to 2010. He is a non-executive director at Roffey Park and Midland Heart and was awarded an OBE for services to Policing and Human Resources in The Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2010.
Bruce Warman
Bruce has a long career in the motor industry, where he has been both finance director and managing director of two motor components companies, worked as an organisational development consultant for General Motors, and was director of personnel for Vauxhall Motors. He currently part owns and is a director of AutoXP, a motor industry service company, sits on the Employment Appeal Tribunal and is chairman of CEBR, an economics and business consultancy. Bruce has also chaired the Eastern region of the CBI and sat on the Acas council. He has an MBA from London Business School, is a qualified accountant and also a qualified business coach.
Mark Withers
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Mark is an organisational development and HR consultant, and managing director of Mightywaters Consulting, which works with HR teams across the private, public and not-for-profit sector. Prior to setting up his own consultancy, he worked in HR roles in Allied Domecq and Shell, and as a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mark is also chair of the Thames Valley Branch of the CIPD. His aim is to support senior teams to shape and execute business change and ensure organisations get the best out of their people.
