Chartered Companion nominations

Amanda Oates Chartered CCIPD

Amanda is the Executive Director of Workforce at Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust. Her pioneering work on restorative just and learning culture across the NHS has transformed the way that the NHS and its partners view their organisational cultures and has provided expert, board-level support to improve national NHS people performance. Amanda, alongside others has recently published a widely applauded book on this subject, calling on many national and international experts to review and endorse her methodology. Amanda mentors and coaches a number of CIPD graduates and is passionate about innovating in all aspects of learning ,leadership, talent development and people practices. Throughout her career she has spearheaded a number of wellbeing and behavioural initiatives. Amanda is working in partnership with the CIPD to develop revised professional people standards specific to the NHS. Amanda’s leadership in implementing restorative just culture in practice is now in its seventh year, she is an established and prominent voice in the world of HR & OD&D and has a significant profile in the public sector and beyond for her work on restorative practices, coupled with her willingness to share and highlight her own vulnerabilities and continuous learning for the benefit of all.

Sharron Pamplin Chartered CCIPD

Sharron has recently been appointed as the first ever Chief People Officer at Lloyd’s Register, having spent the last few years as a Partner at Deloitte in the UK. Sharron has over 20 years in Director level roles with HR spanning multiple sectors including FS and engineering. Sharron also has a strong consulting background in human capital and business transformation and has enjoyed working with clients and organisations to reinforce their focus on culture and purpose, making a positive impact on clients, colleagues and wider society.  She has been an incredible and consistent advocate for the CIPD, creating opportunities for connection between her organisations and her professional body and supporting our research programmes with case studies and expertise. Sharron has also directly supported the organisation with her time speaking at conferences (main and student) and been a volunteer mentor with the CIPD’s Steps Ahead mentoring programme. In addition Sharron is also a member of the Business in the Community Employment and Skills leadership team and a Non executive Director of Eginuity.

Ann Pickering Chartered CCIPD

Ann formerly served for sixteen years as CHRO and Chief of Staff at O2, before moving to becoming a Strategic Advisor to the CEO of KMPG,  a Consultant with Indigold  (a Leadership Advisory company) an Executive Coach and a member of the Advisory Board of Helping Hands, one of the largest providers of homecare in the UK .  During her time at O2 Ann established herself as one of the most powerful voices in the profession, regularly speaking at CIPD events and led on many of the brand’s important milestones, including gender parity on the company’s UK Board and an industry-leading increase to paid parental leave. Outside work, Ann is the Chair of the Advisory Board of Sheffield University Management School and a Trustee of Breast Cancer Now, the UK charity providing world class research and life changing care for people affected by breast cancer.

Joyce Rigby Jones Chartered CCIPD

Joyce is Non-Executive Director of CIPD Ireland supporting our work in Ireland and Honorary Vice-Chair (previously Chair) of the National Committee of CIPD Ireland. Joyce is currently the joint Managing Director of Voltedge Management, a leading Irish HR and Management Consultancy. She has spent many years in senior HR positions in multinational corporates and European start-ups and has considerable experience aligning HR with business strategy, addressing employee issues, progressing major change, and providing support to senior management teams and Boards. She has been a consistent advocate for, and contributor to, the HR profession in Ireland and has been integrally involved with the National Committee for over 10 years, delivering on change and growth.

Thomas Simons Chartered CCIPD

Thomas is Chief HR & OD Officer for the NHS England. During the pandemic Thomas has played a significant role in leading the people profession through a range of highly complex and difficult people challenges. With Tom’s leadership the 18,000 strong community of NHS people professionals successfully rolled out the national staff vaccination programme. He also led the first-ever comprehensive review of HR & OD services in the NHS, culminating in a ten-year plan for NHS human resources and organisational development services. Through his direction, the NHS has also formed a newly established partnership agreement with CIPD and began work to develop a bespoke professional standard for the NHS people profession. Thomas has been the major force behind the new partnership agreement between the NHS and CIPD.

In 2021 we were delighted to acknowledge the following members with Chartered companion membership:

Alison Hodgson Chartered CCIPD

Alison has worked in the people profession for over 25 years, in both the private and public sectors. She is currently the Vice President of People at Virgin Media Ireland. Alison has been sitting on boards and senior leadership teams for ten years. Currently, she chairs the Irish Business and Employers Confederation Pension Committee where she is leading the share of voice for employers with government and relevant bodies, during a time when auto-enrolment is imminent for Ireland. Alison was previously Chair of the National Committee, and took on the Chair of CIPD Ireland CLG in 2021.

Daniel (Don) Hegarty Chartered CCIPD

Don became involved with the Southern Branch of CIPD Ireland in the Mid 1970s and continues to this day. He was elected to the Committee for over 30 years and served as Vice Chairman, Chairman and Secretary. Don served on the Irish National Executive for twenty five years during which time he Chaired two National Conferences. He worked with University of Limerick, 1977, Cork Institute of Technology [CIT] 1982 and University College, Cork , [UCC] to develop H R Courses. He acted as External Examiner at both CIT and UCC. He became HR Director of GSK, and was later appointed to Ireland’ Employment Tribunal. When the service was reorganised in 2015 setting up the Workplace Relations Commission, he was one of a small group selected to stay on. He chairs the Trustee Board of two pension schemes.

Olive Strachan MBE Chartered CCIPD

Olive is the founder of Olive Strachan Resources and has spent over 20 years coaching and developing leaders across the world, working with boards and board directors helping them with performance, planning and creating diverse and inclusive organisations. As an L&D and L&D expert, Olive has been asked to speak at many high-profile conferences and events around the world either as a keynote speaker, a motivational speaker or as a panellist to share her expertise. She has been Vice-Chair and then Chair of the CIPD Manchester Branch. She acted as a Council representative for the branch as well as supporting the development of the regional HR leaders’ network.

Dr Neil Wooding Chartered CCIPD

Following a successful career in public service, Neil joined the Ministry of Justice in February 2018 as Chief People Officer. He has recently taken up an executive role within the Cabinet Office to lead on HR professional standards across government. During his career, he has worked across the spectrum of public services, building a unique portfolio of experience in the field of change, leadership and innovation.

Neil has published several papers on leadership and management development and spent time at the JFK School of Government developing new approaches to leadership learning. Internationally recognised for his expertise, he has worked in Scandinavia, the United States, Canada, India and sub-Saharan Africa to promote transformational change. Between 2001 and 2009, he served as a Commissioner for Equality and Human Rights for Wales and led several UK Inquiries into Part-Time and Migrant labour and Human Rights. During the same period, he was a Trustee of Stonewall UK. In 2016, he was appointed a Trustee of the Lloyds Bank Foundation Trust.

Debbie Hewitt MBE Chartered CCIPD

In the early part of her career Debbie was an HR Director, since moving on to have a highly successful general management career as a CEO and Chair. Debbie has sat on the Board of many different businesses and has led or played a key role in numerous transformations. In 2011 she was awarded an MBE for services to Business and the Public Sector. Debbie is a regular speaker at conferences and an active participant across industry initiatives, specifically focusing on the role of HR and how it adds value. As an individual who broke through the “glass ceiling” by becoming the first-ever female CEO of RAC and one of the first female FTSE 250 Chairs, inclusion and diversity has been a cause she wholeheartedly embraces. She is a member of the Women in Hospitality Advisory Board which champions gender diversity across the hospitality sector and in September 2021 was included in Vogue 25 – British Vogue's annual list of the UK's 25 most influential women. She is currently the Chair of Visa Europe, The Restaurant Group plc (stepping down in December 2021), BGL Group and White Stuff. In January 2022 she will become The Football Association’s first female Chair in its 157-year history.

Dr Duncan Brown Chartered CCIPD

Duncan has been a CIPD member for 40 years. He joined the West London branch committee in 1990 and still regularly attends. Most of his career has been spent in HR consulting, specialising in pay and equality work. He has advised the government on a range of issues including pay determination for doctors, Armed Forces personnel and the judiciary. He was closely involved in developing the UK’s gender pay reporting regulations and also worked on the recent gender pay gap in medicine review. He has written extensively, and he is the author of the new CIPD guide on Ethnicity Pay Reporting and wrote the recent update to the gender pay reporting guide. Duncan was the Assistant Director-General at the CIPD from 2002 until 2007, he is currently a trustee of the CIPD pension scheme, he has served as Chair of the CIPD’s Reward Forum and also lectures on CIPD HR Masters programmes at several universities. Duncan has a PhD in reward strategy. He is a Board trustee at the High Pay Centre, Involvement and Participation Association and Pensions Policy Institute.

Yetunde Hofmann Chartered CCIPD

Yetunde has built a successful, fast‐paced career in FTSE 100 and global companies and is now a portfolio non-executive director sitting on the boards of organisations across a variety of industry sectors. She is currently Chair of the Remuneration Committee of Treatt Plc, a global listed company as well as being a member of the Audit and Nominations Committees and is a Board Trustee at the Institute of Business Ethics. Yetunde is also the Founder of Solaris, a global executive leadership development programme targeted at the black female executive. Yetunde was Non-Executive Director for the CIPD from 2015 to 2021 and chair of the People, Culture and Remuneration Committee from 2019, contributing to the organisation's strategic direction and its future development and sustainability. She has been a frequent participant at CIPD events and a public champion for the CIPD’s work.

Eugenio Pirri Chartered CCIPD

Eugenio is the Chief People and Culture Officer and Global Diversity Champion at the Dorchester Collection where his People and Culture Team has worked to drive people and guest engagement, talent strategy and innovation. He has worked with several organisations including Stonewall and the United Nations on LGBT issues, as well as championing inclusion and belonging within his organisation.

Eugenio is highly committed to sharing his expertise to develop the HR profession, serving in advisory board level roles for four universities based in Switzerland and Dubai and mentoring junior people leaders, including recently taking part in the CIPD Aspiring HRD Mentoring Programme.

Wendy Cartwright Chartered CCIPD

Wendy has held several senior HR and corporate service roles in both the private and public sectors. These include HR Director at London 2012 for the Olympic Delivery Authority, where she was recognised with ‘HR Director of the Year’ in the HR distinction awards. She has most recently worked at the start-up phase in major projects, delivering significant change within complex, challenging environments. Wendy contributes to knowledge-sharing across the profession, sits on several advisory boards, and often chairs or speaks at events.

Gary Rees Chartered CCIPD

Is Head of Organisational Studies and Human Resource Management at Portsmouth Business School where he teaches Strategic Human Resource Management and Strategic Change. Gary has led CIPD programmes through a range of validations and revalidations over the last 20 years, leading to 1000s of newly qualified home and international students and in addition, hundreds of Royal Navy staff becoming CIPD qualified. Internationally, the introduction of a contextualised MSc HRM in the Cayman Islands in 2000 has led to the growth of CIPD qualified members going from one to over a hundred on the islands.

Gary has been an External Examiner for several universities and is a member of the CIPD’ Qualifications Advisory Group as well as the CIPD's Special Circumstances Panel.

Gary has written 38 textbook chapters and authored/co-authored three best selling textbooks. His forthcoming book is with Laurie J Mullins on Management and Organisational Behaviour (2023) through Pearson Publishing.

Hayley Tatum Chartered CCIPD

Hayley is the Executive Director and Senior Vice President for People at Asda, where she has led the development of a high-quality people strategy, transforming and modernising HR over five years. She has contributed to the leadership of Walmart’s International People Strategy benefitting over one million associates across 26 countries. As part of this, she has built an advanced model of line manager accountability, and world-class shared services underpinned by her strategic people function. Hayley promotes academic and professional development, continuous learning and the professionalisation of HR as a practice. She is also an active leader within and former Chair of the Business in the Community Leadership & Skills committee where she seeks to use her business insight to advance learning and development.

James Cullens Chartered CCIPD

Since 2017 James has been the Executive Vice President for Human Resources at SNC-Lavalin, a Montreal based global Engineering and Project Management firm. He has held HR roles in public and private sector companies for over 30 years, and for the last 25 years has headed global HR functions and been a member of the executive and management boards in the FTSE 50, FTSE250, DAX30 and TSX60. He has delivered significant people change across several international organisations of scale. James has also held Non-Executive Director roles at the CIPD, the Open University Business School and African Oxygen and written numerous publications.

Karen Dumain Chartered CCIPD

Karen is a National OD Lead for the NHS and is co-lead for Do OD, the expert resource for OD in the NHS. She is recognised as a leading voice in the field of OD in the NHS and beyond, significantly contributing to raising the profile, scope and impact of OD. Instrumental in the design and delivery of national OD capability programmes & utilising her experience and expertise to coach, mentor and influence the future OD development and career frameworks for all those working in OD.

Karen is an advocate and passionate champion of CIPD and what it stands for. This is highlighted through the strategic partnership work of Do OD and the NHS People Directorate to develop a future focussed joined-up approach to OD and HR development. Karen also currently sits on the Board for ODN Europe and has co-authored papers, book chapters and numerous blogs and articles – a critical thinker committed to evolve the theory and practice of OD to make a difference.

Peter McLinn Chartered CCIPD

Peter has acted in senior HR roles with various organisations and has also operated as a HR consultant both in the UK and overseas, in particular the Middle East, where he was an advocate for the CIPD and the HR profession, providing advice, coaching and support to UAE organisations.

Peter has been an active member of his local CIPD branch, Tees Valley for over 30 years. He supports members and committee members/chairs providing advice, support and development and works collaboratively with the CIPD teams to drive improvements, support/lead events/activities and influence key decisions as appropriate. Five years ago Peter was appointed as the Northern Area Partnership Co-Chair, leading 10 North of England branches and promoting CIPD and HR practice/development for HR leaders and professionals at all levels within the region, through regional events, conferences and activities.

Angela O’Connor Chartered CCIPD

Angela is the founder & CEO of The HR Lounge. Her experience in HR spans over 30 years including CPO at the National Policing Improvement Agency, HRD at the Crown Prosecution Service and three London local authorities. Angela has received many awards including three HRD of the year awards. She was the first civil service president of the PPMA (Public Sector People Managers’ Association) in the organisation’s history. She is the immediate past president of the HR Society & visiting Professor of HRM at a London University. Angela launched the HR Lounge in 2011 - a boutique consultancy that offers a unique blend of HR services. Her goals are to help organisations achieve the best through strategic HR advice, & robust HR practices. Her company employs experienced HR experts at the top of their profession.

Her real passion lies in making HR simple & effective for clients helping to create flourishing work environments where people succeed. She has a track record of tackling inequalities in employment at all levels, & creating a distinct line of sight between HR activities customers & citizens. She is an ILM qualified executive coach, mediator & NLP practitioner. She was named as one of the top 10 HR practitioners of the last decade by HR Magazine.

Valerie Todd CBE Chartered CCIPD

Valerie started her career in local government working for the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Havering and Newham before moving on to senior HR roles in Transport for London and Crossrail. Since 2018, Valerie has been UK HR Director at Siemens, with the role recently expanded to incorporate a role as Global Head of HR Ecosystem-Operations. Valerie founded the Women’s Transportation Seminar London, set up to maximise the potential of women working in the industry and support their professional development. She also led the development of Crossrail’s Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy which enabled the development of thousands of people looking to work and pursue careers in the construction industry.

Valerie has held several non-executive roles including with the British Army Executive Board, Pearson Education Ltd, the CBI Skills and Employment Board and Chair of the Investors in People. In 2014 Valerie was honoured by Her Majesty the Queen with a CBE for services to skills, youth employment and equality and coaches and mentors talent from diverse backgrounds whenever possible.

Rupert McNeil Chartered CCIPD

Rupert is the Government Chief People Officer for the UK Civil Service where he has driven the modernisation of the People and HR function, championing smarter working, inclusion and diversity, and improved employee experience. As lead for the HR profession in the Civil Service, Rupert has driven significant improvements to the skills, ways of working, career pathways and engagement of over 3,500 HR professionals. Rupert was involved in the creation and signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with CIPD and CSHR, which has had a significant and positive impact on the HR profession across the Civil Service, including over 160 HR colleagues achieving CIPD membership so far.

In 2019 we were delighted to acknowledge the following members with Chartered Companion membership:

Natasha Adams Chartered CCIPD

Natasha is the Chief People Officer at Tesco where she has made a positive impact on the company and its employees.

In 2018 Natasha was responsible for the company to carry out the UKs largest ever workplace health survey with Cancer Research UK, Diabetes UK and the British Heart Foundation. This, alongside the Time to Change pledge that Natasha signed in 2016 led to changes in the way employees are supported with the introduction of a new health and well-being offering including a Wellbeing Guide in Retail and the launch of a Women’s Health toolkit.

In the same year a three-year target was set for Tesco to work in partnership with the Prince’s Trust and the Institute of Grocery Distribution to help 10,000 young people develop employability and life skills. The target was achieved in 1 year, demonstrating Natasha’s commitment to delivering change beyond the business.

Natasha’s commitment to building a professional and colleague focused People Team led to Tesco being the first business to gain CIPD People Development Partner status in 2019.

Debbie Alder CB Chartered CCIPD

Debbie has worked in the profession for over 30 years, in both the private and public sector. She has been Director General for People and Capability at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) since 2014, responsible for over 85,000 employees. Debbie chairs the Civil Service HR Capability Board where she has been a passionate CIPD advocate, championing the close integration of all Civil Service HR activity with the professional standards, learning offer, and initiatives of the CIPD. She has advocated professional accreditation and overseen the introduction of HR apprenticeships into the Civil Service alongside the HR Fast Stream.

Debbie is also a non-executive director of Benefits Pension Digital and Technology Services (BPDTS Ltd) and a member of the Civil Service Leadership and Talent Board. She has worked in partnership with the Government Chief People Officer (GCPO) to raise the capability of the HR function across 45 departments and 402 agencies. Debbie is also a Trustee of the Whitehall & Industry Group, a steering group member of Movement to Work and was recently recognised in the 2019 Honours list.

Oluwafunke Amobi Chartered CCIPD

Oluwafunke is the Country Head, Human Capital for Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, she is also a Director on the board of Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Limited. Under her leadership, Stanbic IBTC has been recognised with several awards for HR best practice in Nigeria and Africa, some of which are the overall winner of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM) HR Best Practice Award for two years running in 2016 & 2017, the HR Magazine Outstanding Employee Engagement Strategy Award for three consecutive years in 2016, 2017 & 2018, the All Africa Major Corporate Engagement Company of the year as well as the All Africa Employee and Customer Experience Award in 2019.

Under her leadership, the Stanbic IBTC ‘Blue Women Network’ aimed at promoting gender diversity and inclusion in the workplace as well as advancing female representation at executive levels was set up in 2014. This initiative has since been adopted by other organisations across Nigeria, whilst she supports other corporates in advancing their female empowerment initiatives on invitation.

Oluwafunke also serves as Chairperson of the TREM Career Academy, a religious not-for-profit platform tackling employability for the Nigerian Youth and she sits on the Advisory Board of Women in Successful Careers where she mentors younger women for career advancement. She was awarded the HR leader of the year in 2015 and was also appointed to the Dean's Council/Advisory Board of Lancaster University Management School UK in 2016. In 2017, Oluwafunke was listed in CHRO Asia’s 100 most influential global HR professional. Furthermore, in 2019 she was listed in Nigeria’s top 50 corporate women adding distinct value in the workplace by Leading Ladies Africa and was also named the All Africa Employee Engagement Professional of the Year for 2019 by NGrowth Africa.

Dr Katrina Easterling Chartered CCIPD

Katrina has been a CIPD member for more than 30 years. During this time, she has volunteered actively for the CIPD. This includes: Branch roles; CIPD Audit Committee member; Advisor to the CIPD Faculty of Management; and member of the CIPD Disciplinary Panel. In 1999, Katrina became an Elected Director/Trustee of the CIPD Executive Board, and was re‐elected in 2003. Katrina served the Institute when it achieved Chartered status, and its award‐winning offices were built at 151 The Broadway.

Katrina has also held two Public Appointments. The first from 2004‐2012, when the Lord Chancellor appointed her as an Independent Panellist for the Judicial Appointments Commission with a remit to bring diversity into the Judiciary. The second from 2006‐2012, when the Minister for Health appointed Katrina as Member of the Review Body for Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration. During this appointment, she evidenced that the career pathway within the NHS’s new contract for SAS hospital doctors’ was indirectly discriminatory. As a result, the Department of Health and the four UK governments agreed to make substantial changes. Katrina’s advocacy for equality, employee rights and inclusion has brought exceptional change to the working lives of thousands of employees. 

Currently, Katrina is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Winchester where she continues to promote the CIPD, HR best practice, and diversity.

Kevin Green Chartered CCIPD

Kevin was CEO at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) for almost 10 years. In 2014, under Kevin’s guidance, REC launched the Good Recruitment Campaign aimed at in-house recruitment teams and HR departments, providing free access to best practice and guidance to improve the recruitment process for both candidates and businesses. As an advocate of the CIPD, Kevin was clear that the campaign needed to involve the institute and involved senior figures from the institute in the conversations throughout.

Kevin worked as HRD for Royal Mail Letters from 2003 – 2008, while the business was being transformed and is now a Chairman, Non-Executive Director and Strategic Advisor to middle market businesses who are focused on technology, people or recruitment services.

Throughout his career he has given his time to mentor individuals through their HR career. As a regular speaker at events he is always happy to share his thoughts on the profession and give guidance. He hosts a Podcast series which shares input from other senior HR professionals and has recently published his book ‘Competitive People Strategy’, which was described by People Management as ‘One of the most important accessible HR books of the year’.

Emma Horne Chartered CCIPD

Emma is Deputy CEO of Crosby Management Training (CMT), a CIPD centre which has delivered CIPD qualifications for 20 years. Since joining the business, CMT has delivered over 300 CIPD qualifications or apprenticeship programmes.

In her capacity as Head of L&D for sister company of CMT and former National Apprentice Employer of the Year, Walter Smith Fine Foods Ltd, Emma is also Chair of the L&D and HR Apprenticeship Trailblazer Employer Group. Working closely with the CIPD, she has led this group through the challenging process of gaining approval for 4 Apprenticeship Standards and is currently leading on the development of a new Level 7 Senior People Professional Apprenticeship. The Institute for Apprenticeships & Technical Education asked Emma to be a panel member on their review of the outline content for the new T level in HR. At the request of Ofqual, Emma has become an ‘external expert’ for HR/L&D related qualifications.

Emma is also the driving force behind CMT’s HR & L&D Apprentice residential experience in Snowdonia, used as a way of developing the behaviour elements of the Apprenticeship Standards and helping to promote self-management strategies for mental health and wellbeing.

Dr Janice Johnson Chartered CCIPD

Janice has successfully led, developed and managed post-graduate HR courses in De Montfort university and Bedfordshire university. Janice has designed principles-led Human Resource Management learning interventions to help her students develop their expertise and insight. Janice conducted PhD research into higher education institutes and found participants sharing experiences of working in universities where their policies and practices continued to be detrimental to people from a BAME background. Her research provided recommendations to try and help address this issue.

Currently at Coventry university Janice has strategic responsibility to ensure that post-graduate students across every subject discipline undertaken, develop the necessary people and personal skills demanded by employers for greater workforce efficiency in addition to their post-graduate degree.

Janice is also Chair of the CIPD Bedford and Milton Keynes branch, where she works tirelessly to ensure engaging and successful events and workshops take place. At Council she ensures important points are raised in an effort to improve the membership experience for all CIPD members, and she runs a distributed leadership model for the branch, ensuring the 46 committee members work together to offer 31 CPD sessions every year. Through her mediation, mentoring and coaching conversations, Janice has improved the cohesion and effectiveness of the branch.

Shokat Lal Chartered CCIPD

Shokat has worked in the public sector for 30 years, currently serving as Assistant Chief Executive for Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council and responsible for change and transformation, human resources and organisational development, democratic and scrutiny services and neighbourhoods. He is a member of the Senior Leadership Team and has overseen one of the fastest improving councils in the country.

Shokat previously worked at Coventry City Council where he managed several transformation programmes around customer/digital and business services, including a review involving over 1000 employees and resulting in around £6million savings.

Shokat also works in a voluntary capacity on many community cohesion projects and was Non-Executive Director in the NHS until earlier this year. For the last 3 years, Shokat has appeared on the HR Most Influential list and in 2007 he was awarded with National Training Manager of the Year.

Mike Morrison Chartered CCIPD

Mike has been a CIPD member for over 30 years. In this time, he has worked tirelessly to encourage member engagement, CPD and member networking. A committee member of the CIPD Central London Branch, Mike was also a CPD advisor for three years and working with a small team, planned and ran an annual 2-day L&D conference.

Mike was also at the forefront of the CIPD LinkedIn member group and for over 10 years ran the group, working tirelessly to support members, create engagement and make the online group a success, whilst also moderating and dealing with the general admin of managing an online group.

Mike has devoted a considerable amount of time during his 30 years of membership volunteering for the institute and being a CIPD advocate, helping to promote and remind members of the value of CIPD  membership.

Danny Mortimer Chartered CCIPD

Danny has been the Chief Executive at NHS Employers (the employers association for the English NHS, the largest employer in Europe) since November 2014. He is also Deputy Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation and a trustee of the NHS Retirement Fellowship and the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion. He often writes and speaks on workforce issues facing the NHS; including a session he ran at the CIPD Festival of Work 2019 on solving the productivity conundrum. He has worked in a variety of HR and managerial roles in the NHS since 1993, and first worked in the NHS as a porter in 1989.

In 2016 Danny worked to address the potential workforce consequences of Brexit by bringing together The Cavendish Coalition. He assembled a group of organisations from across the social care and health care sector within the UK, to help ensure that after Brexit, the organisations involved can continue to provide the best care to their patients, residents and communities. The group is now made up of 36 members and Danny continues to be chair of the group.

Paul O’Neill Chartered CCIPD

Paul has been in the Royal Air Force (RAF) for 28 years, most recently as the Head of Defence People Strategy at the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD).

Whilst working in the RAF, Paul was able to use his in-depth HR knowledge to relate RAF processes to the wider context of employment law and practice, at a time when the Armed Forces operated in a protected legislative environment. Paul was appointed to work on policy, allowing him to set the direction for RAF personnel policy development. His ability to think one step ahead in HR development made him a formidable asset in sustaining operations in Turkey, Iraq and Afghanistan. Paul changed the RAF’s people approach from a transactional ‘admin’ model to one where practitioners are recognised as HR specialists. He also developed a new talent management programme for officers. He introduced new integrated training across the three Armed Services, linking with tertiary education centres which enabled a flow of fresh thinking to military HR training.

Paul’s last two years in the RAF were spent setting the direction for developments out to 2030, whilst also mentoring colleagues supporting reform of HR in the Afghan National Army and supporting MOD colleagues in pursuing CIPD accreditation.

Gordon Parkes Chartered CCIPD

Gordon has been the HR Director of NIE (Northern Ireland Electricity) Networks for over 19 years and he previously worked as HR Director in a number of large private sector companies in addition to 5 years as a Senior HR Consultant. He was awarded the CIPD Northern Ireland (NI) Chairs Special Award in 2017.

In his role at NIE Networks, Gordon established an employee engagement board which worked to improve the organisations performance through its people. His work on employee engagement led to Gordon and his NIE Networks team winning the Employee Engagement Award at the 2017 CIPD NI Awards and at the CIPD People Management (PM) Awards in London. Gordon has also played a key leadership role on the NIE Networks Apprenticeship Scheme, which won Best Apprenticeship Scheme at the 2019 CIPD PM Awards in London. The apprentice programme received the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) accreditation in September 2016 and currently is the only IET approved apprentice programme in Northern Ireland.

Gordon has also been involved in establishing significant outreach initiatives to attract young people into the Energy & Utility Sector and also in establishing ‘Skills NI, an event which helps 14-21-year olds decide how to achieve their career ambitions. Gordon involved the CIPD Northern Ireland branch to promote HR as a career option for students in Northern Ireland and is passionate about ensuring that young people make the right choices in their education that won’t restrict their career opportunities and can maximise their potential.

Stephen Taylor Chartered CCIPD

Stephen Taylor is a Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management at the University of Exeter Business School and also a Chief Examiner for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). He previously taught at Manchester Business School, at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School and worked in a variety of HR management roles in the hotel industry and in the NHS.

Stephen teaches HRM and general management subjects as well as employment law at postgraduate and undergraduate level. Research interests include employee retention, the early careers of high achievers, occupational pensions and employment-related regulatory issues.

Stephen is the author / co-author of several books including six editions of 'People Resourcing', five editions of 'Employment Law: An Introduction' (with Astra Emir), 'The Employee Retention Handbook', 'Contemporary Issues in HRM', 'Recruiting and Retaining Graduate Talent' (with Shirley Jenner), seven editions of 'Human Resource Management' (with Derek Torrington, Laura Hall and Carol Atkinson) and two editions of ‘Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice (with Michael Armstrong). He has edited and contributed to several other books on human resource management and is the author / co-author of dozens of papers and articles.

Stephen has acted as external examiner for several universities. He is a frequent speaker at HR conferences and ACAS events for employers. He has regularly represented parties in employment tribunals and also undertakes HR consultancy, tutoring and training work.