We've been delighted to be able to recognise so many exemplars within the profession in recent years and continue to celebrate the positive influence our select group of Chartered Companions have on people, work and change.
Chartered Companions are CIPD members with career-long impact, who have an active and influential presence in our community and make it their priority to give back to the profession.
Chartered Companion is the highest accolade and level of membership awarded by the CIPD and is reserved for exceptional leaders who have demonstrated extraordinary impact on the profession over the course of their careers.
Only Chartered Fellows or Academic Fellows can be nominated.
We're looking for individuals who, through their careers, have made a positive impact for the profession and our purpose of championing better work and working lives. A great Chartered Companion will have made an outstanding contribution against one or more of the following areas:
Please note that the criteria act as guidance only for nominators and decision-makers. Only the most exceptional nominees, based on the judgment of our Senior Leadership Team and final approval of our Board, will be progressed.
With our updated nomination process, we’ve added additional steps to ensure we better understand a nominee’s contribution to people, work and change. This means we may gather further insight from our organisational network, where appropriate.
Only those in our Chartered community can submit a nomination because we believe that those who have achieved Chartered status are best positioned to identify truly outstanding contributors to the people profession.
Nominators should complete and submit the online form to nominate a professional who they believe deserves to be a Chartered Companion.
Only a small number of nominees will be awarded Companion status each year. So, here’s some top tips for submitting a nomination:
Caroline Nugent is an Independent HRD currently working on interim / consultancy assignments. She was a NED for the CIPD for 6 years and a past President of the PPMA. With 40 years of experience in HR, Pay, OD and change, Caroline understands the challenge of workforce and OD issues during significant organisational change.
The 10 Most Influential HR Executives to Follow in 2023, World’s Flying High Women Leaders of 2022 and a top 40 HR Leader in the UK Building Workplaces of Tomorrow in 2022 and 2023. She has received the ‘HR Most Influential Practitioner Awards in 2017, 2019 and 2021 and was shortlisted for Personnel Today's HR Director 2016.
Donal Laverty is Consulting Partner at Baker Tilly Mooney Moore in Northern Ireland where he leads HR and Organisation Design Advisory Services. He was previously Head of HR Consulting in Baker Tilly UK and had previous advisory and executive roles in strategic HR.
Donal presently leads the Baker Tilly International People Steering Group, charged with leading the evolution and development of wide range of people and work strategies across a network of over 120 member firms and 60,000 employees.
In his career, Donal has led consulting assignments at regional, national and global levels. He has acted and continues to act as a trusted advisor to many large public and private sector organisations, working at Ministerial, Board, Senior Government Official and C-Suite levels including secondments into UK central government where he designed and led out on major people and organisation design projects. The focus of his work revolves around the complexity of change, the future design and structure of work, strategic human resources, as well as supporting organisations navigate the complexities and pitfalls of major change.
Donal served on the Northern Ireland CIPD Committee over a 10 year period as Secretary, Events Coordinator, Vice Chair and ultimately as Chair for five years. Furthermore, he teaches Strategic HR at two universities.
Valerie has over 40 years’ experience working in HR and OD across a broad range of industries in both private and public sectors. She has been a Non-Executive Director for the Department for Work and Pensions since 2021 and was Chair of the Board of the CIPD from 2021 to 2025. Directly prior to this she was Chief HR Officer of the BBC for five years and earlier in her career was Chief HR Officer at both Amey, and at Steria. Alongside her Non-Executive work Valerie also provides business advice and mentoring support through her own Consultancy.
James is a senior client partner at Korn Ferry, working with healthcare clients to transform the way healthcare services are delivered.
Prior to joining Korn Ferry, James worked at a big four consultancy as their UK lead for healthcare workforce. Within 3 years, James grew their workforce practice to be market leading; being rated as ‘diamond’ (the highest possible rating) in the 2023 top consultancies for HR transformation. He brings experience of healthcare transformation across workforce, financial recovery, digital and patient pathway redesign.
James spent 25 years working in the NHS, during which time he worked at Board level as a Chief Executive during the Covid-19 pandemic, Chief People Officer and Deputy CEO. He was also the joint Senior Responsible Officer for the Integrated Care Partnership across health, care and local authority.
James is a Fellow of the CIPD and holds a MSc in Professional Practice (HR). James has a keen interest in psychology and completed the psychology in context programme with Cambridge University. He also completed the executive leadership programme at Oxford University.
In 2019, James was awarded the Healthcare People Management Association (HPMA) HR Director of the year, and in 2024, James was announced as the number one most influential HR Practitioner in the UK, by HR Magazine. In 2025, he received the HR Magazine Lifetime achievement award.
Gordon previously served as an Executive Director in Northern Ireland’s Public Transport provider, Translink. Following a period as Interim Chief Executive he was appointed Deputy GCE.
His experience includes HR leadership roles within large Global and National organisations including Bombardier Aerospace, Nortel Networks and Dunbia Agrifood.
He has served as an Executive and Non-Executive member on both private and public sector boards including 6 years as Chair of the Institute of Directors in Northern Ireland.
He is currently Chair of National Museums Northern Ireland, Chair of the Labour Relations Agency, Non-Executive Director Henry Brothers and previously as a visiting professor at the Ulster University Business School.
Gordon was awarded the OBE in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to Business and Human Resource Management in Northern Ireland. He has an MBA and is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors.
Niamh McNamara is a global HR leader with more than 25 years’ experience across diverse industries including Tech, Pharma, Financial Services, Global Shared Services, and FMCG, and across multiple geographies from EMEA to Asia and the Americas. She is Vice President of Global Employee Success Operations at Salesforce, where she leads strategic people operations and drives AI-enabled digital transformation to support employees and organisations worldwide.
At Salesforce, Niamh was entrusted with building a global Labour Relations Centre of Excellence and continues to lead major transformation programmes that embed sustainable people practices at scale. She has a proven track record of delivering large-scale change initiatives and enablement programmes that improve business performance through innovative strategies, social dialogue, and a culture of trust and empowerment. Her work at Novartis, in reimagining performance management, was recognised by Gartner as a best-in-class future of work performance model.
A former Chairperson of the CIPD Ireland National Committee, Niamh is a long-standing advocate for the HR profession and for digital HR transformation. She is also a sought-after conference speaker on the future of work, AI, and transformation. Known for her authentic leadership, she is passionate about advancing HR and helping organisations shape future-ready workplaces.
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 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 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 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 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 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 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 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 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.
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 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.
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 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 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 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 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 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 2020 we were delighted to acknowledge the following members with Chartered Companion membership:
David has worked in the profession for over 20 years, his current position being the Chief People Officer at the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) where he has successfully transformed the culture to emphasise engagement, passion and high-performance.
Throughout his career, David’s work has been recognised in multiple prestigious national awards: Business in the Community (BITC); Employee Benefits; Financial Innovation; FT Adviser Diversity in Finance; Housing Heroes; HR Distinction; HR Excellence; Investors in People and Personnel Today.
David has mentored countless people through the BITC BAME Mentoring Circles Programme, and has served on the leadership teams of both the BITC Age & Race At Work campaigns: he is a founding signatory of the Race at Work Charter and attended No. 10 Downing Street to meet with the Prime Minister's adviser on diversity & inclusion in 2019. David has campaigned tirelessly to promote inclusion and the inclusive workplace.
David is the first ever Chief HR Officer for the Irish Civil Service. David shaped and drove the development of the first ever HR strategy for the Civil Service, (which was approved by the Government in 2017) and built a strong team to enable and facilitate consistent evidence-based expertise to Civil Service departments whilst continuing to engage with stakeholders across government departments to work through and pilot a future HR operating model.
David and his team have engaged with the CIPD as part of the process of developing strategic HR capability in the Civil Service, to support accredited training for employees and the HR community to upskill and improve their credibility. He is also examining how to build a career path structure for HR in the Irish Civil Service. The impact of this professionalisation agenda was evident at the CIPD Ireland 2020 HR Awards, where two government bodies won awards for outstanding leadership of transformation programmes.
In March 2020 David, working with the wider HR community across the Civil Service and the trade unions, led the team that in one week facilitated 40,000 civil servants to transfer from office working to home working, widely acknowledged as a hugely successful initiative, and is now concentrating on how this can be embedded as a sustainable option for the future of the work for not only the Irish Civil Service but also the wider Public Service in Ireland.
Frank has worked in the people profession for over 30 years and is currently CEO of Caerus Executive, advising companies how to focus on culture and inclusion in order to increase retention and progression strategies. Born and raised in New York City, Frank has worked in England, Scotland and the Netherlands for the last 20 years.
Prior to starting Caerus Executive, he was the Executive Vice President, Group Human Resources Director for Misys (now known as Finastra), a global technology company. Frank was part of the executive team, credited with helping to turn around the organisation. Frank has also been the Group Human Resources Director for Scottish & Newcastle and Transport for London/TfL. Frank was the first Black male Group HR Director for a FTSE 100 company (and remains the only one, 7 years later). In 2011 Frank was included in the list of the top 30 ‘Most Influential HR Directors’ in the UK. Frank also served on the Board of the CIPD for six years. Most recently, Frank was named on the “Powerlist” of the top 20 diversity and inclusion professionals in the UK.
In September 2019, Frank entered the HR Magazine Hall of Fame for his work in HR, culture and inclusion consulting and was the only non-academic speaker at the global Behavioural Insights Conference and panel discussion on inclusion and diversity.
Frank was also the first HR Director invited to speak to senior staff of the Royal Household (and invited guests) at Buckingham Palace and in 2017 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate for services to the HR profession and commitment to Diversity.
Jean-Pierre Noël has 15 years’ board level experience as Group Reward Director inside three FTSE-50 multinationals – Reckitt Benckiser, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) and (as an interim) Compass Group. Under his leadership IHG received the PwC sponsored, “Building Public Trust Award” for executive remuneration reporting in the FTSE 100. He now pursues a portfolio career.
Jean-Pierre owns a company that provides coaching, training, and mentoring in executive remuneration to Group HRDs, emerging HR/Reward leaders and NEDs. He leads and shapes the debate on executive pay through speaking engagements and his research study on deferred shares for the Purposeful Company was highlighted in the Investment Association’s, “Principles of Remuneration for 2020”. He is also a trainer and tutor in reward for the CIPD.
Jean-Pierre is an MBA Tutor at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford helping students explore topics such as, “the future of work”, and delivers pro-bono workshops on working in HR for post-graduate students at various universities. He has been a volunteer business coach with Pilot light since 2014 supporting UK charities develop their strategy and business plan. In 2020 he also provided pro bono business coaching to St John Ambulance.
John is a Membership Upgrading Assessor for CIPD and an active Member at National, Regional and Local level. Following a long and varied career in The Boots Group as Pharmacist, Store Manager and a range of specialist roles as an independent consultant in People Development and Change.
He was the Chair of the CIPD Leicestershire branch in the early 2000s and has continued to be an active member of the team. As the branch operated as a self managed team for the last three years John continued as Council representative. John was also a member of the team that ran the Midlands Centenary Event in 2013. Since then has worked with the branch chairs in the Midlands and the branch development team to facilitate the development of the Midlands Area Partnership.
He also helped launch the Steps Ahead mentoring scheme in Leicestershire and his positive energy engaged many CIPD members to become involved with mentoring young adults. John has also undertaken a role as an Ethics Ambassador, championing the CIPD Code of Conduct, contributing to the work in support of ethical practice through the ‘Workplace Dilemmas in Confidence’ forum.
Judy worked in Wesbank South Africa (a division of the First Strand Group South Africa) from 2001 – 2015. She worked initially as the Executive Head of HR for four years and before moving to become the Executive Head of Operations and HR. She was instrumental in changing the culture of the organisation, introducing more diversity and improving the reputation of Wesbank as a preferred employer.
Judy introduced people policies and practices which improved equal opportunities in development, recruitment, pay and promotion and resulted in the organisation’s diverse composition changing from 8% in 2001 to 50% in 2015 including the composition of the top team. Judy has been recognised in the Little Black Book for making significant contribution to their industry in promoting racial equality and diversity. She also initiated and implemented a group- wide women’s forum to promote gender inclusion and diversity – resulting in more female representation at top management levels.
In 2016 Judy launched Affinity Development Company (ADP) with the goal of helping young people enter the ‘world of work’ successfully and manage subsequently their career.
Maureen is the Associate Dean and HR/CIPD Programmes Leader in Liverpool Business School at Liverpool John Moores University. She has been instrumental in bringing a change of thinking into the academic community through her persistence of being principles-led; evidence-based; and outcomes-driven.
Maureen is an outstanding Student Engagement Lead for our Merseyside and North Cheshire branch and has been an advocate for the new Profession Map since implementation. She achieved the change of a generic degree to a Human Resources Degree, against the CIPD standards. The Masters programme has grown from around 20 students per year to around 200 now.
Maureen is an inclusion and diversity champion and has a history of volunteering at board level for charities most recently as a Trustee for DaDaFest, a local charity in Liverpool that supports artistic events for young people in the community who are disabled and deaf. Maureen's HR strategic knowledge, experience and skills are used in a variety of ways and more recently she partnered with her current employer, to capture the views on diversity, whilst simultaneously investigating the impact on organisational development within DaDaFest.
Peck Kem is the Chief HR Officer for the Singapore Public Service, with a workforce of more than 140,000 and a HR team of more than 3,000. Her role in the handling of the recent COVID-19 situation is a testament to her HR leadership. In her role as CHRO of the Public Service, she and her team acted as the HR advisory to organisations in Singapore during this difficult period. She has also helped to build capabilities of employees through the partnership of CIPD as well as helping to introduce milestone programmes via the Civil Service College (HR Foundation Programme, HR Managers Programme, and the apex HR Leadership Programme).
Peck Kem is also President of the Singapore Human Resources Institute where she rallied HR leaders from across Singapore to form a task force with goals to raise the brand, advocacy and capability of HR professionals in the state.
David co-founded the European Mentoring and Coaching Council in 1991, and is now one of two ambassadors tasked with spreading good practice globally.
David led the research team that created the international standards for mentoring and coaching programmes and was also part of the team that developed the international standards for team coaching. He has been highly active in the world of diversity management, designing diversity mentoring programmes for companies around the world.
Much of David’s work in the UK has been in the NHS where he has trained over 200 mentors to support staff working though ethical dilemmas. David is also lead coach for the Ethical Coach project which brings coaching capability to developing economies.
David has authored or co-authored over 70 books, including ‘Everyone needs a mentor’ which helped launch formal mentoring programmes in 1985. He has run many programmes for the CIPD, from ‘Marketing the HR function’ in the 1990s to the current ‘Aspiring HR directors’ programme.
Nelarine has a wealth of administrative, practitioner and academic experience that has contributed in particular to inclusion and diversity policy and practices. Currently Associate Dean, People Culture and Inclusion at Queen Mary University of London, Nelarine has focused on the career journey from recruitment and selection through to induction and exit interviews. The role has been critical in re-examining inclusion and diversity policies, practices and outcomes within the School and has been recognised as best practice within the College.
Nelarine has also recently contributed a think-piece on EDI and Leadership to the National Leadership Centre, a UK Government Cabinet Office initiative to improve leadership practice in the public sector, as well as contributing to Race at Work Black Voices Report, produced annually by Business in the Community. She is also providing guidance and advice for the Welsh Government’s policy unit. She has also provided analysis and guidance in the HRM and EDI areas for a range of public, private and non-profit organisations.
Nelarine has taught on CIPD accredited programmes for over 28 years, promoting the importance of membership to national and international students. She is also Vice-President, Membership and Qualifications, at the CIPD where with the backing of the Chief Executive and Chair, secured a greater focus on EDI as a more central element within the new qualifications framework, with an agreement of yearly updates to the syllabus to keep the discipline generally and EDI specifically, as up to date as possible.
Siobhán is currently Civilian HR Director for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) where she has transformed the HR department and defence's standing within government, increasing its professionalism whilst also remaining extraordinarily sensitive to the unique circumstances of her role. She is universally acknowledged as the lead HR professional in defence and is able to drive forward a reforming and professionalising agenda.
During the COVID pandemic she has been the central focus for changing the way the department has worked. She understood the severity of the virus and began immediately working on a response. The response was unprecedented in the speed and comprehensive nature of its delivery.
In 2019 Siobhán was recognised as the UK's Most Influential HR Practitioner by her profession and has remained in the top 10 for four years.
Siobhán also coaches and mentors upcoming talent and is a regular speaker at CIPD events, particularly at the youth and student events – she passionately believes that she has much to offer those just starting in the profession, travelling the country giving up her time to address the next generation of people professionals.
Stephen is the Executive Director of Resources for the City of Edinburgh Council and leads the authority’s customer and corporate services portfolio, which includes: human resources; finance; procurement; digital services; legal, audit and risk; health and safety; strategic asset management; capital programmes; commercial property; facilities management; customer contact; council tax and business rates collection; welfare reform and benefits administration and Council wide business support, all working to enable the delivery of over 700 public services to the people of Scotland’s Capital City. In partnership with public, private and third sector organisations, as well as the Scottish Government, Stephen works to deliver a complex agenda focussed upon tackling poverty, addressing sustainability and enhancing wellbeing for all, as well as providing executive leadership to make the Council a more inclusive and diverse employer.
A career public servant, Stephen has worked in a range of HR and managerial roles across local, regional and national public sector organisations. Before joining Edinburgh, Stephen was the Chief People Officer for NHS England. During his time at NHS England, Stephen provided HR leadership to enable the establishment of the new national body in 2013 and was instrumental in creating the conditions for more than 160 predecessor bodies to be successfully integrated into a single organisation, providing leadership to the NHS in England. As the Head of Profession for HR in the NHS, Stephen championed the creation of a HR professional development strategy and a national specification for HR Directors, which included CIPD accreditation as an essential requirement for the first time. He also sponsored the NHS HR Graduate Management Training Scheme and the creation of the Aspiring Directors of Workforce talent programme.
Stephen has been a Non-Executive Director for the CIPD, as well as previously a columnist for People Management magazine, and is a Past President of the Public Services People Managers Association (PPMA), actively promoting the role and positive impact of the HR profession over a number of years.
Therese was Chief People Officer for Tesco Bank PLC from 2008 to 2016, where she led the people agenda in Financial Services. She created a bespoke vision and values leadership programme for several areas of the business including Tesco Bank, dot com and Telecoms.
Therese was awarded the Cultural Award for Scotland by the Scottish Financial Enterprise, the first bank to ever win the award for her work in innovating in compensation and benefits, removing incentive payments for front line employees and investing in fixed pay. She also developed a global strategy for inclusion and diversity for Tesco PLC and established a Diversity Council alongside networks to raise awareness of unconscious bias and address talent opportunities. She set up an LGBT network within Tesco which became the largest employee network in Europe. She has also worked with government to launch their transgender policy. She supported the Peabody Trust to make adjustments to take blind graduates into retail for the first time and worked with the prison service to take reformed prisoners into work on a controlled programme.
Therese has also supported other businesses since launching her own HR practice including helping McDonalds to create a diversity framework which inspired 120 countries to adopt a more progressive approach to diversity and resulted in the commitment to a target to get two million long term unemployed youth back into work.
Therese is also a global advisor for Wagestream, an Orgshaker, trustee for Teens Unite and founder and Chair of Mevie.
In 2019 we were delighted to acknowledge the following members with Chartered Companion membership:
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 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 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.
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 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 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.
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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
Good work doesn’t just happen at this level. The CIPD provides a range of opportunities and initiatives to recognise CIPD members and outstanding people professionals. Our newly launched HR30 acts as point-in-time recognition, as well as our global award ceremonies. Find out more here:
