THE LARGEST DEDICATED REWARD AND BENEFITS EVENT IN EUROPE

Simon Arden-Davis has 26 years experience in health as a NHS manager and civil servant. His  responsibilities are to ensure the NHS Pension Scheme remains fit for purpose and good value for members and tax payers. Simon is responsible for NHS total reward policy, responding to the pay review bodies concerns that the NHS does not have a reward strategy and that there is limited evidence of local reward arrangements led by NHS organisations. He works with colleagues at NHS Employers on developing the NHS total reward strategy, business case and implementation arrangements.

Paul is Head of Reward and Policy for Three UK – the fastest growing network operator in the UK.  Three UK is part of the CK Hutchison Group of Companies.

He has worked with business of all sizes including many global businesses in the Financial Services and Telecommunications sectors.  Prior to his current role, Paul held Head of Reward roles for; Vodafone, Cable&Wireless Worldwide and Nationwide Building Society.

Paul is a Chartered Companion of the CIPD, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and holds a Masters degree in the Management of Human Resources as well as being a former Vice President (Rewards) of the CIPD.  His work has won many awards from industry and recognition from the Government and he is a regular conference speaker and occasional lecturer.

Anouska is Senior Sport Science Manager at Sheffield Hallam University. Her main area of expertise is in sport and exercise physiology. Anouska has over seven years’ experience in the coordination and delivery of sport and exercise science projects and consultancy services, working with a wide range of clients. Experience includes, determining the physiological characteristics that affect performance in Pole-vault, providing physiological support to Academy football players and working with the Sports Council of Northern Ireland evaluating their Community Sport Programme.

Anouska has conducted research into the effects of exercise upon health related quality of life and immune function in persons diagnosed with mild to moderate multiple sclerosis (MS) and delivery and operational management of the SHU Wellness sessions (a corporate wellness service offered to employees at the University). Anouska has also contributed on several journals and publications. Currently Anouska is working with a broad range of clients in both the area of sport performance and exercise and health.

Paul has advised on matters of Employers Taxation from both sides of the fence for 25 years.  He has developed innovative solutions for FTSE 100 companies’ right through to SME’s, with the goal of improving employee benefits, reducing operating costs and improving sustainability with environmental performance.

In his current Role as Principal Consultant at Lex Autolease, he works with existing and prospective Lex Autolease clients, to provide innovation and best practice consultancy advice on fleet related taxation and the architecture and design of employee benefit related schemes such as employee car ownership, salary sacrifice and private fuel schemes.

Previous consultancy assignments include Computer Sciences Corporation (runner up for Employee Benefits environmental car scheme two years running), Balfour Beatty, Greggs plc, Astra Zeneca, J Sainsbury and Tesco Plc.

Helen is a Legal Director who specialises in employment law. She advises on all areas of UK employment law, both contentious and non-contentious. She has developed specialisms in Equal Pay and TUPE/outsourcing. In addition to this, she is experienced in handling complex and lengthy tribunal claims in relation to, for example, all forms of discrimination and whistleblowing.

Helen is a key member of our Equality Law Team and is advising a number of clients on preparing for mandatory gender pay gap reporting and the potential impact of this on their organisations.

Andy Dodman is the Chief Human Resources & Corporate Officer at The University of Sheffield. Andy leads the University’s HR strategy and service delivery for its 8,100 staff, focusing on the attraction, growth and engagement of world class talent. He is also responsible for the University’s communications, marketing and PR teams.

In addition, Andy has a range of national roles including Chair of the Russell Group HR Directors Forum (representing the leading UK research-intensive universities) and member of the Universities HR (UHR) national executive committee. 

During 2015, Andy was nominated as HR Director of the Year and was listed in the UK Top 10 of HR Magazine’s 'Most Influential HR Practitioners'.  

He recently launched a new commercial business, Everyday Juice Limited, offering an innovative system for delivering wellbeing at work.

Andy was educated at the University of Bath (BSc) and the University of Leeds (MBA) and is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development.

Paul Durrant has 20 years’ experience in the successful implementation of pensions and reward programmes. He currently is responsible for compensation, benefits, pensions, performance management and international mobility for Thales in the UK. Paul has held a number of roles in pension management, before moving to head up UK compensation and benefits function for Thales in 2008. In the UK, Thales delivers solutions from transport systems and secure transactions to integrated communications, naval sensors and air defence system with 7,000 people work on 30 sites across the UK.

Neil is Head of Reward at Countrywide, a leading property services company in the UK. He is responsible for a wide range of areas including executive remuneration, bonus, pay and benefits. Prior to joining Countrywide Neil spent over 10 years working in Reward across a number of sectors including telecommunications, logistics and media. 

Jane advises both trustees and companies on a range of contentious and non-contentious issues. She has experience of all areas of pensions law, including scheme mergers, liability management and regulatory compliance.

She advised the InterContinental Hotel Group Trustees on the buy-out of their scheme with Rothesay Life over a very short period in summer 2013. She also has experience of advising trustees of other large schemes on all issues affecting their schemes, from putting in place contingent assets to dealing with litigation and outsourcing administration. Jane has also advised financial institutions on pensions issues in corporate restructurings.

In 2010 Jane spent six months on client secondment at Financial Markets Law Committee (FMLC) at the Bank of England. Jane advises on areas of pensions litigation including High Court hearings, Pensions Ombudsman cases and IDRPs. Jane advised Prudential Plc on their successful High Court case relating to the Prudential Staff Pension Scheme in 2011. 

Marcus is a Chartered Physiotherapist who has been working within the rehabilitation sector since the 1990’s. He has focused his clinical expertise upon workforce wellbeing with project and people development, by studying at Masters level in both topic areas. Marcus has worked within European and global retail, utilities and IT industries and currently sits upon national wellbeing and clinical governance groups in the UK.

Marcus and team are currently developing the European Wellbeing strategy for Unilever, covering an employee base of 30,000 employees across 23 countries. The key drivers of which are the Unilever 4 Pillar approach of Wellbeing – Mental Health, Physical Health, Purposefulness and Emotional balance. The Unilever approach is underpinned by annualised national health assessment events and a 1-click promise that we endeavour for all employees to be no more than 1-click away from health and wellbeing support

Stephen J. Perkins DPHIL (Oxon) is Professorial Research Fellow, Global Policy Institute, London Metropolitan University and Visiting Professor in HRM, Cass Business School, City University of London. He co-authors the CIPD core text Reward Management: Alternatives, Consequences and Contexts (3e, 2016) and is Editor-in-Chief of the forthcoming Routledge Companion to Reward Management. Since 2010 he has led the team producing the CIPD annual reward survey, and been part of a transcontinental team funded by the Australian Research Council investigating the interplay between business strategies and reward management practices.

Poppy Jaman is an internationally respected mental health advocate, national policy advisor and the CEO of successful social enterprise, Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England.

With 18 years’ experience of influencing and leading change in public mental health, Poppy has worked in a number of roles which have required her to challenge the public’s perception of mental ill health. Through her diverse networks and non-executive board positions, Poppy has played an instrumental part in making mental health a high priority for public and private sector employers. An accomplished and skilled communicator, Poppy presents at high profile conferences and events and regularly contributes to national media interviews, both print and broadcast.  

Holding a Masters in Business Administration and using her extensive experience of working across complex organisational environments, Poppy has taken MHFA England from a start-up social enterprise to a position of financial strength and international standing.  Under Poppy’s leadership, MHFA England is now a commercially successful Community Interest Company, fulfilling its mission of increasing the mental health literacy of populations around the world.    

Poppy currently holds non-executive board (NED) positions for the following organisations; Public Health England and NHS Workforce Race Equality Standards Advisory Board. She is also the Programme Director for the City Mental Health Alliance (CMHA).

At policy level Poppy led the 2013 review of the Mental Health Pledge of the Department of Health’s Responsibility Deal. She also played an instrumental role in securing the funding to develop and launch the Armed Forces MHFA programme, which has to date trained 6,600 people in Armed Forces MHFA. Poppy is currently campaigning to make Youth MHFA mandatory within schools and included as part of initial teacher training.

Internationally, Poppy works closely with the 24 other countries where MHFA is being proactively taught, reviewing best practice and comparing learnings. At the request of the Ugandan government, she visited the country to impart her knowledge on mental health literacy for the Ugandan Peoples Defence Force and a programme of mental health awareness training has since been rolled out within this community. Poppy is also supporting the development of MHFA in Bangladesh and in March 2015, she led a team to deliver the first ever MHFA Instructor training in the country. 

Wendy Jepson is responsible for the development and governance of HR policies, covering approximately 14,000 employees.  She takes the lead for all family leave and flexible working policies, including the development of Siemens approach on shared parental leave.

Wendy joined Siemens in 1997 and has performed a variety of generalist and specialist roles within HR, including a number of years as the Policy and Reward Manager for the IT services business.

Sam is Reward Director at TalkTalk Group and is responsible for setting the Group Reward strategy as well as all elements of Executive and all employee Reward, from remuneration through to pension and benefits.

Sam has been with TalkTalk in a number of different roles for the past 11 years, starting her career as an HR generalist in Carphone Warehouse and moving into Reward in 2008 prior to TalkTalk’s demerger in 2010.  Her experience includes leading a Group wide terms & conditions and benefits Harmonisation programme, group career framework & job levelling programme across the UK and Europe, demerger and acquisition support.

Neil is a highly experienced Innovative HR Director with extensive experience delivering cutting-edge organisational change and driving strategic business growth.  Neil has over 25 years experience of working within HR and latterly he has occupied senior positions which have focused on the benefits of strategic HR, Talent Management, HR Transformation and Change Management. 

Neil is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, a Fellow of the Institute of Directors, and has a Master’s degree in Strategic Human Resource Management and a Doctorate in Business Management in which he specialised in leadership development.

Ken Lawrie is easyJet’s Head of Reward with responsibility for all aspects of: executive reward, pay, incentives, share schemes and benefits including pensions for easyJet’s eleven thousand people.

Ken has spent over twenty-five years in the pay and reward area.  He has been with easyJet for over twelve years and previously was Principal Consultant for Remuneration Solutions.   He has hands on experience of designing, gaining approval and implementing all aspects of Reward. 

Ken has worked on an international basis covering Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East and has lived and worked in the UK, Asia and the USA.

Fiona Lowe is Head of People Strategy and Development at Westfield Health, a not-for profit provider of corporate health insurance. Since 1919, we’ve been helping hard working people stay at their fit and health best and now have over 400,000 policyholders. 

As a fellow of the CIPD Fiona has worked in the field of HR for nearly 20 years and has a good working knowledge of proactive and successful absence management. Over the last ten years Fiona has worked with Senior Leadership teams to develop and implement the corporate strategy and deliver the people strategy.

Sean is dedicated to employee relationship management issues, research and practice. He has worked in the field of Employee Engagement, Leadership and Management  Assessment  and Development for various companies over the past 15 years, working with clients in Asia, North America and Europe.  Sean is a regular conference speaker and contributor to publications on these matters.

A global leader in research, Ipsos’ ambition is to be the preferred partner of all companies looking to better understand their customers, their markets, their employees – as well as our fast-evolving world – through a unique multi-expertise positioning.

Ipsos LEAD is the specialised practice dedicated to employee engagement and leadership. We offer integrated research and advisory solutions to ultimately increase your organisational agility.

Umang is an NHS Paediatrician, served as a clinical fellow for the NHS Leadership Academy and a trustee of Attend, the UK’s national charity for volunteers. Umang has joined babylon from Aviva, where he was the Director of Clinical transformation and responsible for a series of new initiatives in the model of healthcare delivery.

Bekki is responsible for Procurement of HR service across the Centrica Group, focusing on L&D, Resourcing, Employee Benefits, HR Operations and Medical Services . In that capacity she has the remit to drive consistent working across the fragmented group enabling procurement to be the destination for talent, insight, partners and Stakeholder.    She joined Centrica in 2009 as part of University Industrial placement and was invite back in 2011 as a full time employee as a Procurement Consultant  Over the past 2 years within her current Category Manager role, she has delivered a solution to manage end temporary labour for Centrica globally enabling a consistent way of working and significant saving to the bottom line.  She has also enabled the business to deliver a revolutionary way of managing medical services, look at proactive health management rather than reacting to symptoms.

Diarmuid Russell is vice president of international for Glassdoor and is responsible for international business and growth strategy. He is currently focused on establishing Glassdoor’s European hub in Dublin and building sales, marketing and customer service teams for Europe. He splits his time between Dublin, London and San Francisco.

As one of Glassdoor’s first fifty employees, Diarmuid has spent time in a variety of senior commercial roles within the company to help build the community, and help employers connect with job-seekers through the Glassdoor marketplace.

Diarmuid is an experienced digital media executive with more than 10 years of experience working with consumer internet businesses in Europe, Australia and the U.S. He has previously held commercial and strategy roles at Expedia, BBC Worldwide and Lonely Planet. Diarmuid holds an MBA from INSEAD and a Master of Arts in economics from the University of St. Andrews.

After working as an NHS Midwife, Claire qualified as an Occupational Health Nurse in 2006. She is currently the Occupational Health and Wellbeing Manager for Alstom Transport UK& Ireland Ltd., looking after 2500+ employees. Her development of the Company’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy has been seen as a benchmark for good practice within Alstom globally; the key priority being the creation of a sustainable workforce by constantly striving to protect and improve health and wellbeing within the Organisation. Her expertise and specialist knowledge aim to ensure Alstom become recognised leaders in the effective management of high quality health and wellbeing interventions within the rail industry.

Alex is currently Human Resources Director for entrepreneurial retailer Cath Kidston Ltd reporting to the CEO as part of the Operating Board.  He has responsibility for the people agenda across offices in the United Kingdom, Japan, Hong Kong & Shanghai and over 1,000 retail colleagues.  Prior to joining Cath Kidston he worked for the L'Oreal group for over 15 years, most recently as UK & EMEA Human Resources Director for The Body Shop.  Leading a team across the UK, France, German, Spain, Sweden & the Netherlands.  Before joining The Body Shop he held recruitment, talent and learning roles within the L'Oreal group based in both London and Paris.  During his first two years at L'Oreal he worked in marketing and developed a strong understanding of the commercial agenda.  Before starting his business career he studied History at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University.

Professor Stephen Bevan, an Honorary Professor at Lancaster University, returned to IES as Head of HR Research Development in April 2016. Stephen was previously Director of Research at The Work Foundation. Stephen has conducted research on high-performance work practices, employee reward strategy, staff engagement and retention, and 'good work'. He has a special interest in workforce health and wellbeing, having led a number of national and international projects focusing on workforce health and the impact of chronic illness on productivity and social inclusion.

Stephen is an advisor to a number of UK government departments and has advised employers and policymakers in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Australasia and North America. He has received a special award from GAMIAN-Europe for his contribution to the field of mental health and is a reviewer for several academic journals, including The Lancet; a regular columnist for HR Magazine; a judge at the Global Healthy Workplace Awards; and is a member of Public Health England’s Health & Work Advisory Board, and the Health and Work Group of the Public Health Responsibility Deal. Stephen has also been Chair of the UK Fit for Work Coalition.

Prof Steve Haake is Director of the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University.  After gaining a 1st in Physics from the University of Leeds in 1985, Steve subsequently received a PhD from Aston University. He lectured in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield until 2006 and is now head the Sports Engineering Research Group within the Centre for Sport and Exercise Science. The group carries out research and consultancy for the sports sector, creating both equipment and image based coaching tools to measure and feedback performance in sport.

He is a consultant to Adidas, Prince and UK Sport, and sits on the Technical Commission of the International Tennis Federation. He also founded the International Sports Engineering Association in 1998 and is the founding editor of the journal Sports Engineering. Steve regularly delivers keynote and invited lectures around the world.

Steve is a regular contributor to television national, appearing on Sunday Brunch and Speed with Guy Martin, along with international newspapers, magazines and blogs. Steve regularly delivers keynote and invited lectures around the world.

Miriam Tapaki is the Payroll Manager, Pensions and Benefits at the Francis Crick Institute, a new biomedical research centre in London. She has 10 years’ experience in setting up and managing employee benefits programmes for the Stroke Association and Institute.

A specialist in payroll management, Miriam is passionate about making sure employee benefits are of practical use to the individual and provide a cost-effective way for the organisation to enhance the overall reward package and increase employee engagement.

Miriam’s was the winner of the Strategy & Innovation category in the Benefits Excellence Awards 2014. In the same year she was nominated in the Benefits Pioneer and Best Benefits Communication categories.

Debbie Thomson is Head of HR Operations of BDO Services Ltd, a firm of Chartered Accountants and business advisers specialising in helping businesses achieve their goals and maximising their potential.  Her background is in oil & gas, retail and most recently within professional services and in her role as Head of HR Operations at BDO leads the Reward, HR Services and HR Systems teams.  Debbie is also actively engaging with the firm’s well being strategy with the focus of enabling people to be their best.

Thomson has been Head of Reward at ScottishPower for 3 years, her remit covers Compensation and Benefit Plans for some 6000 employees.  Since joining ScottishPower she has led projects to deliver Sharesave, Total Reward Statements and in 2016, introduced Flexible Benefits. She also has overall responsibility for Performance Management.  Thomson has 20 years HR experience across a number of roles, but primarily in Compensation and Benefits. Prior to ScottishPower she spent 12 years with RBS in their Global Reward Team, and 5 years with Defence electronics Company GEC Marconi as an HR Generalist.  Thomson has a BA Honours in Business Studies and PG Diploma in HR from Edinburgh Napier University.  She lives in Edinburgh with her husband and two sons.

Steve Varley is the UK Chairman of EY, responsible for a business of over 13,000 people and revenues around £2bn. He is also the Regional Managing Partner of the UK and Ireland practice and a member of EY’s Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA) Board.

Steve joined the firm in 2005 and has worked in various sectors including pharmaceuticals, oil & gas and public services.

In the UK, EY is now the fastest growing of the ‘Big Four’ professional services firms and the most globally integrated. EY has a wealth of experience in helping UK companies grow and strong connections with some of the fastest growth economies – from China to Mexico and the US to Indonesia. EY has also supported entrepreneurship for many years, recognising the vital role entrepreneurs play in job creation and an improved economy. EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year programme, held in more than 50 countries, is the world’s most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs and has been running for over 15 years in the UK.

Steve has been part of the business delegation on the Prime Minister’s Trade Missions, including visits to Russia, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil in 2011 and 2012, and China in 2013. As part of the China Trade Mission in December 2013, EY together with UKTI was proud to have led the business delegation in a trade event in Shanghai bringing together British and Chinese business leaders and senior political figures, including China’s Premier Li Keqiang, helping to strengthen further the trade links between China and the UK.

In January 2014, Steve was appointed as Business Ambassador for the professional services industry by the UK Government. He is a member of the Corporate Board at the Royal Academy of Arts, a member of the Chairman’s advisory group at the British Museum, a founding member of the Social Business Trust and a member of its Investment Committee. He is also on the International Advisory Council for the British Chambers of Commerce, the board of Loughborough University and a member of the 30% Club where he is an active supporter and speaker on diversity and inclusiveness, believing that a diverse workforce is a commercial imperative for business success.

Steve lives in Buckinghamshire with his wife Jane and their two children. A very keen sportsman, he competes in several road races and triathlons each year.

Vicky leads the HR and Learning & Development function for the LTA, which includes the development and delivery of the HR Strategy, and the development of the LTA’s talent and succession plan for all Colleagues.

Vicky was previously HR Director for the Business and Industry Division of Compass Group, where she worked for 21 years.  During her time with Compass Group, Vicky developed and delivered the company’s first on-line training programme for new starters and an award winning apprentice scheme.

Vicky began her HR career at the leading high street retailer Marks and Spencer.

Graeme is the Head of Pensions for UK & Ireland for The Royal Bank of Scotland, the state backed bank.  His role covers nine schemes with assets over £30bn and around 300,000 members.   

His role covers policy, strategy, design, communications and governance acting on behalf of the pension plan sponsors.  He originally joined RBS in 1997 and previously headed up the bank’s in house administration team. 

Graeme lives and works in Edinburgh and is one of Scotland’s leading long distance cyclists.  He completed the gruelling 1200km Paris – Brest – Paris race for the third time in August 2015 (never again!)