Speaker Biographies

Speaking at 9.30 on 28 September 2010 (K1)
Lawrence Leyton is often referred to as ‘THE MAESTRO OF MOTIVATION’. It’s the one thing all businesses absolutely MUST have to generate profits, stay competitive and keep their staff working effectively. That secret ingredient is MOTIVATION. It’s not taught much in MBA programmes or Management Training Courses, because it’s such an intangible thing to get to grips with and understand. But one man who knows more about it than almost anyone is Lawrence Leyton.

Lawrence has been studying the intricacies of Motivation and how to apply it in the workplace all his life. What he discovered, and now teaches, are a set of mind-tools guaranteed to ignite and invigorate the fire and passion in your workforce. In fact, Lawrence has been so successful in what he does; he’s helped over 200 companies around the world (major blue-chip names like: Microsoft, AstraZeneca, Kimberly Clarke, Vodafone, AMP, The Prudential, Provident, Lombard, plus many others) to change the mind-sets of their staff and turn them into peak performers and high achievers. 
Savvy companies like these understand the value Lawrence’s entertaining, engaging, but serious messages bring to their business.

He’s so sought after; he’s appeared as a regular guest on many prime-time TV and radio shows including Richard and Judy and Russell Brand. He was even snapped up by ITV and Channel 4 to demonstrate his unique skills in three TV specials, one being the popular peak-time Channel 4 show “Fear of Flying”. On this particular show for example, Lawrence demonstrated another of his amazing skills; helping people overcome phobias and addictions. He helped 40 of the most extreme flying phobics in Britain overcome their fear once-and-for-all. His methods were such a success, many of the participants who would NEVER go on a plane, have now been able to take holidays abroad with their families!

 

Speaking at 11.00 on 28 September 2010 (A1)
As Reward Manager at Kent County Council, Colin has been responsible for the delivery of the authority’s comprehensive and challenging Reward Strategy. This includes harmonisation of pay structures, the delivery of Single Status to one of the largest local authorities in the country, ensuring fair and transparent job grading and introducing targeted approaches to recognise and reward personal delivery. This also includes developing a highly competitive range of employee focused benefits and policies. Colin understands that Reward can address some of the key challenges HR faces with recruitment, retention and talent management particularly given the ever demanding employee.

Colin started his career in the pharmaceutical industry at Pfizer spending 5 years within research before moving into HR in 1995. Responsibilities included competitive market analysis, managing the pay processes for the Operation Divisions and lead UK business partner for the implementation of a global HR IT system. He is currently a committee member of the CIPD Reward Forum.

Speaking at 11.00 on 28 September 2010 (A1)
Evan is an independent reward consultant specialising in bespoke total reward solutions. He works with different partners to deliver HR technology-based services, job evaluation, surveys, performance management, recognition and incentive schemes and employee benefits. Evan is also a founder member of the Independent Reward Consultants’ Association.

Prior to setting up his consultancy in 2006, Evan had prime responsibility for employee benefits at Nationwide Building Society where his work resulted in the Society winning several industry awards for employee benefits innovations. Before joining Nationwide, Evan was a senior HR professional officer in the Royal Air Force. His work spanned the whole spectrum of human resources in a 30-year career. Evan has an MBA in Business Education Management and he is a Chartered Member of the CIPD.

Speaking at 13.10 on 28 September 2010 (A2)

Speaking at 13.10 on 28 September 2010 (A2)
As befits an international compensation and benefits practitioner, Debra Corey, senior director, compensation and benefits, EMEA, at Quintiles has gained practical experience on both sides of the Atlantic. She began her career in compensation in the US, where she took a part-time job in her university’s benefits department while still studying.

After going on to hold compensation roles at companies including First Fidelity Bank, ADP and Office Depot, she made the moves across to both benefits and the UK when she joined retail giant Gap. Corey cites this move into the international arena as her greatest achievement, despite it also posing one of the biggest challenges she has had to overcome, particularly in terms of learning about different countries and cultures.

“Living for 30 years in the States and only knowing one way of dealing with people, then suddenly being thrown into a multinational environment was a challenge,” she says.

To reach the level she has attained, Corey believes benefits professionals need certain key attributes. “You need to be open-minded, flexible, a business partner [within the organisation] and not afraid to make mistakes,” she says.

Speaking at 14.35 on 28 September 2010 (A2)
An HR and Learning & Development professional by background, Alex is HR Director of Towry Law, a firm of wealth advisors and holistic financial planners to private and corporate clients. Prior to this she also worked as independent consultant to companies predominantly within professional services and the IT and software industries, engaging with organisations across Europe, Middle East and Africa. She has also been in senior HR roles with Equitas (reinsurance) and Rubus (boutique IT consultancy). During Alex’s earlier career Alex spent approximately 10 years working for Arthur Andersen and Accenture, working across all the disciplines internally and in client facing roles.

Speaking at 13.00 on 28 September 2010 (B2)
Ann Flynn is Head of Marketing Communications for Corporate Pensions and has been involved in the pensions industry for more than 20 years.
Ann joined Scottish Widows Marketing Department in 2002 and was previously with Aegon. Prior to this Ann was an adviser, specialising in corporate pensions with a specific focus on employee communications and the roll out of employee benefit programmes in the workplace.

Jenny Davidson FPMI, is the International Director of Compensation & Benefits for CSC who are a leading global consulting, systems integration and outsourcing company. CSC provide customers in industry and government with solutions crafted to meet their strategic goal.

Previously Jenny specialised within the UK Pensions industry having worked for many household names including Hewitt, Novar plc (previously Caradon), Alliance Boots, Mars, Tarmac, Merchant Navy Pensions Administrators.

CSC have recently launched a new approach to workplace savings for their employees called mymoneyworks, which is provided by Scottish Widows

Speaking at 14.25 on 28 September 2010 (B3)
With over twenty years experience in the financial services and employee benefits industry, Darren Laverty has been instrumental in the successful design, implementation and communication of numerous employee benefit and pension schemes.    

He is a is a Master Practitioner of NLP and his passion is to continually find ways of improving how benefits are communicated and perceived by employees. 

Darren is a highly accomplished public speaker and regularly speaks at industry conferences.  As a leading pension and benefits commentator, he is frequently quoted in the HR, employee benefits and pension press.    

Speaking at 14.25 on 28 September 2010 (B3)
Mark Bingham has been in financial services since 1986 and has been providing employee benefits advice to employers since 1994. Mark has worked among leading industry innovators on ways to encourage employees to save more towards their retirement and has developed strategies to aid this, including Secondchance®, the pension rescue strategy.

He works closely with clients, helping them to achieve their benefits and pension ambitions and is an advocate of using human interaction when communicating employee benefits. Mark strongly believes this is the only way to truly help employers achieve a tangible Return on Investment, and for employees to really understand and value their benefits.

He has been instrumental in winning numerous awards for Secondsight, including the Employee Benefits award for ‘Best Pension Strategy’, a ‘Highly Commended’ award at the National Customer Service Awards and two wins at the recent Investment and Pensions UK Scheme awards.

Speaking at 14.25 on 28 September 2010 (B3)
Vance joined Oracle in November 1991 as Director of Human Resources and is now the Vice President for Human Resources, Oracle Europe. Vance has overall responsibility for all aspects of human resources and staff policies, including salaries, pay and benefits, employment terms and conditions, management and personal development, recruitment and resourcing strategies and business organisation. Vance is the spokesman on all matters employment related and has a special interest in HR systems and technology as it relates to human resources and the management of people. Prior to this Vance was with Data General Corporation UK Ltd as their Director of Human Resources.

Speaking at 11.10 on 28 September 2010 (C1)
Colin advises organisations on reward and related management issues. He helps businesses to design and implement effective programs, policies and processes. He has worked on a wide range of assignments in Europe and North America. He has worked both in corporate roles and as an external consultant.

In addition to working with organisations to address their strategic reward issues, Colin has worked on a range change projects, specialising in the implementation and communication of reward approaches aligned to business performance. He leads Hay Group’s UK reward practice. Colin’s experience includes broad banding, job families, grading systems, bonuses, sales plans, flexible benefits, share plans, on-line reward tools, reward policies, salary management/modeling and international mobility.

Speaking at 11.10 on 28 September 2010 (C1)

Speaking at 13.15 on 28 September 2010 (C2)
Glenn has a long career in marketing and communications and previously ran leading design agency N1 Creative. His application of consumer marketing practices and cutting edge web technology to employee benefits has allowed Asperity to gain a leading market position in just a few short years. Counting IBM, Lloyds TSB and Kent County Council amongst their 100+ client base, Asperity has demonstrated that a fresh approach to voluntary benefits is attractive to UK companies. Glenn has personally managed Asperity’s recent push into the retail and public sectors and has designed benefits re-launches for Iceland, Next, Travis Perkins, Wickes, Ladbrokes, National Savings & Investments and several county and borough councils.

Speaking at 13.15 on 28 September 2010 (C2)
Dev Raval is the Director of Reward at BSkyB. Sky use reward programmes to better align their people to the company's strategy and to improve their engagement and performance levels. Dev has worked on a number of major initiatives to support this aim, including launching new benefits and recognition programmes as well as on processes to improve the link between reward and performance. Prior to Sky, Dev has worked in senior international reward roles at Vodafone, GlaxoSmithKline and Citigroup.

Speaking at 11.00 on 28 September 2010 (D1)
Paul is an acknowledged expert in the field of reward with over 30 years experience in the Financial Services and Telecommunications sectors.  Prior to his current role as Head of Reward for Cable & Wireless Worldwide, he was Head of Rewards for Nationwide Building Society for more than 10 years.  He has won numerous industry awards, was instrumental in Nationwide winning the Sunday Times “Best Big Company in the UK to Work For” award in 2005 and has been highly commended by the Government for his work on equal pay. A former CIPD Vice President – Reward, Paul sits on the Institute’s Reward Forum Committee and is a member of the Reward Faculty which oversees professional training and examinations.  He is a much sought after conference speaker, occasional lecturer and has published and contributed to numerous articles in specialist publications.

Speaking at 13.10 on 28 September 2010 (D2)
Lesley Fidler is a tax director in the Leeds office of accountancy firm Baker Tilly and leads the firm's employer consulting group.

Speaking at 14.35 on 28 September 2010 (D3)
Peter joined IES in 1995 as a Senior Research Fellow after a 16 year career with Shell. He has since been promoted to his current post. At the Institute he leads the work on reward and on the HR function, but contributes significantly to HR planning and labour market projects. He has published IES reports on reward, human resource planning, HR shared services and outsourcing. He has written numerous articles and books on both reward and the HR function. He gives consultancy support to organisations on issues concerning HR strategy, planning and resourcing, retention, HR organisation, trends in personnel management, performance management and reward.
During his career with Shell, Peter held various posts in the UK and abroad. His last position was as Regional Personnel Adviser (Middle East, Indian Sub Continent, and Francophone Africa) for Shell International Petroleum Co. He was responsible for providing HR advice to operating companies on issues such as management remuneration, HR strategies in acquisitions and disposals, regional staff exchange schemes, benchmarking and assessing HR performance. He also conducted a training course for HR refinery staff on HR policies and practices and advised the Shell Companies of Turkey on variable pay schemes.

In 1994 he undertook three projects: he was appointed adviser to the Shell Companies of Turkey on industrial relations, specifically charged with developing a strategy for pay negotiations. Secondly, he investigated the international graduate recruitment market to see what opportunities there were for cross national recruitment. Thirdly, he was responsible for an investigation of the changing nature of the employer/ employee relationship and its impact on Shell in the UK, set in the context of likely internal business developments and external social and economic changes.

Previous experience with Shell covered both line HR responsibilities and work in specialist fields. The former included posts as Personnel and Administration Manager for a gas plant in the north of Scotland and Personnel Manager for Shell UK’s Information and Computing division where he was the project manager on a merger with its Dutch counterpart. As a specialist, he worked in such areas as compensation and benefits, recruitment and career development, and industrial relations. For example, he was an HR adviser for Shell Internationale Petroleum Maatschappij in the Hague, responsible for matching job needs in Netherlands and internationally with supply from the international pool.

Prior to joining Shell he was a Senior Research Officer with the British Institute of Management where he wrote reports on profit sharing, employee participation practices and trends in British industry.

Speaking at 11.10 on 28 September 2010 (E1)

Speaking at 11.10 on 28 September 2010 (E1)
Alison is currently Global Benefits Manager for Sun Microsystems, with responsibility for leading the implementation of global benefits' architecture, policy, design, funding and approval for EMEA & Canada. Alison has also led some key global initiatives for Sun including establishing a global broker model, global fringe and sustainable car policy. She has also been actively involved in multinational pooling and developing Sun's global benefits architecture and pension governance. Prior to working at Sun Microsystems, Alison was Compensation & Benefits Consultant EMEA & South Asia for First Data Corporation (including Western Union) employing 30,000+ employees. She has also had experience in HR management and recruitment.

Speaking at 13.00 on 28 September 2010 (E2)
Sarah Moise, benefits manager (home country plans, excluding North America), joined Schlumberger in 1997. For the past three years, she has been responsible for managing local benefits across all countries in which the firm operates, with the exception of North America.

Moise’s first role at the company was her first foray into the world of benefits, when she took up the position of global compensation and benefits manager. She held this post for six years before becoming UK compensation and benefits manager for two years. From there, she took on a specialist project role before moving to her current position.

Prior to joining Schlumberger, Moise held generalist HR roles in the construction industry with Balfour Beatty, Bovis Construction and Babcock Engineering.

Speaking at 14.25 on 28 September 2010 (E3)

Speaking at 14.25 on 28 September 2010 (E3)

Speaking at 9.30 on 29 September 2010 (K2)
Duncan Brown is Director of Reward Services at the Institute for Employment Studies, a leading independent think tank and research body on employment and HR issues. He has more than 20 years' experience in reward consulting with firms including PricewaterhouseCoopers and Towers Perrin. He also spent five years as Assistant Director General at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

Speaking at 11.00 on 29 September 2010 (A4)
Janet joined Arqiva as their first Reward and Benefits Manager in 2006 where she manages all aspects of UK and international reward.  Arqiva continues to grow with involvement in exciting new ventures such as Project Canvas, Smart Metering and SeeSaw.  After spending her early career in IT, Janet moved into HR via technical recruitment and roles followed in Fleet Management, Flexible Benefits and Compensation.  She recently consolidated her diverse skill set by achieving the CIPD Advanced Certificate in Reward Management.

Speaking at 11.00 on 29 September 2010 (A4)
Katie is Director of CRESS and was formerly Head of Department, Leadership HRM and Organisation at Kingston Business School. Prior to joining Kingston in 1996, Katie was Research Fellow in the Centre for Organizational Research at London Business School (where she completed her PhD in 1992) and Director of Research at Temple-Smith Hilliard.

Katie is co-author of the book Strategic Human Resource Management: Corporate Rhetoric and Human Reality (OUP). She has also published over 40 articles and papers in academic and practitioner journals including Academy of Management Executive, Journal of Management Studies, Human Relations, International, Journal of Human Resource Management, Human Resource Management, Work, Employment and Society and Human Resource Management Journal. In 2006, Katie was the lead author of the CIPD report 'Working Life: Employee Attitudes and Engagement'. Katie is an External Examiner at Brunel University. She has been a member of the editorial board of Work, Employment and Society, and is currently a member of the board of the Human Resource Management Journal and the Irish Journal of Management. She also acts a referee for numerous other journals and as a rapporteur for the ESRC. She has been an invited speaker at many international conferences, and her principal consultancy interests are in the areas of strategic human resource management, employee engagement and change management.

Speaking at 13.10 on 29 September 2010 (A5)

Speaking at 13.10 on 29 September 2010 (A5)
Brian is the International Human Resources Director for Live Nation Entertainment prior to this appointment, Brian operated as HR Director for the UK where he established a partnership approach between HR and the business and led a number of key projects across the LN Group to align HR activity and benefits provision often dealing with the impact of TUPE and other such legacy schemes.

This work notably resulted in the launch of ‘Live Benefits’ and subsequently the online platform for all UK employees, which has placed the subject of benefits on the Live Nation agenda for all parties, something Brian is very proud to have delivered in a business which in the past had favoured a more maverick rock and roll approach to such matters. The driving force behind all of this being commercially sound brokering arrangements, improved efficiency and an all round better experience of benefits for all employees.

Brian has a degree in Personnel Management and is FCIPD qualified. He has worked in variety of HR roles, starting in the Financial Services sector and then working at ITV Productions - which provided the step into the wonderful world of ‘show business’.

When not reading copies of Employee Benefits magazine(!), Brian has a passion for travelling, music and is also currently learning to speak Italian.

Speaking at 14.35 on 29 September 2010 (A6)
Chris Bones was appointed Dean of Henley Business School at the University of Reading on 1 August 2008. Chris was previously Group Organisation Effectiveness and Development Director for Cadbury Schweppes, who he joined in 1999, taking responsibility for Executive Education and Development Culture, Communications, Change, Knowledge Management and Capability Development.

In his 22 years in business Chris has worked for Shell, Diageo (both in GrandMet and Guinness) and Cadbury Schweppes. He started in industrial relations, working on the UK's largest oil refinery and progressing through management teams in brewing, retailing and property to board roles covering Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific. He has significant international business experience and a reputation as a leading practitioner in executive education and development, change and HR strategy.

Chris writes a regular column for HR magazine and is a highly regarded speaker at international conferences on change, HR strategy and employment branding. He is a board member of the Skills for Government, the sector skills council for the Civil Service and an Independent Non Executive Director of the Agricultural and Horticultural Levy Board.

Speaking at 11.05 on 29 September 2010 (B4)
Stephen has worked for Airbus for over 20 years, holding various positions in this time covering client facing and HR expertise roles.
 
He has been in his current position of Reward Manager for Airbus Operations Ltd for approximately 10 years. During this period, he has implemented and managed new grading structures, job evaluation programmes, variable pay and income review strategies and a range of new benefit and recognition schemes. The role is UK based and covers a headcount of approximately 8,000 located at two sites - Broughton (near Chester) and Filton (near Bristol).

 

Speaking at 11.05 on 29 September 2010 (B4)
Richard joined Vebnet in 2008 and is Director of Consultancy Services. He previously held senior roles at KPMG and Watson Wyatt and has over 20 years experience in employee benefits consulting, most of which has focused on flexible benefits, reward and salary sacrifice implementations. Richard has worked with more than 50 organisations in managing flexible benefits and total reward projects, including Centrica, Abbott, Pearl Group, Disney, Britannia Building Society and T-Mobile. Richard is an Associate of the Pensions Management Institution.

Speaking at 13.15 on 29 September 2010 (B5)

Speaking at 13.15 on 29 September 2010 (B5)

Speaking at 14.35 on 29 September 2010 (B6)
Ricky previously worked for Woolwich, Barclays and Prudential before changing industry when he joined Unisys (high tech) in January 2006. Spanning a decade within compensation and benefits Ricky now heads up the compensation and benefits team within Equity Insurance Group (part if the Insurance Australia Group). He has recently worked on introducing a Share Incentive Plan for the first time within the UK, supports several pension schemes and is re-branding the flexible benefits scheme.

Speaking at 14.35 on 29 September 2010 (B6)
Matt is a frequent commentator on the benefits market and is a regular at industry events and seminars discussing trends and advancements in Reward and Benefits. As Benefex’s CEO, Matt has overall responsibility for the organizations’ business strategy and its deployment. From a background within the employee benefits arm of a large US consultancy to today, Matt has over 10 years experience in delivering Reward and Benefits schemes to hundreds of clients across the UK, Europe and Globally.

Speaking at 11.10 on 29 September 2010 (C4)
James runs the in-house administration of the scheme and is Secretary to the Trustees. James has developed the Company's pensions strategy including managing out of legacy DB liabilities and radical updating of member communications. Before joining the Telegraph, James was at Brambles where he managed the UK pension schemes and arrangements for all the Group's companies. He also oversaw the rationalisation of six DB schemes and three DC schemes and the launch of a contract based scheme. As well as running several large DB schemes during his career, other significant pensions projects he has lead include the merger of three schemes in Belgium, the introduction of a new international pensions strategy for expatriates and the running of a TPA for external pension clients. James is FPMI, ACII and a member of TPAS. He is currently a member of the Investment Governance Group, chairing the small schemes sub-group.

Speaking at 13.00 on 29 September 2010 (C5)
Nick has overall responsibility for Corporate Consulting’s strategy, client delivery and people development. Nick has over 20 years experience in stabilising, re-engineering and growing businesses. His background is in benefit restructures, harmonisation and communication as well as private client solutions.

Nick enjoys a wide range of activities including - Skydiving, wing-chung kung-fu, football, tennis, golf, driving cars, and latin dancing.

Speaking at 13.00 on 29 September 2010 (C5)
Roy leads our intermediary market engagement. He and his team are primarily responsible for raising awareness of NEST among intermediaries.

Roy's financial services career has seen him hold roles as an employee benefits consultant and an independent financial adviser for an international pension consultancy.

He is a member of the Personal Finance Society and Chartered Insurance Institute.

 

Speaking at 14.25 on 29 September 2010 (C6)
Richard and his team are primarily responsible for raising awareness of NEST among employers.
Richard is a member of the Personal Finance Society and the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII).
As well as the Financial Planning Certificate, Richard has CII qualifications in equity release, investment and financial services supervision and management.

Speaking at 11.00 on 29 September 2010 (D4)

Speaking at 11.00 on 29 September 2010 (D4)

Speaking at 13.10 on 29 September 2010 (D5)
Michael McCartney regularly advises clients on a wide range of employment-related issues in corporate transactions and restructurings, employee policies, employee consultations, individual employment disputes and collective employment issues. Mr. McCartney has acted on a number of High Court claims involving breaches of restrictive covenants. He acts primarily for individuals at board/senior executive level and a diverse range of corporate client and public sector clients.

Mr. McCartney is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association.
Mr. McCartney regularly provides client training and has spoken at a number of conferences and seminars on employment law topics.

Speaking at 14.35 on 29 September 2010 (D6)