Employee Engagement Summit 2020

CHAIR – Dr Amy Bradley, Faculty and Program Director, Hult International Business School

Dr Amy Bradley is a professor, writer, speaker and corporate trainer specialising in compassion and engagement at work. She is particularly interested in how crucible experiences in our personal lives, such as bereavement or critical illness, shape who we are and how we lead.

In 2020, she made it onto to the prestigious Thinkers50 Radar list of global management thinkers. Her research has been published in academic and practitioner publications including Harvard Business Review, Forbes Magazine and Management Today, and in the press, including BBC online and The Guardian. Her new book, The Human Moment has been longlisted for CMI’s Management Book of the Year 2020. In it, she argues that organisations must find ways of becoming more compassionate in an age where our work is increasingly de-humanised

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Richard Roberts, People Director, Pure Planet

Richard has nearly 30 years experience in HR and employee engagement roles, including ten years with Virgin Mobile. As People Director at Pure Planet, he is responsible for all aspects of Culture and People.

Pure Planet is already doing some amazing things for their people. They are the first energy supplier in Britain to have an equal parental policy regardless of gender, sexual orientation or how they became a parent. They’re also one of the happiest places to work in Bath – winning the category of ‘Happiest Workplace Medium Business’ in the 2018 Happiest Workplace Awards.

Jason Simeon, VP Learning and Change Management UK, Leonardo

Jason is an experienced Learning and Change Manager with over a decade of experience at Leonardo MW, a global high-tech player in aerospace, defence and security. During his time at Leonardo, he has overseen the creation of a L&D outsource service, implemented learning management systems in the UK and Italy and supported the business through a number of strategic changes.

Jason’s interest in skills and the changing world of work goes beyond his day-to-day role: he is a Board Trustee of the Design and Technology Association, has worked as an entrepreneurial coach for start-up founders in Scotland and has spoken at a number of learning technologies conferences.

David Blackburn, Chief People Officer, Financial Services Compensation Scheme

David Blackburn is a multi-award winning, results-driven senior management executive with over 20 years’ experience in leading all aspects of Human Resources from a diverse career background including manufacturing, IT, retail, housing and financial services. 

He is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development; the Royal Society of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce; the Institute of Leadership and Management and a Member of the Guild of HR Professionals. An employment law expert he has designed and delivered training across the NHS and the not-for-profit sector and is a regular conference speaker – he has addressed delegates at the People Development Summit in Barcelona, the Work Foundation, NCVO HR Conference and the HR Summit in Lisbon in October 2017.

David is the FT Adviser Diversity Champion of the Year and his work at FSCS has been recognised in the Business in the Community (BITC) Responsible Business Awards; Financial Adviser Diversity in Finance Awards; National Diversity Awards; CIPD People Management Awards; Personnel Today Awards; Investors in People Awards; HR Distinction Awards and HR Excellence Awards.

Naomi Stone, Employee Engagement Manager, St Monica Trust

With over twenty years’ experience as an HR practitioner, Naomi’s ethos is to apply psychological evidence to practice in engaging and motivating teams and individuals.  She uses the principles of positive psychology to elicit behavioural change and to improve people’s working lives. 

Naomi’s career spans the legal (Osborne Clarke, DAS Beachcroft and Womble Bond Dickinson), charity, logistics and academic sectors. 

Margaret Mercer, Global Health Services – Operation Lead UK, Johnson & Johnson

Margaret has worked in occupational health, safety and wellbeing for many years, mostly in corporate environments.   For the past five years she has been working for Johnson and Johnson (J&J) as part of their Global Health Services team.  

Margaret is accountable for advancing Johnson & Johnson’s employee health and wellbeing strategy across all sectors and functions in the UK.   She leads programmes to foster employee physical and mental health and wellbeing, and health risk management in the workplace.  

Kath Howard, Head of Human Resources, Samaritans

Kath Howard is an HR leader, change agent, Chartered Occupational Psychologist, facilitator, accredited coach and consultant. She has twenty years of experience working in the fields of Occupational Psychology and Organisation Development, including leading OD teams within large charities such as Save the Children and Sue Ryder.

Kath currently leads the HR team at the Samaritans which has an incredible and important vision to reduce suicide.

Jo Dodds, Strategy Director, Engage for Success

With a background in retail HR, publishing and social media marketing, Jo now works with leaders to help them to better engage with their employees, improve wellbeing and create a great place to work.

As co-Strategy Director within the Engage for Success movement, she helps to spread the word about employee engagement and shine a light on good practise, inspiring people and their workplaces to thrive.