Diversity and Inclusion Conference 2018

CHAIR – Dr Maria Adamson, Senior Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour and HRM, Middlesex University BUsiness School

Dr Maria Adamson is Senior Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour and HRM at Middlesex University Business School in London, where she also leads a new MA degree programme in Diversity and Change Management.

Dr Adamson’s research centres on understanding gender (in)equality at work, the application of feminist theories within the field of organisation studies, cultural representations of gender and work and how they translate into workplace and organisational behaviour. Her recent project looks at the construction of gender in celebrity CEO autobiographies and the ways in which these cultural images impact workplace practices. Her research has been published in a number of leading international journals like Gender Work and Organisation, Human Relations, Sociology, the Journal of Professions and Organisation etc.

Dr Adamson is also currently leading an ESRC-funded seminar series project ‘Gendered Inclusion in Contemporary Organisations’ and is a joint Editor of Work, Employment and Society journal.

Siobhan Corria, Head of Inclusion, Action for Children

Siobhan Corria has been head of Inclusion at Action for Children one of the UK’s longest running children’s charity since March 2014.  Siobhan is UK lead for equality, diversity and inclusion and oversees the ‘young ambassador scheme’.

Siobhan is the founder of Celebrate LGBT+, Action for Children’s award winning staff network and a number of networks including gender empowerment network, disability inspire network and BAME staff network – Breakthrough.

Jennifer Liston-Smith, Director, Head of Coaching & Consultancy, My Family Care

Jennifer joined My Family Care in 2010 specifically to build and lead this provision on the basis of her established reputation and experience. In her role, she also looks after the My Family Care thought leadership agenda through which they provide Think Tanks and experience-sharing webinars to a thriving HR & Diversity leaders community.

With many years experience in large organisations and in providing leadership coaching and internal mentoring programmes and in coaching supervision, Jennifer one of the UK pioneers of maternity coaching in the early 2000s and has helped many leading employers build award-winning programmes to coach and support working parents and carers.

Philip Wilson, Head of Assessment and Diversity, Cabinet Office

Phil Wilson is the Head Assessment and Diversity at the Cabinet Office. Prior to this role, he was Head of Occupational Psychology at the London Fire Brigade, as well as Acting Head of Occupational Psychology for Greater Manchester Police and has also operated as a consultant for a range of industries. He has presented at numerous professional conferences, undertaken a variety of media activities and chaired national work psychology committees.

Anne-Marie Senior, Executive Development Consultant, Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion

Anne-Marie is responsible for delivering enei’s equality and inclusion training and consultancy products and services to both Members and non-Members.

Anne-Marie has 20 years of D&I experience in the public and private sector. She has designed and delivered innovative training and consultancy around diversity and inclusion, unconscious bias and equality analysis.

Other areas of expertise include leadership and team development and change management focused on the delivery of excellent customer service. She is also a Trustee Board member of two Hertfordshire-based charities.

Gareth Jenkins, Shore Resourcing Partner, Carnival UK (P&O and Cunard)

Gareth is a Fellow of The Institute of Recruitment Practice, with 11 years’ experience of tactical and strategic resourcing practice. He is also a qualified Psychometric assessor (A+B) with substantial experience of management of careers social media channels.

He is currently a Shore Resourcing Partner at Carnival UK, with a focus on head office commercial, operations and finance roles at Carnival House, Southampton.

Dan Harris, Diversity, Inclusion & CSR Manager, Taylor Wessing

Dan joined international law firm Taylor Wessing in 2015 as at Talent Business Partner and now leads the firm’s approach to diversity, inclusion and corporate social responsibility.  He is passionate about developing an inclusive culture that enables people to thrive, engage with the community and deliver for their clients.  

During his time at Taylor Wessing, he has been key to the firm’s focus on promoting gender equality, LGBT+ inclusion, social mobility and mental health awareness.  One of Dan’s proudest moments was Taylor Wessing entering the prestigious Stonewall Top 100 employers in January 2018.  

Dan is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development with an MA in Human Resource Management and over 15 years’ experience in HR in the professional services sector.  He will be discussing how businesses can create a competitive advantage by fostering a culture of inclusion

Peter Clark, Co-Founder, Qlearsite

A consultant for most of his career (Accenture, Boston Consultancy Group, Marakon), Peter has worked with management teams in some of the world’s largest and most successful companies. Using this experience and expertise, Peter co-founded Qlearsite: – a workforce analytics company that helps organisations improve business performance through happier, better motivated and engaged people.

Recently Qlearsite has pioneered new Artificial Intelligence to reinvent the way we understand and measure Inclusion.

Sarah Brooks, WFM Strategy and Planning Lead, Atos

Sarah has worked nearly 30 years in engineering and IT, in the BBC, Siemens and Atos.  She became ill in 2000 with a “bad back” just as she was finishing her MBA. For two years she was intermittently off work with “medically unexplained” symptoms and problems.   In 2003 she was finally diagnosed with hypermobility syndrome.  During this period was demoted within the organisation she worked for and ended up working part time as a change manager.  Since then she has managed her condition to return to full time work.

In 2016 Sarah set up the Atos Employee network for disabled staff.  Called Atos Adapt it represents disabled staff in Atos, support employees and offers advice to staff and managers.  The network has recently worked within Atos to help deliver and pilot a Workplace Adjustments Process, which has been very successful.

Sarah has a particular interest in neurodiversity and has just completed a BSc in Psychology.  She is currently in Workforce Management as a strategic partner for one of the Atos business units.