Talent Management and Leadership Development Summit 2018

CHAIR – Keith Herrmann, Director of Employability and Careers, University of Surrey

Keith Herrmann is Director of Employability and Careers at the University of Surrey which was named both ‘University of the Year’ and ‘University of the Year for Student Experience’ in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2016. At Surrey he leads the Directorate of Employability and has a university-wide remit as strategic lead on employability, careers and the university’s renowned student placement programme (the Professional Training Year).

The University has 1,200 students out on placement a year and has 2,300 placement providers that we work with in the UK, Europe and internationally. Keith works extensively with the academic community to ensure employability is a core element of the student learning journey.

Jessica Farley, Talent Development Manager, Coventry Building Society

Jessica is the Talent Development Manager at Coventry Building Society, based in the Midlands. She leads the talent management strategy, building a pipeline of talent from apprentices through to senior leaders and is looking forward to sharing the Talent journey that she has taken with the Society with you, including designing a bespoke talent grid to support the growth of our senior leadership population.

Jessica brings a wealth of experience from roles in multinational organisations, including Jaguar Land Rover and Brightstar. She has worked in multiple Human Resources roles including Employee Relations, Compensation and Benefits and Learning and Development. She worked in Melbourne, Australia as a HR Generalist before returning to the UK and specialising in Talent Management.

Steve Morris, People and Retail Director, The White Company

Steve is a retail expert, having established his career with M&S in both general and specialist roles before moving to Top Shop as a Regional Controller before moving to The White Company as Retail & People Director, responsible for the People and Retail teams across Head Office including DC and Contact Centre, alongside the growing store portfolio, taking full strategic responsibility at Board level.

He is accountable for talent management, learning and development, promoting engagement and culture across the business whilst making sure all is aligned with the business strategy.

Simon Fanshawe OBE, Co-founder and partner, Diversity by Design

Simon Fanshawe OBE is co-founder and partner of Diversity by Design and from 2007-2013 was the chairman of the University of Sussex governing council. He is currently on the boards of Brighton Dome and Festival, POWERful Women and the Museum of London and recently ended six years on the board of Housing and Care 21.

Simon was a co-founder of one of the most successful lobby and campaign groups in recent times, the lesbian and gay equality organisation Stonewall. He is now a co-founder of the Kaleidoscope Trust supporting LGBTI activists abroad.

He is also a broadcaster, writer and pundit. He was awarded the OBE in the New Years Honours list 2013 for services to Higher Education. And he was made an Honorary Doctor of the University of Sussex for services to diversity and human rights in 2013. 

Dawn Robinson, Head of Learning and Talent Development, Greater Anglia

Dawn joined Greater Anglia from National Express as Head of Management Development.  As Head of Learning & Talent Development for Greater Anglia (Railways), Dawn is passionate about delivering change through innovative learning strategies.  Within Greater Anglia she leads the core development team and Project leads the group-wide talent forum.

Dawn and her team were finalists in 2017 for two national awards and are proud to have won Training Team of the Year in the Rail Staff Awards, 2017 for an Internal talent programme which produced excellent  recognition results in the group staff opinion survey.

Adam Harwood, Digital Learning Development Partner, Asos

Adam Harwood is an experienced L&D professional who’s worked in organisations in both the tourism industry and retail sector over the last 10 years. He’s currently working at the fashion brand ASOS, where he is responsible for the transformation and development of the digital learning strategy. Adam believes that to drive performance and truly support your people in the digital age, it’s about getting as close to them as possible and ‘being where they are’.

Aimée Badcock MCPID, Head of HR for the Personal Health and Sleep, Philips UKI

Aimée joined Philips in early 2014 and during this time has worked across the consumer and healthcare businesses focusing on employee engagement, talent management, organisational design and retention.

Aimée has over 15 years generalist experience gained across many different sectors supporting leaders meet challenging business goals, in an ever changing environment. However, her real passion lies in empowering employees to reach their full potential and drive their career through fostering a learning culture that supports employability, engagement and retention.

In her current role, Aimée has led the roll out of a development programme designed to create a work environment where employees can identify and gain the experiences they need to build meaningful careers. 

Jane Smith, People Director, BT

Jane Smith is the People Director for Commercial in BT & EE Consumer, where her portfolio includes partnering all UK sales channels, BT Sport and the technology behind some of BT’s national infrastructure. 

Jane has a wealth of experience working in commercial, customer orientated businesses in the UK, Europe and Asia, with extensive experience across operations, projects and all aspects of HR. She’s built and led large teams in multiple markets, specialising in improving and simplifying ways of working to increase operational efficiency improving business performance.  

As a member of the senior team, Jane has developed the operational and people strategies and led large organisational-wide transformational change programmes, for which she’s been recognised for delivering short-term and long-term results.

Allison Durieu, Resourcing Campaigns Manager, West Sussex County Council

Ali is an experienced HR Practitioner with specialities including resourcing, staff engagement initiatives, stakeholder management and commercial contract management. Contract performance management of outsourced HR shared services.

In her current role, Ali is leading a team to improve resourcing targets within the care profession in West Sussex. Using a proactive approach to sourcing candidates, building a resourcing pipeline, improving marketing collateral and improving the conversion rates of interest to vacancy fulfilment.  

Katrina Morris, Leadership Academy Executive, Disability Rights UK

Katrina has a degree in Law & Business and her professional career has been directed towards creating opportunities for various groups that fit ‘The Protected Characteristics of The Equal Opportunities Act 2010. Katrina brings over 15 years of experience working with age, BAME, young people and disability to her role. 

Katrina Morris works for Disability Rights UK as The Leadership Academy Executive, leading on a project called The Leadership Academy Programme (LAP). The Leadership Academy Programme is a career development Programme for people in employment with lived experience of disability or a long-term health condition where employers commit to sending employees from their organisation to attend the Programme.

Currently in its fourth year, LAP has grown from strength to strength and focuses on shared good practice and provides a learning platform for disabled employees to see their disability from a positive perspective, consider the skills they already have and learn how these can be transformed into developing their leadership aspirations.

Matt Elliott, People Director, Virgin Money

Matt Elliott joined Virgin Money in 2011 as People Director, leading the HR work required to acquire and integrate Northern Rock. Matt is a member of the Executive Team who successfully built the company, leading to a successful FTSE listing in 2014.

Matt is a strong advocate of business being a force for good, being named a Financial Times Top 50 LGBT ally for 3 consecutive years, Financial Times Top 20 ‘Champion of Women in Business’ in 2017, EMPower’s Top 15 Allies in 2018 and a Management Today ‘Agent of Change’ 2018.

Jane Rosser, Director, Song-People Ltd

Jane is a coach, facilitator and trainer who brings her deep and varied experience as a business woman and HR professional to bear on helping organisations and individuals develop transformational leadership fit for the 21^st century.

Initially coming from a retail sales and training background with IDV and Pitcher & Piano, Jane became head of HR at Caffe Nero, leading a team with responsibility for management development during a period of massive expansion. Having gained considerable experience in HR, learning and development, she has since worked in  a broad range of sectors including, retail, financial services, not for profit and public sector for organisations such as: IDV, InBev, Morrisons, TUI, BBC, National Trust, Shorterm Group (recruitment), Barclays, Nationwide, Simplyhealth, Rolls Royce, Amey, Met Police and Wolverhampton City council.