Employer Brand Management conference 2017

Jonny joined Aviva as the group head of talent acquisition in January 2016 with responsibility for global recruitment. Prior to this he was head of talent acquisition at Thomson Reuters (IP&S) for three years where he established a central sourcing hub, resulting in record time to hire, quality of hire and agency hire of under 5%.  Jonny joined Thomson Reuters after six years at RBS, working in Group, their Corporate Bank and finally as Head of Resourcing at Coutts.

David is a corporate communications specialist with extensive experience within a variety of industries and sectors from FMCG to Financial Services, Online retailing to Housing, Public and Private sector.

David is Director of Customer Excellence for MyCSP, a pensions company that looks after the retirement benefits of 1.5million people.

Prior to MyCSP, David worked for Circle, the Hyde Group, Shop Direct Group and the Coop. At Shop Direct, he managed the communications of the merger of Littlewoods Home Shopping and Great Universal, and the sale of both the Littlewoods stores and the Index retail store businesses.

With 20 years’ brand and comms experience, Nicky co-founded employer brand specialists Synergy Creative, who work with brands to define who they are as an employer, and helping them deliver on that promise at every stage of the employee journey. She now heads up Synergy’s strategic offering as Strategy Director.

From creating a culture that's all about the customer and rallying employees around a common purpose, to crafting an employer brand and developing top talent, Nicky and her team get to the heart of challenges quickly, delivering strategically-led creative solutions for the likes of RBS, ODEON Cinemas Group, Lidl, Vodafone and Sainsbury’s Argos.

Nicky holds a certificate in Employer Brand Leadership from the Employer Branding College.

Irene Duyn is head of Brand Engagement at ING. She holds master degrees in International Business and in Cultural Sciences. She joined ING in 2004 and is responsible for the company’s Employer Brand, Internal Branding and Brand Engagement.

Following the restructuring of ING which finalized in 2013, she has been involved in redefining ING’s corporate brand (purpose), ING’s culture, Employer brand and more.

Several cultural and employer branding projects have been award winning, Most recent the ING  Kudos project was awarded ‘Innovation of the Year’ at the 2017 Digital Communication Awards in Berlin.

Rekha is an experienced professional passionate about quality improvement and better outcomes for people using and providing services in health and social care. A senior policy advisor and researcher specialising in older people, nutrition, dignity and privacy, long term conditions, user voice and age discrimination with significant experience of government liaison. Rekha has over twenty years of experience in health and social care environment both in policy and regulation as well as staff and patient experience measurement. Her past and present roles in policy & regulation, research and teaching and charity governance enable her to provide joined up solutions for quality improvement across the statutory, voluntary and academic sectors.

Ailsa Firth is the UK HR Director for Arval, a global leader in full service vehicle leasing and part of the BNP Paribas Group.  Arval has representation across 28 countries and employs over 5,000 people. A company with an ambitious growth strategy that has recently acquired GE Fleet becoming the number one leasing operator in Europe. 

Ailsa started her career in Sales before stepping into HR. She has a passion for developing and implementing aligned People and Business Strategies;  enhancing the employee experience to enable improved organisational performance.

Superbike racing may be an unlikely start for a Digital Marketer, but Peter raised funds to compete world-wide working as an IT consultant, while creating sponsorship packages for the likes of Cadbury’s, BT and Yamaha.  Having survived that career, he founded the Agency “Channel Digital”, delivering eCommerce, web development and digital marketing.  Returning home to London in 2017, he now works for Fuller’s, the family brewer, pub and restaurant group.  Here he is involved in Digital transformation, Projects, and developing the Employer Brand.  He enjoys a pint of London Pride.

Tom became Chief Executive of the NIA on 1 February 2016.  Formerly MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West, Tom was shadow energy minister from 2011 – 2015 and the opposition’s lead spokesman on nuclear energy, electricity market reform, smart grid and metering, carbon capture and storage, interconnection and both onshore and offshore oil and gas. Leading the scrutiny of the Energy Act and the Infrastructure Act in the last Parliament, he secured a number of amendments to the proposed legislation. He also served as a member of the Energy Select Committee from 2010 and from 2007-2010 was a policy adviser in the Scotland Office, including on energy.

Since 2015, he has been an independent policy analyst working in the energy sector for a range of clients, a frequent media commentator on energy issues, and a regular columnist for Utility Week. In a varied prior career, he was Director of Corporate Affairs for the NHS in Scotland, a chief officer in local government and a GMB trade union official in England.

Dr Elisabeth Anna Günther is a Research Fellow at Cranfield School of Management. Elisabeth graduated in sociology at the University of Vienna, before she obtained her PhD in industrial engineering at the TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology), with focus on organisation studies. Her renowned research addresses gender, diversity and intersectionality in organisations within the area of science, technology, engineering and math. She is, moreover, examining aspects of organisational culture that enable learning and innovative practices. Elisabeth currently co-develops ways to measure the effects of gender diversity on research performance within the Horizon 2020 GEDII-project.

Penny works with organisations as an HR leader, director and talent coach, to help them develop their organisation and deliver better business results.
She has a strong track record as a Board HR Director with global and UK businesses and currently works in the global architect and design firm, Benoy.
Penny joined Benoy as Global Director of Talent in 2015, with the remit to help her ex-colleague from TK Maxx, Tom Cartledge and Benoy’s CEO, to develop the Benoy organisation and group.

As the instigator of the employer brand overhaul for Benoy, Illston worked with the strategic brand agency, 164^th and then Hodes, the creative agency for employers, to head up the Brand Steering Group. This award-winning initiative led and inspired the employees of Benoy to come together as brand ambassadors, with a creative and compelling approach to defining the company’s future, from the inside out.  

As Executive Vice President of People, Sian sets the strategy for Farfetch’s global people function. As part of the Executive Board she works closely with senior management and local people teams in Farfetch’s eleven international offices in the UK, USA, Portugal, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Russia and Brazil.  

Since joining Farfetch in December 2012, Sian has guided the company’s global people strategy through a time of fast paced growth from 100 to over 1,900 people. She champions a focus on culture, engagement and the development of people; managing the implementation of Farfetch company values, global career ladder and global employer brand. Sian and her team are dedicated to making Farfetch a revolutionary place to work.

With over 15 years’ experience, Sian previously worked as an in-house Director developing recruitment outsource projects in FS & Tech industries. She has also supported a number of e-commerce start-ups in fashion and technology. Sian holds a BSc (hons), is an Associate Member of the CIPD and Level A&B qualified in psychometric assessment.

Steve joined EY in 2010 and currently leads on all marketing and communications concerning EY’s apprenticeship programmes. During the last 7 years he has built up a wealth of knowledge about Generation Z both from his time at EY, and in his previous career as a secondary school teacher in London on the Teach First programme. He is a passionate champion of apprenticeships, and advocate for informed career choices for today’s young people.

Christoph is passionate about transformations. Transforming things from a current status to something better, more relevant, more human is what gets him up in the morning.

In his current position he is transforming the global Employer Brand of Siemens to stay relevant in the digital age. He started as Management Consultant, helped a Mobile Business start up, worked as Head of Digital Marketing for Siemens' answers campaign and was a VP for Strategy & Consulting at Conrad Caine (now Possible). Christoph holds a diploma in cognitive psychology. He loves to travel, played in a band and does sports to stay healthy.

With more than 17 years experience in employer branding, Phill runs the Brand & Insight team at ThirtyThree: researching, defining and building the world's leading employer brands.

With a reputation for not taking things at face value, his approach to gender equality is sometimes counterfactual, often challenging, and always rigorous.

Phill holds MAs in Classics from Cambridge, and Creative Writing from Kingston University, as well as being a co-author of the Handbook of HR Management. He has lived and worked in China, and has deep experience of the brand and employee engagement challenges within a great number of international organisations right across the globe.

Alon has 10+ years digital recruitment experience. He is co-founder of PathMotion, providing employers with an online discussion platform where their employees can engage and share stories with candidates in order to promote an authentic employer brand. Prior to this, Alon worked as Senior Policy Advisor in the Employment Policy team at HM Treasury. He holds a M.Sc. in Economics (focusing on labour market) from the London School of Economics.

Charu has over 13 years in-house experience in global Talent Acquisition strategy & Employer Branding leadership roles at Unilever, BP PLC, and Primark. She is currently at Ferrero SA responsible for creating new global employer branding & digital talent attraction. Her expertise and interests lie in global resourcing transformation, employer brand building, digital social media and external communication. She has led global EVP programs, devised employer brand campaigns, and created social channels for over 40 different countries. She believes emphatically in placing the employee, customer & candidate centre of everything our businesses do & is passionately vocal about improving inclusion and belonging in business.

Sheila has spent her career in communications and is passionate about people and organisations. She set up independent  consultancy, theblueballroom, in 2001 and has worked tirelessly to position employee communications, engagement and branding as an integral part of the strategic agenda. She has worked with some of the world's largest employers, as well as lesser-known SMEs, Charities and start-ups, always with vision to make work better and more successful for everyone.

She has recently written a book called, TAKE PRIDE: How to build organisational success through people, which will be published in September 2018 by Unbound. 

Katie is one of three Global Employment Brand Leader who creates and executes GE’s global Employment Brand strategy. Katie also leads 7 Employment Brand council members across 20 EU countries to deliver best practice in branding and social. Katie has been with GE for 6.5 years in various Talent Acquisition and HR roles and is passionate about employee advocacy, social and giving candidates the best possible experience.

Robert Powell is Head of Corporate Responsibility & Inclusion (CR&I) at Weil, Gotshal & Manges (London) LLP. He manages the full breadth of activities in the London office’s award-winning CR&I programme which focuses on four priority areas: pro bono, inclusion, community & environment and wellness. During his time at Weil, Robert has increased employee engagement significantly resulting in the average Weil London lawyer spending 65 hours a year on pro bono legal work and more than 75% of employees taking part in some form of volunteering activity.

Robert is also on the board of the charities Special Olympics GB, Heart of the City and is a member of a number of charity advisory boards.

With over 20 years’ experience in employment communications, marketing and advertising, Melanie has worked at some of the most well-known and well-respected agencies in the industry. Spanning a number of different sectors, Melanie has delivered campaigns for clients such as the NSPCC, KPMG, Thomas Cook, Accenture, Britvic and HSBC and has delivered everything from employer brand identity work to websites and award-winning employee referral programmes. Having made the move in-house, Melanie is currently the Employer Brand Manager for GLL, a charitable social enterprise and the largest operator of public leisure, sport, health and cultural services and facilities.

Alex leads communications and marketing at Circle Health, the hospitals, rehabilitation and healthcare services group. A former Daily Telegraph journalist, he is the author of The PR Masterclass (published by Wiley) and a Fellow of the Public Relations and Communications Association. At Circle he has fully integrated the communications and marketing functions and led a digital transformation, with a focus on measurement and best practice. He has a Diploma in Crisis Communication from the Charted Institute of Public Relations and is currently an MBA student at Surrey Business School.

A veteran of the recruitment marketing industry, Andrew has spent most of his career working with some of the world’s biggest and best known employers (organisations such as BP, BT, EY, Phillip Morris International and Tesco) helping them to develop and implement their employer branding, attraction and digital recruitment strategies. After 25 years of working for a variety of traditional recruitment marketing agencies, including Barkers, Bernard Hodes, Penna and TMP, he joined digital agency 4MAT, where for three-and-a-half years, he proved that you can teach an old dog new tricks. In January 2016, he joined Accenture, where he is responsible for recruitment marketing strategy for the consulting businesses – Accenture Strategy and Accenture Consulting – across campus, MBA, experienced hire and leadership.

Nick is a driven marketing & communications director with over 15 years' experience working for start-ups through to FTSE 50 organisations, across a broad range of market sectors, including commercial, energy, defence, health and central/ local government.

Nick is experienced at integrating digital, social and offline marketing to engage customer, corporate and employee audiences, and specialises in achieving greater efficiency and performance amongst marketing functions.

Nick has created many effective, award winning marketing and behaviour change campaigns.

Ian Thomas is a technology strategist and thought leader currently serving as Chief Strategy Officer of RunMyProcess, a French technology start-up acquired by the global Fujitsu ICT group in 2013.  In his role as CSO Ian works as an integral part of the management team on a range of vision, strategy, marketing and technology topics.  In 2016 Ian led an award-winning rebrand of the organization to reflect its updated mission as an innovation subsidiary of the Fujitsu group.

As assistant director at NHS Employers, Caroline leads the policy and employment practice work on workforce supply. She leads a team who focus on delivering programmes of work designed to support employers in the NHS in England to recruit and retain staff through using evidence based people performance management and employment practices. Caroline works closely with NHS leaders, government officials and national bodies to help inform policy and practice in this area.

Rachel heads up Siemens Talent Acquisition and Employer Branding in the UK, Ireland and Nordic countries. She’s part of a Global Talent Acquisition team in Siemens that is re-shaping how they deliver TA services to the business.  She’s a change agent with 20 years HR experience of transformation programmes in the IT, Rail and Manufacturing sectors, working at Land Rover/BMW, Atos and Siemens.

In her spare time, when she’s not a taxi service to two children, she’s a property enthusiast, having just built her own home, near Guildford in Surrey.  Rachel has a degree in Business Management and French, holds a Post Graduate diploma in HR Management and is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Personnel and Development. 

Mike is a director and studio leader for Benoy, a global family of design specialists with a strong reputation as commercial problem solvers.  Mike is foremost a designer and takes the creative lead on a number of projects both within the UK and internationally.  Benoy works with clients to create iconic destinations that enrich people’s lives, strengthen communities, enhance nature, and deliver lasting economic value. Its portfolio includes many complex buildings and requires the application of a wide range of skills and the ability to communicate visionary ideas.  Success relies on inspiring others and having a clear appreciation of Benoy’s values.  Mike worked closely with Benoy’s Director of Talent to form a Brand Steering Group, which engaged employees in an award winning programme of initiatives to redefine Benoy’s working culture and ultimately the success of its projects.