Tom Barry, managing director, Blessing White
Tom Barry founded BlessingWhite in the UK. He returned to the business in 2005 as Managing Director after a gap of seven years during which time he completed several life ambitions such as winning the funding for the new Oxford University boathouse and becoming an independent coach and leadership specialist.
His first tenure with BlessingWhite saw him grow the business from a small arm of a US company to a substantial division in its own right. He has worked in a leadership capacity with three coaching, leadership and career change businesses and more recently as Business Development Director with outsourcing specialist Williams Lea.
Previous business experience included spells in the manufacturing and electronics sectors. Tom went to Oriel College, Oxford. He has written papers on a range of culture change and leadership issues and has spoken widely at conferences.
David MacLeod, senior associate, Towers Perrin
David MacLeod has a degree in Business Studies and is a Visiting Professor of the Cass Business School (City University). He managed the Dulux brand through a major phase of innovation and as Chief Executive of a number of ICI businesses has extensive experience of improving financial performance.
He has been on the Board of organisations in Asia, North America, Europe and in Russia. He worked in the Cabinet Office as Senior Advisor on Change and Performance and is a Senior Associate of Towers Perrin. He is the author, with Chris Brady, of ‘The Extra Mile’.
Dilys Robinson, Principal Research Fellow, the Institute for Employment Studies
Dilys Robinson is a Principal Research Fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies, an independent research and consultancy organisation specialising in HR and employment issues. Her two main areas of activity are employee attitudes and workforce planning and modelling.
At IES, Dilys manages the employee motivation and well-being theme of the HR Network, and has led IES's research into employee engagement for the past four years. The research has been documented in two reports, 'Drivers of Employee Engagement' (2004) and 'Engagement: The Continuing Story' (2007). Outside work, Dilys is an active governor at a successful secondary school in Lewes, East Sussex, and is in the process of trying to complete her first novel.
Michael Silverman, Associate Director, Ipsos MORI
Michael is Head of Public Sector Employee Research at Ipsos MORI. He directs employee engagement/opinion research for a number of Government Departments, Local Authorities and NHS Trusts. Michael has a breadth of experience in HR research and consultancy from his previous roles at the Institute for Employment Studies and the Institute of Work Psychology, and is currently involved with the Cabinet Office’s work on Employee Engagement in the Civil Service.
John Bell, Head of Employee Engagement, Cabinet Office
John joined the Cabinet Office in May 2007 and has responsibility for designing and delivering the Employee Engagement measurement strategy for the wider Civil Service. The Civil Service employs about.550,000 people and includes major public departments such as the Department for Work and Pensions, Ministry of Defence and the Home Office.
John previously worked for the Royal Bank of Scotland and was a member of the human capital team where he designed various employee related measurement tools and models. He is currently studying for an MA in Strategy and Change at Kingston University.
Tom Smith, Chartered Occupational Psychologist, Lane4
Tom Smith is a member of the Executive of Occupational Psychology and an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society. He is currently a Chartered Occupational Psychologist at Lane4, a leading global performance development consultancy with a heritage based on elite sporting and commercial development.
Prior to that he was head of learning and development for the corporate, investment banking and markets, private banking, asset management and Amanah Finance at HSBC Bank and held a similar role as a managing director in Human Resources at JPMorgan. He also worked for four years at Ford Motor Company where he set up their European Organisation Development function.
Annette Ware, Head of Communication & Involvement, Vodafone
Annette heads up the Communication & Involvement function at Vodafone UK, which amongst other things is responsible for employee communication, engagement and insight. Vodafone UK was very proud to win both the Personnel Today award for employee engagement and the overall winners award this year.
Prior to joining Vodafone as Head of Internal Communication four years ago, Annette held a number of consultancy and agency roles, working for clients such as Marks and Spencer, British Airways, COI, PWC, Microsoft and BUPA.
