2024 Topics & Themes
HR's role in sustainability
How to be successful with your EDI strategy
AI in HR
The importance of data, trend analysis, and technology in HR
Work/Life Balance
Workplace burnout and mental health challenges
Neurodiversity in the workplace
Menopausal awareness
If you are interested in a speaking opportunity, please contact eventteam@summit-events.com
Sam McAlister, a BAFTA-nominated interview producer and LSE senior fellow, is renowned for securing interviews with a spectrum of high-profile figures, from Buckingham Palace to Silicon Valley's elite. With over a decade of experience at BBC Newsnight, Sam has mastered the art of engaging with the most reluctant subjects, delivering exclusives with public figures such as HRH Prince Andrew, Sheryl Sandberg, and Elon Musk, among others.
Her insights into leadership, reputation, and communication are grounded in her extensive background in negotiation and media interaction. Sam's career journey from a criminal defence barrister to an acclaimed public speaker underscores her expertise in negotiation, media strategy, and public speaking.
In 2022, Sam published "Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews," offering a behind-the-scenes look at pivotal journalistic moments. The book's success led to a documentary on Channel 4 and an upcoming Netflix film, showcasing her impactful work in journalism. Sam's portrayal by Billie Piper in the Netflix adaptation highlights her significant influence in media and negotiation.
Beyond her contributions to the media, Sam serves as a Visiting Senior Fellow at LSE, sharing her negotiation expertise. Her role as a keynote speaker and advisor in media and negotiation further demonstrates her versatility and impact across various sectors
Coming Soon!
Having worked in Hospitality for over 20 years, Chris has built and implemented a diverse portfolio of people functions that focus on culture, wellbeing and employee engagement. A constant focus for Chris has been the holistic health of the teams he has worked with, ensuring their personal growth, professional application and overall development. Chris was is listed in the 25 global culture creators by Culture Amp, in recognition of his dedication to workplace wellbeing.
In this thought-provoking training session, we will explore the intriguing and often overlooked relationship between workplace wellbeing strategies and employee burnout. This session aims to delve into the complexities and unintended consequences of initiatives designed to promote employee wellness.
By the end of this session, participants will be equipped with the knowledge and tools to critically evaluate and enhance their organisation’s wellbeing strategies, ensuring they truly benefit employee health and productivity without contributing to burnout.
Craig is a highly experienced HR Director/Chief People Officer with over 30 years’ experience across multiple sectors and organisations. In his early career he was HR Director for several businesses in the tech, media and healthcare sectors, including Sky, BT and Bupa. Over the last 10 years he has focused on interim posts primarily in the health & social care, housing and property sectors and is typically hired as a change agent and troubleshooter. He is currently Interim People Director at Anchor, England’s largest provider of specialist housing and care for those in later life.
Craig holds an MA in French & Italian from Cambridge University and a Post Graduate Diploma in Personnel Management from the University of Westminster. He is a Fellow of the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development). He lives in Clapham, South London, with his wife and daughter.
Craig McCoy is a highly experienced HR leader with over 30 years’ experience across multiple organisations and sectors.
Following a successful 25-year permanent career, Craig took the decision around 10 years ago to pursue a career as an interim HR leader and has since held 15 roles in a range of organisations in the private, public and third sectors, typically businesses employing 5,000 to 10,000 people.
Known as a strong commercial change agent, Craig is typically hired by organisations who need a People leader who can deliver results in challenging circumstances, undeterred by organisational politics nor consideration of their own long term career goals. As such, Craig has led business change in many contexts including:
Merger, Acquisition and Disposal
Restructuring and downsizing
Growth & international expansion
Need to transform failing Exec teams and HR teams.
During this session, Craig will discuss a range of business contexts which he has encountered and the strategies he has adopted and will share the secrets of his success as an interim HR leader.
Jo Carlin is the SVP HR Europe for Firstsource Solutions Ltd where she passionately supports the wider people strategy, residing in the Northwest of England. Prior to this she has operated at senior HR Director level across the UK and Europe for over a decade, working across a variety of sectors including Pharma, Hospitality, FMCG and Manufacturing for both national and international businesses. Alongside this, she is a Non-Executive Director at Lancashire Football Association – a not-for-profit organisation. She is a qualified Executive Coach and holds master’s qualifications in both psychological science and business.
Jo thrives on getting to the heart of issues and delivering solutions to enable businesses to move forward in a positive way, passionate about championing people from all backgrounds, keeping diversity and inclusivity at the heart of the People Strategy. In her spare time, she focusses on spending her time with her husband, two daughters and their dog. Whenever time allows her, and her family go for hikes in the Yorkshire Dales and Cumbria. She also loves to read extensively and lets off steam by going to the gym very early!
There are a number of external and internal forces creating friction and movement within businesses, in turn this creates a need for support functions, especially HR to morph and change whilst in motion. This is precisely what we have done in our organisation, moving from a traditional model to a business partner model, with shared services and off-shoring, digitisation and AI - all done whilst the organisation was going through a significant change, and of course all of this was required to be supported by the HR team.
Kevin is the Chief People Officer of First Bus – a division of FirstGroup. First Bus is a FTSE 250 Company and is one of the UK’s largest bus operators with 14,000 employees. In his time at First Bus, Kevin has kicked off a transformational people strategy, which will put colleagues and customers first. As part of this, People Centricity, at bottom-up change process, has started to roll-out across the business, driving a more human culture across First Bus where colleague behaviours are fully aligned to our purpose of ‘your journey is our everything’ and the First Bus values – or ‘Our Way’. Kevin has also introduced a step change on Diversity and Inclusion including the company-wide introduction of inclusion networks and a ‘Celebrating our Differences’ development programme for all managers. Quarterly employee engagement surveys are an integral part of ensuring that First Bus listens to its people and becomes a great place to work.
Kevin has been an entrepreneur, a CEO and HRD of a FTSE 100 company, he brings a wide range of skills and experience from each of these roles to assist the organisations he works with. He specialises in businesses that want to scale up or transform. Kevin has long been recognised as an award-winning business leader. He has worked with many leadership teams to maximise their performance by developing both unique customer offerings and differentiated people strategies which provide sustainable competitive advantage. His passion is creating great cultures where people want to give their best every day.
As a TEDx speaker, Kevin is an experienced communicator who informs, inspires and engages his audiences. He has spoken at large conferences but is as comfortable with smaller more intimate round tables or leadership events. His areas of specialism include global labour markets, competitive people strategy, how to create high performing cultures and What great leaders do to create superior performance.
This is a case study based on the innovative approach First Bus (£1 billion and 14,000 people) have taken as they transform the organisation from an asset (buses and timetables) focused business to a service business focused on People and the customer.
We are 2 years into a five-year transformation.
This interactive case study will include:
How to develop a people strategy using a strategy mapping
How to ensure you have the right leaders (Target Operating model and leadership development)
How to radically improve front line engagement a 30% up in two years.
How to use bottom up (design thinking) change activity so it sticks.
The importance of symbols of change as proof points
How to align EDI, wellbeing and reward activity so they make an impact
How you set up the people function for success
The 5 big lessons learned
As a seasoned HR visionary with global leadership, I've led transformative HR initiatives across EMEA, APAC, and the Americas, touching over 40 countries. My expertise lies in navigating the intricacies of diverse, multicultural landscapes, fostering inclusive cultures, and championing DEI efforts that resonate worldwide. With a career built on strategic acumen, I've been pivotal in aligning HR with core business strategies, driving organisational success through change management, talent strategy, and organisational development.
At the heart of my approach is a commitment to operational excellence and strategic HR initiatives, grounded in a robust educational degree in HR Management and Law. My journey through key HR leadership roles—including as Group Head of HR at Walker Crips and Executive Director at Solidity HR Consultancy—has been marked by significant achievements. These include spearheading DEI metrics improvement by over 10%, leading a £24 million Workday implementation project, and contributing to substantial cost savings and operational efficiencies across organisations.
I am passionate about developing innovative HR solutions that not only meet but exceed organisational goals, enhancing employee engagement and compliance awareness while nurturing a culture of continuous learning. My thought leadership in HR is demonstrated through prolific public speaking, advocating for progressive HR practices and DEI principles globally.
My topic of discussion is EDI strategy within organisations – this will delve into the life cycle of an employee from talent acquisition i.e. attraction, reasonable adjustments and using the right tools and resources to reach diverse candidates. The session will also focus on leadership traits, different EDI organisational strategies i.e. succession planning, learning and development and using the right tools to track EDI goals to build a thriving and inclusive workforce.
Vilma Nikolaidou was appointed the BFI’s first Director of People and Culture in May 2023, joining from the University of the Arts London where she was Associate Director of People Strategy and Culture.
As Director of People and Culture at the BFI, Vilma provides leadership across all areas of people strategy including talent, employee experience, capability, reward, performance, employee relations, culture and behaviours.
Originally from Greece, Vilma studied psychology and graduated with a masters in Organisational Psychology from City University London. She is a Fellow of the CIPD and also holds a postgraduate diploma in coaching from the University of Sussex.
Vilma started her career in Monsoon Accessorize, initially in retail sales and then in their HR division and from there held generalist and leadership roles at Tate Galleries, Arts Council England and London Borough of Lambeth. She was the organisational development lead of the new Tate Modern extension that opened in London’s Bankside in 2017. She co-founded Tate’s first LGBTQ+ staff network and has been a strong advocate for mental health, equality, diversity and inclusion all her life, with a passion for making the arts and creative industries more accessible to everyone. Vilma is a Trustee with Young Minds.
Join us to explore how far we have come on work life balance and are we still seeking an equilibrium between work and life? Has hybrid work, for those who have the choice, made things easier or not? Come and discuss policies that have had the most impact on driving better work life balance for employees including family leave policies, the 4 day week global pilot and more! We will explore how we can as senior HR leaders drive this change and why this is still crucial for good organisational performance and culture.
Ayan has 18 years of extensive experience leading and managing a wide variety of roles in Talent Management, Reward, HR technology and operations and several other transformative HR leadership roles. Currently working as a Vice President for Total Reward at the Adecco Group, he heads up Reward for all global functions at the group, as well as leading on Reward solutions, a portfolio that sits at the cusp of Technology and Reward. Prior to this, as the Senior Director of Human Resources in charge of employee experience and HR Transformation at General Assembly (a subsidiary of the Adecco Group), he spearheaded HR transformation initiatives, developed reward philosophies, managed a diverse workforce, and built high performing teams, resulting in tangible improvements in the overall employee experience and HR delivery capability.
Coming soon
Laura Ashley-Timms is the co-author of the best-selling book The Answer is a Question: The Missing Superpower that Changes Everything and Will Transform Your Impact as a Manager and Leader.
She’s also the COO at Notion (L&D Supplier of the Year), the co-creator of the STAR® model, the multi-award-winning STAR® Manager programme and an expert thought leader on how to leverage Operational Coaching® behaviours across organisations to drive commercial results and improve productivity and engagement levels.
Laura learned about the power of coaching from her early childhood career in international sports and was coaching others by the time she entered Oriel College, Oxford. With over thirty years of international business experience, living and working in the USA, Europe and Asia, Laura has a strong focus on pragmatism and results. She’s been recognised as one of the UK’s top executive coaches and as one of 40 Outstanding Global Women.
Coming Soon
Speaker Programme
The Summit programme consists of inspirational Keynotes, Strategy Sessions (case study presentations followed by focused discussion), interactive Action Learning Workshops, and debate. In addition, we will add value by offering a series of round tables, presentations, and toolkits in the build-up to the event.
If you have any recommendations for speakers or topics for future events please email eventteam@summit-events.com
Register your interest in the 31st Human Resource Summit
9 - 11 October 2024
Submit your name and email address and a member of the Summit team will send you further details including:
- the confirmed list of attendees
- instructions on how to apply for a delegate place
- sponsorship options
“The event was a fantastic learning and development opportunity for any HR professional. It was a great to meet peers across various HR disciplines, learn and benchmark against our own HR function. It was my first time attending an event like this and it opened my eyes to the types of suppliers and services that are available to our organisation to assist us on various challenges we face.City of London Corporation”
“This HR Summit was a brilliant way to meet with very relevant industry counterparts and suppliers. The sessions were carefully chosen with an excellent set of speakers. And the suppliers did not hard-sell their products, as often is the case with forums like these. The venue provided ample opportunity to unwind as well the arrangements done by the Summit team in terms of food and hospitality were excellent.General Assembly”
