2025 Topics & Themes
- Financial wellness strategies
- Mental wellbeing
- DE&I
- How to manage the rising costs of health benefits
- Use of AI in the reward space
- ESG reward solutions and considerations
- Supporting neurodiversity in the workplace
- Rewards and recognition challenges
If you are interested in a speaking opportunity, please contact eventteam@summit-events.com
Great Britain's Legendary Hurdler, Multiple Gold Medallist, World Record Holder, TV & Radio Broadcaster
A World Record holder, much loved media personality and inspirational speaker, Colin Jackson is a national treasure and one of the most well-known athletes in Great Britain. When he retired from competing, his multi-medal career and infectious personality made him the natural choice to join the BBC's athletics commentary team. Over the last 20 years Colin has become an integral part of the team, covering the Rio Olympics in 2004 and all major athletic events since then, including the Olympic Games in London in 2012, Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and most recently Tokyo in 2020.
Colin has also developed into a hugely important figurehead for diversity, inclusion and mental health over the last 5 years. His open and connectible honesty has captivated the media and live audiences alike, as he speaks from the heart about the stressful demands of competing at the highest level, as well as the impacts of anxiety, eating disorders and body dysmorphia. All of which was discussed in the BBC 2020 Panorama film Athletes which Colin fronted, bringing to light the darker side of being a professional athlete.
For the last 5 years, he's co-hosted the popular Sunday Morning radio show on BBC Radio Wales with his sister, Suzanne Packer. Colin reached the final of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, and has also competed in Celebrity MasterChef where he reached the knockout week. Other credits include an outstanding "Who Do You think You Are" and The Real Full Monty, raising awareness of cancer and the impact it has on the lives of so many. Colin is a member of the steering panel for Sport Relief and is also an International Inspiration Ambassador for UNICEF, as well as founding and fronting the Go Dad Run campaign for Prostate Cancer. Since 2014, Colin has been the Sporting Director for the Wings for Life Red Bull charity.
From competing at the highest level to an ever growing career in broadcasting, public speaking and education. Find out how Colin has stayed on track and applied the life lessons provided by a record breaking sporting career to his wider life post Olympic glory.
Antoinette is a Director and the Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at one of the world’s leading PR agencies, FleishmanHillard. She is on the Management Board for the London agency, and sits as part of the client facing practice that provides EDI communications advice to clients, Mosaic.
Antoinette spent the first 10 years of her career working in PR and crisis management. This included nearly eight years at magic circle law firm, Allen & Overy. In 2019 she moved into the EDI team at Allen & Overy, then went onto a global role EDI at international law firm, Norton Rose Fulbright.
What does inclusive leadership actually mean and what does it look like in practice? This interactive session will leave seniors leaders with a greater sense of understanding of how to set the right culture in their teams, and the confidence to lead on EDI issues authentically and effectively. We will cover psychological safety (and the myths that exist around it), your impact as a leader, and how to exercise your role in a diverse organisation.
Janet has worked in the Reward field for more years than she cares to remember and for employers across a range of diverse sectors. One of the main things she’s learned is to assess what feels fair - and communicate it effectively, which is especially challenging when most employees aren’t sitting in front of a PC. It’s not about doing what everyone else is doing – what’s important is doing what’s best for your organisation and employee population. She’s very clear that to be great in reward, you need to be emotionally intelligent & recognize how change is going to impact people on the ground.
In 2023, Merlin recognised that we needed to grow our team, functional expertise & innovation to support our growth strategy and realise our overall ambition of ‘Making Merlin the greatest place to work & visit’. We reviewed our global benefits & gender-based policies to establish meaningful, fair and consistent standards that improve the employee experience and differentiate us in the global employment marketplace.
Janet’s presentation will provide some hints & tips on how to tackle such a monumental task; share some of the surprising discoveries made; and give a roadmap on how to cost changes and next steps taken on the journey.
Sally is Head of Reward Services for the Moore Kingston Smith team.
Sally joined the team in 2023 bringing with her over 25 years’ experience leading on the design and implementation of reward practice and policy, from reward strategy, salary and bonus reviews and benchmarking to job levelling and career frameworks. Sally has worked across multiple sectors and industries, both within the UK and globally for organisations with less than 10 employees to over 30,000 employees.
Sally has also presented at reward and benefit events discussing sustainable reward strategy, job architecture, the value of a robust and fit-for-purpose employee benefits package, as well as the role of the business in supporting women’s health at work.
Moore Kingston Smith recognised they needed to change how they looked at employee reward, recognition and benefits for the longer-term to ensure they could continue to retain, attract and motivate its people. They did this by going back to basics to understand what worked, what needed perhaps a tweak, through to what needed to be ditched! It was important that the journey had the input of everyone in order to be successful – from new joiners right up to the senior partners.
Sally’s presentation will talk through the journey from its very early days to where MKS is now and what the next steps are.
Gazal Vishwanath is the Global Director, Compensation, Benefits & Analytics at World Resources Institute based in London and is responsible for the design and implementation of a strategic C&B framework across all its offices. She is passionate about bringing the fit for purpose reward practices to the development sector that balances the values of the sector but fairly rewards the passionate workforce of this sector.
For the last 18 years Gazal has lead this specialist function with international development sector organisations like WWF, Save the Children, Oxfam, American Red Cross, South Korea based intergovernmental organization Global Green Growth Institute for their global, regional and national presence across the world. In her earlier avatar as HR professional for the private sector she has worked in organizations like Hewlett-Packard to set up large business process outsourcing Centres in India, managed the reward projects during the HP Compaq merger and led several reward related projects for the technology industry with Aon.
Gazal is a graduate in Statistics and MBA in Human Resources. She is CIPD certified and certified Global Remuneration Professional (GRP®) by WorldatWork. She continues to contribute to the reward community of the development sector through industry specific forums, teaching at WorldatWork and is part of the Global Advisory Group of the Birches Group.
Gazal has had the privilege of working for organizations where building a sustainable future for people and the planet is not a choice for but their main business. These organizations have an ambition to halt and reverse nature loss and take the discussion beyond Net Zero. People and behaviour change are at the core for achieving this ambition. In this session, we will explore how the HR function can act as an enabler to support their organization’s sustainability agenda. We will discuss best practices from various industries including WRI’s Sustainability Initiative that seeks to minimize this impact by aligning the Institute’s operations with its mission.
Hazel earnt an MSc in Human Resources Management from Edinburgh Napier University, her HRMPR from the University of South Africa, is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (FCIPD) and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (MCIPP).
She joined the University of Manchester in March 2022 to oversee People & OD Operations and Reward during a transformation programme and was appointed as Head of People & OD Operations & Reward in March 2023. Prior to moving to Manchester, and a short spell in Reward & Benefits for Arsenal Football Club, Hazel has worked in Higher Education for 14 years, and has amassed experience in all areas of Human Resources over 25 years, working in South Africa, the Middle East, Scotland, and England.
Let's open the door to be open and frank about navigating the changes midlife throws at us and how we can support this wellbeing challenge, especially from a Reward & Benefits portfolio. We're offering an insightful and inclusive session that addresses the impact of menopause and midlife crisis in the workplace — a crucial but often overlooked time of both men's and women's health. Key topics will include understanding this phase at work and how you can create a supportive workplace culture to support all colleagues. Aiming to break taboo subjects, enable the voice to be raised and explore best practices that are being initiated, and how these may offer ideas for participants to take away.
I joined Jisc four years ago in a newly created role to design and implement the first reward and recognition strategy and support organisation and culture change. Key projects have included new pay & grading framework with a market led pay approach, introducing flexible benefits and total reward design and transforming reward and HR communications to support harmonisation and culture change. Previously I have 20 years years experience in senior reward roles in the private sector including financial services, healthcare, aviation and through consultancy work. I am also a non-executive director for Trafford Leisure with a focus on people and communications.
In this session we will look at the challenges faced by Jisc and how we developed and implemented a new reward and recognition strategy to enhance and communicate our employee value proposition (EVP) and support harmonisation, attract talent from other sectors and support transformation to a ‘One Jisc’ culture.
I have a HR and legal background specialising in Reward strategy, Pensions and Employee Benefits. I have had the opportunity of working at Coca-Cola and British Airways where my experience included implementing critical reward projects, including pensions auto-enrolment, health care, flexible benefits, Total Reward Statements, wellbeing programmes and share plans. I have been working in the legal and Reward industry for the last 15 plus years and have had the opportunity to work on both wider reward pensions and benefits projects.
I sat on the Law society D&I committee for 3 years and also led the Gender Pay GAP review in my various roles. I regular attend and speak at industry events such the Benefits expert events, Employee benefits and Professional Pensions.
Since joining SAGA , I have been given the opportunity of leading some Reward critical projects, including the Pensions change project, implementation of the benefits and Reward platform, the wellbeing agenda review and supporting on the Pensions agenda. I have had some good exposure with senior leaders in the Business, been able to internally network to build key relationships across Legal, Finance, Procurement and the People Team. Our focus is on delivering exceptional experiences for our colleagues.
· Financial wellbeing at work - It’s a must-have
· Why does financial wellbeing remain such an important topic?
· Evaluating your financial wellbeing strategy – five red flags and what to do about them
· What should employers consider when offering help?
Session brief:
The economic impacts of the pandemic, the Ukraine conflict, global supply chain problems and sharply rising food and energy prices are reverberating across the world in a cost of living crisis that is plunging millions of people into poverty.
Financial concerns are also harming productivity. Recent CIPD research has found that in the UK over a quarter of employees say money worries affect their ability to do their job, rising to one in three admitting to a drop in productivity due to financial worries.
In this session, we will consider the current challenge of supporting employee financial wellbeing in the context of the cost of living crisis. We will consider why its important and why Employers are rightly concerned. Our round table discussions will encourage debate and discussions on this topic.
Rosemary has over 35 years’ experience of working in a wide variety of international industries where she has held Head of Reward positions - oil & gas (Texaco), container shipping & logistics (P&O Nedlloyd), luxury retail (Burberry), financial services (Legal & General) and she currently is Group Head of Reward for the global professional recruiting company Hays.
She was a member of the Government's Money and Pensions Association (“MaPS” and previously known as the Money Advice Service) Steering Committee charged with looking at how to increase the financial capability of working people across the UK. Their analysis report was published in 2021.
She is also a co-opted member of the Remuneration Committee for the London Metropolitan University.
In September 2018 her first book was published called “What’s Your Excuse for Not Getting Your Dream Job?” She gives talks on the changing world of work and the importance of maintaining skills, personal branding and networking.
She regularly speaks on the value of employee “wellbeing”, especially employee financial confidence, and emphasises the importance of bringing employee benefits to life. She is particularly interested in how employee benefits need to evolve to meet new social and economic pressures on employees.
Throughout her career Rosemary has taken an active interest in ESG, actively running or supporting projects that complement companies’ businesses and give back to society. She wrote a series of LinkedIn blogs on the single-use plastics problem. She set up Helping For Your Tomorrow, a global programme across Hays to ensure its volunteering and charity work is aligned to its Social Purpose of helping to lift the employability of people who may not have the same advantages as others. In previous companies she has run work-placements for people with disabilities and ran a project that raised over USD 1 million to build a children’s home and classroom in the townships of South Africa, and a sensory room as a safe space for children who are deaf-blind in Uganda.
Outside of work she is mum to a “Millennial” son and a “Gen-Z” daughter and so has first hand experience of the challenges they face.
If you work in reward, there are many issues we have to consider. These range from the socio-economic issues that can affect our employees outside of work and prevent them from giving their best inside work, to new legislation, regulations and corporate governance, to ensuring we have the right incentives that motivate the right behaviours and outcomes, to managing budgets in times of tough markets and doing more with less.
In this session, I will share the five things that “keep me awake at night” and discuss why they do, the potential actions that can be taken and outcomes. You will have time to discuss the burning issues you are dealing with, and we can share our experiences and expertise.
Please do come along if you are interested in Social Purpose, the EU Pay Transparency Directive, Pension versus Housing and finances, the future of flexible working and more.
I look forward to seeing you!
Speaker Programme
The Rewards & Benefits Summit programme consists of Strategy Group sessions – case study led presentations followed by Q&A and Action Learning workshops – key topic roundtable discussions.
If you have any recommendations for speakers or topics please email event.team@summit-events.com
Register your interest in the Rewards, Benefits & Wellbeing Summit 2024
5th-7th June 2023, Dolce-CampoReal, Lisbon
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
“As always the Reward & Benefits Summit never disappoints - 2 days of engaging thought provoking conversations with likeminded individuals as well as great seminars. Well worth the time spent!”
“This was my first Summit and I found the whole experience invaluable. Everyone I met, whether other delegates, guest speakers or suppliers provided different insights and experiences that I can use in the shaping of our future strategies. The event was exceptionally well organised and thoroughly enjoyable.”
