|
Speakers Speakers already confirmed for the event include:
If you would like to speak at this event, please contact Carl Goodman on 0151 707 9522 or email carlg@theretailbulletin.com Anne McCafferty: Head of Retail HR, Best Buy UK
Anne McCafferty has been a HR professional working for Best Buy, Inc (US) for over 8 years with the last 3 years opening new markets in Mexico and now the UK. She has 25 years of Retail experience with the majority spent in Retail Management at all levels. Anne crossed over to HR 8 years ago when she found her strength in coaching leaders and building strong leadership teams was her passion. Her MBA is in Leadership and she has a HR certification from Wharton School of Business. Currently, Anne is the Head of Retail HR for Best Buy UK for the last year and enjoying every minute of it! Best Buy Europe is the umbrella company under which Best Buy UK, Carphone Warehouse and Geek Squad operate. Best Buy is the largest consumer electronics company in the world with over 155,000 employees. Right now Best Buy UK is focused on getting stores open for spring 2010 and is looking over the next 5 years to employee up to 8000 employees. Anette Middlebrook, Group Human Resources Director, Clinton Cards Group
Her primary objective is to deliver the People Strategy across the Group, driving improvement in key performance indicators. Operating in a changing retail climate, a key focus has been embedding significant business and cultural change to forge the link between profitability, enhanced performance and people development. Annette has responsibility for HR, Training & Development and Health & Safety and is committed to the framework and principles of Investors In People as a benchmark to give all members of the team equal opportunities. She is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development Ryan Cheyne, Head of HR, Pets at Home Ltd
Pets at Home are the UK’s leading specialist pet care retailer with more than 250 stores across the UK and more than 4500 colleagues. Since joining Pets at Home, Ryan and his team have helped develop a colleague and customer focused culture that has seen Labour Turnover rates fall dramatically and engagement levels soar. Pets at Home were named Retail Employer of the Year in 2008 by The Retail Bulletin, have gained accreditation by Best Companies and won the Customer Service Initiative of the Year at the 2009 Retail Week Awards. Their stated business aim is “To become a Truly Amazing Place to Work” Liz Bramley, Head of Employee Engagement & Diversity, The Co-operative Group
The Co-operative Group is the largest employer to achieve accreditation as a 2009 Top 50 Best Workplace by the Great Place to Work institute. Liz’s career began in 1997 as a graduate trainee Chartered Management Accountant. Following qualification and a series of rapid promotions, she joined The Co-operative Group in 2002 as a commercial Finance Manager. In 2004, Liz moved out of Finance to become Co-ordinating Analyst to the Group Chief Executive. After two successful years, where she gained a rich variety of business experience to complement an MBA from Manchester Business School, Liz chose to pursue her interest in organisational change; joining the Group Communications and Engagement team. Liz was appointed Head of Employee Engagement in January 2008 and extended her responsibility to Diversity during 2009. Nick Rowe, Group Head of Learning and Development, Punch Taverns
Nick Rowe has worked for the Punch Group for 3 years and prior to this he has worked within the Retail, Banking and Telecommunications sector. Nick has responsibility for Learning and Development across the Group and his key focus has been embedding change and Leadership to enable the business to transition from a strategy of acquisition and growth to Operational Excellence and organic growth. He has a wide range of interests and has held several non-executive positions in the last 10 years within the arts and culture sector Rowena Cooper, Retail Recruitment Manager - Wm Morrison Supermarkets PlcSince joining Morrisons as a Consultant in 2007, Retail Resourcing Manager, Rowena Cooper has played a pivotal role in transforming the retailer’s resourcing strategy. Her responsibilities include tactical management and development of the full resourcing lifecycle for the UK based estate. Her areas of focus comprise of Retail Operations, Projects, Developments, Pharmacy, Security, HR and Acquisitions. Her focus on customer service and continuous improvement embraces the Morrisons’ Vision and Values, including its Logistics and Manufacturing Divisions. Her understanding of the need for simplistic and phased change is central to Morrisons’ Talent strategy. Prior to joining Morrisons, she was Recruitment Manager at Northern Foods Plc, then the UK’s second largest Food Manufacturer. Driving recruitment for 19 Chilled and Frozen Food Factories, Rowena helped shape the resourcing function for the Group. Rowena spent the early years of her career specialising in IT and Finance Recruitment, holding various resourcing positions including with Internal Resourcing Team at QAS now, part of the Experian Group Ben Zifkin, co-founder of Axsium
Alison Harter, Sales and Marketing Director - de Poel
In March 2008 Alison was promoted to Sales & Marketing Director where she hopes to use her wealth of industry experience to take the division to the next phase of its development. Lee Evans, Group Recruitment Manager for New Look Retailers
Lee sources talent for HO vacancies across two main sites: Weymouth and London (following the relocation of the commercial teams in 2009) and covers the whole Head Office population. Coming from a shopfloor background with Sainsburys, Lee diversified into merchandise planning with TK Maxx before embarking on a career in recruitment in 2003. Lee spent 3 years as a recruiter with Hudson working primarily on retail operations roles for major UK and International clients before joining New Look as Recruitment Manager. Lee has been instrumental in driving the direct sourcing strategy and implemented New Look’s first careers site and ATS. Neil Maltby, Productivity Manager, DSG International PLC.Neil Maltby has more than 20 years experience in retail, having held positions with well-known UK High Street names, including Currys, Currys Digital, PC World and Iceland Frozen Foods. With the clear ability to translate between Operations and Finance Neil understands how software solutions impact the bottom line. As Productivity Manager Neil is responsible for the delivery of the Scheduling system to the end users and working with the Central Teams to improve and develop the way in which the scheduling system interacts with all other aspects of the business. This includes how it underpins shaping the commercial plan and supporting structures and processes, whilst making sure that best practice is shared amongst the end users. Additionally, Neil is responsible for the provision of training and support to the end users. Earlier, Neil held various roles over a 6 year period with Iceland Frozen Foods. Matthew Lewis, Head of Employment, Leeds, HammondsMatthew Lewis is head of Hammonds’ employment practice in Leeds. His particular expertise covers all areas of employment law, both individual and collective, including TUPE, redundancies and restrictive covenants. Prior to becoming a solicitor, Matthew spent 6 years working in publishing. He is a poacher turned gamekeeper, as on qualification Matthew worked initially as a trade union lawyer. Matthew has previously worked in our London office. Matthew’s retail expertise includes providing day to day and strategic advice to Tesco and Claire’s Accessories. Matthew has been described as having a “real depth of specialism combined with an ongoing ability to apply this in a commercially focused and pragmatic format” Legal 500. Annabel Mace, Head of Business Immigration, HammondsAnnabel is head of Hammonds’ business immigration team which is part of the firm’s employment practice. With over 10 years’ experience in her field, she advises both corporate multi-national organisations including a number of high-street retailers. Annabel has a particular expertise in relation to the problematic overlap between immigration and employment law including the issues of illegal working, race discrimination and related dismissals. She also has extensive experience in the project management of transferring staff outside the UK. She speaks regularly at business immigration training sessions and is a member of the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association and Business in Sport and Leisure. The law relating to business immigration is now relevant to all employers, even those who are not actively seeking to employ migrant workers. The introduction of Civil Penalties by the UK Border Agency in February 2008 for businesses failing to carry out the relevant pre-employment document checks and annual follow-up checks (where necessary) has led to tens of millions of pounds in fines for all sizes of business in a wide range of sectors. For those who do need to sponsor migrant workers, registration as a Licensed Sponsor is obligatory and entails a number of onerous and administratively complex responsibilities. |
|
Annette has worked for the Clinton Cards Group for 9 years, culminating in her promotion to Group Human Resources Director in 2007. She has spent over 15 years in Human Resources and 12 years within a retail environment.
Ryan Cheyne, Head of HR, Pets at Home Ltd (winner of the 2008 Employer of the Year Award at the People in Retail Awards, named as Sunday Times Top 100 places to work and named as Employer of the Year at the Retail Week Awards)
Liz is responsible for the Employee Engagement and Diversity strategy across The Co-operative Group of businesses: - leading the management and development of a structured, strategic engagement and inclusion programme that is supporting successful cultural change and improvement across the group’s 6,000 high street locations, in close alignment with the revitalisation of The Co-operative brand.
Punch is the UK’s leading pub company with a portfolio of over 7,600 pubs within its leased and managed estates. Our vision is to be the pre-eminent pub group in the UK, lean, innovative and constantly striving to provide great service to our pubs, our Partners and our colleagues; driven by a passion for excellence in everything we do.
Ben Zifkin is a co-founder of Axsium, a global business and technology consulting firm dedicated to Workforce Management. As Axsium’s Partner in charge of International Operations, Mr. Zifkin has established a reputation for delivering quality solutions to many of the largest and most complex organisations throughout the world.
Alison Harter joined de Poel in August 2007 as PermPortTM Director. Alison has an impressive track record of success in senior leadership roles within the recruitment industry. Prior to joining de Poel she has worked for some of the industry's most notable companies including Harvey Nash Plc, TMP Worldwide and most recently Monster.co.uk, all at Director level. At Monster.co.uk, where Alison held the position of Strategic Business Development Director she was responsible for the largest single sale in Europe of £500,000 per annum.
Lee Evans is Group Recruitment Manager for New Look Retailers. New Look currently operates from 600+ stores in the UK & Eire. They also own a 300 store fashion chain in France called Mim. The group currently trades out of over a dozen countries internationally and further international expansion is planned on a large scale.
