RSS feed
Retail Bulletin Conferences Calendar of Events 2007 Home

Speakers

 

Amanda Cox, Head of People George

I joined ASDA in 2000, having previously had a store manager career with Marks and Spencer after graduating in 1990 from Huddersfield University.

I have worked across many areas of the business during my time with ASDA, starting my time in stores as a General Store Manager and then moving into the HR role through becoming a Regional People Manager before going into ASDA House to head up our diversity agenda.

I never cease to be amazed that in very different areas of the business our colleagues really are the fundamental difference to any other business I have worked in. They are "Simply the Best", with a great passion for all of our products, our customers and with a real desire to win. This is what sets Asda and George apart from anyone else.

I currently head up the People Team at George, responsible for delivering a people plan that is centric to the delivery of the operational plan.

I have a six year old boy Joshua, who keeps me busy outside of work.

Asda has been flexible enough for me to combine hard work with fun and a sense of priority for my family. It continues to provide a real and exciting challenge and it is always great to be part of a leading and winning team.

Ben Bengougam, Former Group Director of Human Resources, DSG international plc

Ben Bengougam was appointed in April 2006 to the position of Group Director of Human Resources at DSGi plc. His responsibilities include the development and execution of the Group’s people strategies through the leadership of a talented, diverse and increasingly international multi-branded team of HR business partners. The most critically important part of his role is the management of talent development for the Group to enable its growth.

Previously, Ben had spent 11 years with Forte International Hotels in various operational and human resource management roles.

He then held successive positions as HR Director Utell International, Executive Vice President HR at Resolutions Inc based in Phoenix Arizona and Executive VP HR at Pegasus Systems Inc based in Dallas Texas.

Ben has worked around the world and lived in France, Italy, North Africa, the UK and the US.

He is a BSC engineering science graduate and subsequently obtained a Master's Degree in Human Resources Development.

Lee Rhoden, Head of Retail Recruitment, Sainsbury’s

Lee has nearly 20 years experience in Retail, 17 of which were at Marks & Spencer in a variety of roles most recently in HR specialising in recruitment.

Lee managed the eight recruitment response centres for Marks & Spencer before consolidating to one HR Shared Service Centre in Manchester. He managed the Marks & Spencer online recruitment project launched in 2004 before taking on the role of Head of Recruitment.

Lee joined Sainsbury’s in 2006 to head up the Retail Resourcing function where he has recently implemented the Sainsbury’s online recruitment system for all roles from entry level to senior management incorporating in-house designed Situational Judgement Tests. He is currently Head of Resourcing for Sainsbury’s.

Edel Conway, Head of Talent, Somerfield PLC

Edel Conway joined Somerfield as Head of Talent in 2007.  Her role means she looks after the talent and recruitment function at Somerfield and manages the relationship the grocery chain has with Profiles, its recruitment outsource partner.  She is also responsible for helping to drive colleague retention for the supermarket and for enhancing the employment brand in the external market place.

Prior to joining Somerfield Edel worked for HBOS in its insurance and investment division, and for Diageo, the global premium drinks company, where she was responsible for developing and implementing recruitment, retention and talent strategies.

Somerfield employs more than 42,000 people in locations all around the UK. Its head office is in Bristol.

Geraldine Grainger, Head of Learning and Development, John Lewis

Geraldine has spent most of her career with John Lewis in head office HR after joining as a graduate trainee in department stores. Various roles including Head of Training and Head of Management Development, led to her current role of Head of Learning and Development. In this capacity she has revised the performance management framework used in John Lewis department stores - a framework based on desired behaviours with resulting performance measures and appraisals to which a new approach to 'pay banding' was then joined.

Last year the rollout of 'horizons' began; a holistic development programme for all Partners in branches. A large increase in the scale of the business is now underway - around 8 new branches in the next 5 years and the L&D team is focussed on delivering the succession pipeline and enabling the high level of performance that will guarantee its continuing success.

Paul Bissell, Head of Rewards, Nationwide Building Society

Paul has worked in Financial Services for more than 30 years, firstly in retail banking and then in HR. For more than a decade he has been a reward specialist. He is a Companion of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and has a Masters Degree in the Management of Human Resources. He is also a former Vice President – Rewards of the CIPD, a current member of the CIPD Nominations and Professional Policy Committee as well as a member of the CIPD rewards forum, Rewards Faculty and Vice Presidents Committee.

His role as Head of Rewards, involves responsibility for all aspects of the fixed and variable package throughout the Nationwide Group. This includes executive remuneration, base pay, salary management systems, bonus schemes, marketplace matching, flexible benefits, total remuneration statements, organisational design, job evaluation, performance management, fair pay auditing and recognising loyalty. His work has won many awards for innovation, communication, diversity and use of new technologies from professional bodies and the Government.

To achieve this challenging agenda Paul works closely with his team of 10 specialists, as well as with colleagues in Employee Engagement, Learning and Development, the Business Partners and Senior Managers throughout the business.

Outside interests, other that spending valuable time with his family, he enjoys Formula 1, golf and photography.

Dan Kerkel, Head of Corporate Development, QVC UK

As Head of Corporate Development, Dan is responsible for developing QVC’s future capability and ensuring that QVC staff have the skills needed for today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. Dan and his team of four focus on developing the overall business strategy and maintaining a vibrant culture. Dan joined QVC US in January 1997 and moved to the UK in April 1999.

Dan served in the US Marines Corps where he was trained in Electrical Engineering. He then worked for technology focused businesses in progressive management roles including manufacturing of precision electrical devices, quality control, reliability engineering, R&D, and strategic management.

Donna Miller, European Human Resources Director, Enterprise rent a car

Donna Miller oversees all aspects of people development for Enterprise in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany, which includes more than 4,700 employees. In her 18 years with the company, she has been instrumental in the recruitment growth for Enterprise in the U.S., Canada and Europe and now serves as one of the company’s officers.

Like the majority of Enterprise’s officers, Donna began her career at Enterprise in the company’s Management Training program. In 1991, Donna was leading the human resources and recruitment efforts for one of the Southern California regions.

In 1997, Donna was promoted to the position of Group Human Resources Manager for the New York/New Jersey area of the country. In 1999, she was promoted to Corporate Human Resources Manager, and moved to Enterprise’s corporate headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri. There, Donna provided support and assistance to Enterprise operating groups in Canada. After one year, she moved to a similar role to work with European operations. In 2002, Donna was promoted to the position of Assistant Vice President/HR Director of Enterprise’s human resources operations in Europe.

Donna sits on the boards of the Association of Graduate Recruiters as well as Dress for Success.

Chrissie Herbert, Director of HR and Quality Management, Travelodge Hotels Ltd

Chrissie joined Travelodge in September 2003 from House of Fraser where she had worked for over five years in a variety of senior positions. Since joining Travelodge, Chrissie has developed and implemented a number of high profile HR initiatives including the development of the UK’s first degree in Budget Hotels and Retail Management, a twelve week fast track to management programme and the company’s first ever graduate scheme. Chrissie’s team has also pioneered a job centre plus scheme for the hotel industry that places the long term unemployed back into work with the budget chain. Following successful London trials, the scheme is now being rolled out nationwide to Travelodge and other leading hospitality businesses.

As Director of HR and Service Quality, one of Chrissie’s key responsibilities is the recruiting of 10,000 new employees the company requires to staff its ambitious expansion target of 1,000 hotels by 2020. As well as heading up the HR team she is also responsible for the customer service function at Travelodge’.

John O'Donnell, HR Director, Kwik Fit

John started his career in food retail in 1978 with Argyll Foods Ltd. Over the next 10 years John held various operational management roles before moving to Texas Home Care which in turn was taken over by Sainsbury Homebase. After a successful retail career John moved into HR and on to Kwik-Fit.

Over the last 12 years John has been very hands on, starting off in Kwik-Fit insurance services call centre as an HR Officer. This role dealt mainly with recruitment and employee relations issues. John progressed to the role of HR Manager in July 2000 for Silver Shield Windscreens, a subsidiary of Kwik-Fit. In this role John successfully managed to half the training costs whilst increasing the availability of training. With the takeover by CVC venture capitalists in 2003, John then progressed to Kwik-Fit Headquarters as HR Manager for UK Operations. This role supported all Kwik-Fit UK Operations including Fleet and Mobile managing employee relations with the Transport and General workers Union now UNITE.

John successfully managed a downsizing operation in reducing from over 900 UK centres to 650 whilst maintaining an excellent relationship with the unions. This also included an operational restructure removing a layer of field based management to produce a flatter structure and reduce costs. In 2005 John managed a project team to update the company’s HR & payroll systems. This was successfully implemented in November 2006.

In December 2006 John managed the recruitment of Service Technicians from Eastern Europe this took place in Warsaw over 4 days using a local recruitment company to provide candidates. In February 2007 the fist recruits arrived in the UK and were inducted into Kwik-Fit.

In April 2007 John was appointed Head of HR. Since then the HR team has been restructured and the business now benefits with the introduction of a Shared HR Service including payroll. Following on from the introduction of a New HR & Payroll system John is currently implementing self service HR across the business with the introduction of workflow to manage transactional HR processes along with the implementation of online recruitment via the Kwik-Fit website

Joanna Ansell, Director of Human Resources and Customer Service, Figleaves.com

Joanna is an international HR and Customer Service Director interested in driving business success in extreme growth or change situations in high-tech industries through people with a focus on organization and management capability and customer engagement.

Graduating with a BA (Hons) in French and European Studies at Keele University, Joanna started her career in the recruitment industry where she specialized in headhunting finance professionals across Europe. Moving into an HR role with Amazon.com as they entered the European market, Joanna worked in the UK, France, The Netherlands and Japan. After four and a half years, she moved to Progress Software where she supported 14 countries across EMEA in a time of significant change, managing acquisition integration and organizational re-design. Whilst at Progress Software she gained an MBA from the University of Surrey specializing through her dissertation on growth strategies in the Software industry. Currently HR and Customer Service Director at figleaves.com, she is part of the Leadership team building the business and driving change to enable it to move from ‘adolescence to adulthood'.

When she is not doing this, Joanna enjoys skiing, scuba-diving and travelling with her husband and friends.

Audrey Williams, Partner - Head of Diversity & Discrimination Law, Eversheds LLP

Audrey advises on all aspects of contentious and non contentious employment law, undertaking work on behalf of employees and employers. She has a particular interest and expertise in discrimination, harassment, equal pay and disability discrimination. Whilst the majority of Audrey's work is conducted on behalf of employers, she has represented employees in a number of key discrimination cases, including one of the first transsexual discrimination cases and undertakes cases for the Equal Opportunities Commission in Wales.

Her retail work has included:

She has particular experience of undertaking advocacy in large and complex tribunal cases on unfair dismissal and discrimination. Frequently undertaking reviews of equal opportunities, maternity, harassment, discipline, grievance and counselling policies, Audrey has assisted clients in providing training to establish these policies within the work place. She has advised the State of Guernsey on the introduction of new sex discrimination laws.

Audrey's equality expertise means that she has advised on a variety of policy and management issues including aspects of equal pay, specific cases, claims and grievances; reviewing salary appointment policy in light of potential challenges which may arise; managing disability issues and related ill health concerns in respect of staff; internal grievances and external claims of race discrimination. She has given evidence to the EOC’s Task Force on Equal Pay and has advised the CBI on the new Age Discrimination Regulations and trained the Northern Ireland Tribunal Chairman and Panel Members on age discrimination, in anticipation of new cases.

Audrey regularly speaks at conferences and seminars and has written a number of books for Croner Publications and Jordans on aspects of employment law. Audrey has also commissioned a report for Thorogood Publishing Limited on Flexible Working.

Gordon Gilkison, Product Director, WorkPlace Systems

Gordon has been involved in Retail workforce management for the last 20 years. He started his career in Asda, where he implemented their first scheduling system and then branched out as self employed consultant working with retailers such as Woolworth. In 1994 he joined WorkPlace Systems and has been involved in a number of UK and international Workforce management projects with retailers including; Gateway, Vroom and Dreesmann, Hema, Ethel Austin, Littlewoods, House of Frazer, Woolworths South Africa. In his current role Director of Product Management, he is responsible for the overall direction of WorkPlace’s Retail offering.

Stuart Fisher, Principal, Kurt Salmon Associates

Stuart has over 20 years of industry and consulting experience. In the mid 80s he worked with Metal Box on worldwide R&D projects before entering the healthcare sector in a supplier development capacity working with both Dexter Corporation and Glaxo Smith Kline. In 1994, Stuart started consulting in the packaging sector, delivering supply chain, product and operational design projects across Europe and the USA. He joined Bristol Myers four years later to simplify and significantly improve the consumer healthcare supply chain. Since 2000, Stuart has worked as a Principal with Boxwood Group and then run his own business, primarily focused on retail sector performance improvement. He joined KSA recently as a Principal and brings with him a strong pedigree in leading and successfully delivering improvement programmes for organisations such as Sainsburys and IKEA.