Speakers

Howard Kerr
Chief Executive at BSI Group

Howard Kerr was appointed to the Board in November 2008 and assumed the position of Chief Executive in January 2009. After a period at Associated British Ports, his early career was spent in business development roles in the fields of shipping, logistics and B2B marketing with Inchcape PLC in the UK, Japan, China and the Middle East.  Subsequently he joined SHV Holdings NV, where he held general management positions in the energy division, including Chief Executive of Calor Group Ltd, UK, and Senior Vice-President on the International Management Board of SHV Gas in the Netherlands.

Susan Bookbinder
Journalist and Broadcaster  

Susan is an experienced media trainer and presenter who can currently be heard on British Forces Broadcasting around the world. She was part of Barclay's small business campaign, while her media training clients include the likes of Goldman Sachs. She presented the early morning business slot on LBC 97.3 before Nick Ferrari. Prior to this, Susan was at BBC Radio Five Live, where she presented a huge range of stories from live coverage of the impeachment of President Clinton to the British and American air-strikes against Iraq.

Helena Morrissey DBE
Financier, campaigner and author 

Helena Morrissey is one of the best-known woman leaders in the City, having served as CEO of Newton Investment Management for fifteen years. She is the author of A Good Time to be a Girl a call to build on existing achievements to drive towards a truly inclusive and equal society. She is also founder of the 30% Club which campaigns for equality in the boardroom and champions equal opportunities for women in business.

Before joining Newton, Helena started her career with asset management firm Schroder’s in New York. She returned to London with Newton, working as a fund manager before being appointed CEO, during which time she oversaw a doubling of their asset portfolio.

Helena draws on experiences from throughout her career to talk about the financial sector, gender equality, and change. Witness to the lack of women in boardrooms for many years, Helena founded the 30% Club in 2010, based on research that minority groups will only be heard once their voices represent at least one-third of those in the room. Since the Club’s inception, the number of women on the boards of FTSE 100 companies has doubled, and Helena has become a prominent voice in combating gender imbalance in the corporate world. The 30% Club has expanded globally, with branches across Asia, Africa, and the Americas, and has incorporated schools in an attempt to improve gender balance “from schoolroom to boardroom”.

Twice named by Bloomberg as one of the 50 most influential people in global finance, Helena’s influence has spread beyond finance and the City and she was also listed by Fortune magazine as one of the world’s 50 greatest leaders. As well as regularly contributing to print and broadcast media on women in business and gender equality more widely, she has been a guest editor on Radio 4’s Today programme.

Dr Andrew Swift
CEO of Fera Science Ltd

Andrew joined Capita in August 2015 in the role of CEO of Fera Science Ltd (Fera) responsible for all aspects of its business, in support of Defra and its affiliates as well as its commercial services. Early work has focussed upon the transition to public-private-partnership and setting and implementing its growth strategy. Fera successfully led the consortium bid for the new UK Agri-Tech centre in Crop Health and Protection (CHAP Ltd) where now serves on its Board.

Andrew joined Fera from Intertek where he built its global Lifesciences Division over the previous decade. He returned to the UK after 3 years in the Middle East where he led the strategic development for all Intertek’s services in the region. Both of his degrees are from the University of Manchester and he is a graduate of the London Business School Executive Development programme.

Ben Ngobi
Global Procurement Sustainability Lead, Accenture

Ben Ngobi leads Accenture’s Global Procurement Sustainability, as well as its Northern Europe Supplier Inclusion & Diversity programs. Ben is responsible for the strategy to embed environmental, social and governance factors into purchasing decisions, working closely with multiple stakeholders in the company.

Ben was responsible for enhancing Accenture’s approach to small and medium enterprise supplier engagement. In addition, he is helping establish initiatives that support reporting of progress on Modern Slavery and human rights, as well as the new corporate goals around Science-Based Targets.

Claire Douglas
Head of Occupational Health, SCS Railways

Claire is Head of Occupational Health for SCS Railways, a joint construction venture, helping to build the HS2 Railway.  Overseeing Occupational Health provision, the SCS Wellbeing program and working with the Design and Construction teams to reduce exposure to health risks, she sets the Health and Wellbeing Strategy for the project.

Prior to working at SCS, Claire was European Manager of Health and Wellbeing at the global technology company Pitney Bowes. Here she set up a team of Wellbeing Champions who helped to roll out a dynamic wellbeing program, including a global resilience workshop.  Resilience, Mental Health First Aid and a Stress Management strategy, (used as a case study by the HSE), were also introduced by Claire in her role as Occupational Health Manager (Strategy) for the John Lewis Partnership, where she worked for seven years.

During a long and varied career in Occupational Health and Wellbeing, Claire has worked in a number of industries including the Film Industry, Pharmaceutical, and Engineering. Mental Health has been a particular area of interest and Claire gained a Doctorate for her research into Adapting to Organisational Culture, looking at resilience and adaptation. 

David Denyer
Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change, Cranfield School of Management 

David worked for the management consulting group of Mouchel before joining Cranfield in 2002.

David is Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change and Director of Research at Cranfield School of Management. He has published a large number of important and highly cited articles and book chapters. He is strongly committed to, and has a significant track record of, developing the next generation of researchers. 

David is a founding member of the International Evidence-based Management Collaborative. In 2009 he obtained a prestigious Advanced Institute of Management Research Fellowship. David has a significant track record of successfully delivering research projects funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research Service Delivery and Organization and the private sector. David works with organizations to build capabilities of change, leadership, resilience and high reliability. He helps senior leaders in a wide range of organizations to establish strategic direction and deliver sustained performance improvement. David designs, facilitates and delivers compelling learning events for senior executives. He was voted HR magazine's 2012 "Most Influential UK Thinker".  In October 2016, David became a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

David Hawkins
Chief Operating Officer and Knowledge Architect, Institute of Collaborative Working  

David has an extensive career in projects and procurement within the construction and manufacturing industries. For over 40 years he has been associated with the development and implementation of major projects in many parts of the world, which has provided an insight into the many organisational and cultural challenges that projects and global operations can generate. He has been an active promoter of collaborative concepts and the development of extended enterprises through the building of alliances. He is the architect of the CRAFT programme, the technical author of the British Standards Institutions’ PAS 11000 collaborative business relationship standard, world first published in 2006 and chairman of the BSI committee that developed BS 11000, published in October 2010. He is currently Chairman of the International standards committee that that published ISO 44001 in 2017. In 2009 he was recognised as one of the top 100 thought leaders on CSR and he has a number of publications to his credit.

Ian O'Donnell
Non Operational Director, FSB  

Ian joined FSB as a member in 2002. His previous roles have included Regional Chair, National Councillor and he has also lead on West Midlands policy. A firm believer in FSB’s mission to help smaller businesses achieve their ambitions, Ian is keen to support FSB’s objective to be the voice for small businesses in the UK.

Ian has been invited on a number of occasions to the Houses of Parliament and 10 Downing Street to advocate on behalf of small businesses in the region on topics ranging from transport networks to increased broadband for rural communities. Ian also represents FSB and small businesses on the Business Advisory Group set up by the West Midlands Mayor, Andy Street.

His work with FSB and dedication to his local community in many other voluntary roles led to Ian being awarded an MBE in 2015.

Ian started his business Real Point in 1994 and is now the director of two small businesses, which provide technical support to business as well as design and in-house technical delivery for small and large organisations in the public and private sectors. Through Real Point’s training arm, he delivers training and consultancy in social media and online marketing, and is also a part-time lecturer (on entrepreneurship and online marketing) at Coventry University.

James Bird

Security Director, Intelligence & Operations, International SOS

Globally responsible for running the integrated assistance and analysis facets to International SOS’ security business. James overseas the 24/7 Regional Security Centres in London, Dubai, Philadelphia and Singapore and dedicated-language desks in China, Japan, Korea, Germany and France, in business as usual and crisis phases and leads on the development and enhancement of the global analysis and assistance network.

Previous to this, he worked for six years in various analytical, commercial and operational roles in International SOS’ Dubai Regional Security Centre. He was latterly responsible for the running and strategic direction of the 24/7 analysis and assistance functions for the Middle East, North-East and Southern Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia regions.

He has been focusing on issues pertaining to politics and security – especially those in the Middle East and North Africa – for ten years.

James has an undergraduate and a postgraduate degree in these fields and has travelled extensively on consultancy and research throughout  these regions.

James previously worked as a Middle Eastern Analyst for a British Risk Management company and worked on both development and security issues in the public sector. 

John Foster
Director of Campaigns, CBI 

John leads on the CBI’s political engagement, policy coordination and the organisation’s work on the EU negotiations and Value of Business campaign.

John joined the CBI in August 2015 as the Head of the CBI’s flagship campaign on public trust, the Great Business Debate before moving to become the CBI’s Head of Campaigns in June 2016.

Prior to joining the CBI, John worked as a Special Adviser in the Coalition Government, including as Director of Policy Implementation and Innovation for the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, as well as in the Treasury as a Special Adviser to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Sir Danny Alexander.

Kate Cooper MBA; MEd, BSc, PGCE, PG Dip, FInstLM, FCILG
Head of Research, Policy and Standards, Institute of Leadership and Management

Kate joined the Institute after a career in a university business school where she led the Management, Strategy and Leadership group, she is a regular commentator on television, radio, records a weekly podcast, is a columnist in Dialogue and Edge journals and frequent speaker at conferences in UK and abroad on a range of topics arising from the Institute’s research agenda.

Simon Jones

Senior Consultant at Chime Communications

Simon specializes in strategic communications and reputation management for governments, corporations, organizations and individuals around the world. Over the course of the last 20 years he has advised chief executives and chairs of global organisations, in addition to managing complex and global communications campaigns for some of the world’s leading brands (including Barclays, BBC, BSkyB, Coca Cola, Facebook, Vodafone.) Simon is a lead consultant advising clients across Chime with expertise spanning international relations, communications strategy, crisis communications and reputation management.

Sonya Bhonsle
Global Head of Supply Chain, CDP

Sonya Bhonsle is the Global Head of CDP’s Supply Chain program which enables major multinationals and governments to achieve sustainable supply chains, influencing over US$3.3 trillion in annual procurement spend. Sonya has over 14 years of Sustainable Supply Chain experience, both in the public and private sector. Over the last few years she has specialised experience on Scope 3, setting and meeting scope 3 targets (including science-based targets), as well as setting and meeting water security and deforestation related supply chain goals.

Stephen Phipson
Chief Executive, Make UK

Stephen Phipson is the Chief Executive of Make UK, the representative voice of UK manufacturing. Stephen previously held the position of Head of the Defence and Security Organisation within the Department for International trade delivering support to UK defence and security businesses seeking to export and develop joint ventures and partnerships overseas, as well as to overseas defence and security businesses seeking to invest in the UK.

Prior to this,  Stephen held the position of Director for Security Industry Engagement within the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism at the Home Office where he was the Senior Responsible Owner within government for the UK security industry and had responsibility for securing a new generation of G2G security agreements with priority overseas partner nations.

In addition to senior roles within the UK Government, Stephen has spent 35 years in industry and has held senior roles within the Electronics, Defence and Security industries. He was Chief Executive of Stadium Group plc and prior to this spent 15 years with Smiths Group plc latterly as President of Smiths Detection, one of the world’s leading threat detection businesses, exporting to more than 100 Government agencies around the World.

Will Butler
Group Marketing and Innovation Director, ERA

Will Butler is Group Marketing and Innovation Director at ERA Home Security. Through partnership with UniKey, Will has led ERA into smart locking, building on over 180 years of heritage securing Britain's homes. He joined ERA through its 2012 acquisition of an architectural hardware business where he was Managing Director and had led a significant business transformation. Prior to this, Will spent 6 years in brand strategy and innovation consultancy, delivering projects for clients ranging from O2 and GlaxoSmithKline to Unilever and Mars. He has also established a successful consumer insight business. Will began his career as an Analyst in the Technology Practice at Russell Reynolds Associates, a global executive search firm. He has an MA in Modern History from Oxford University.