Stephen Gambles
Senior reward manager, Santander UK
Gambles has been a reward specialist for over 10 years. At Santander UK, he is responsible for employee benefits, share schemes and executive remuneration. Previously, he was head of reward and HR services for Alliance Medical. Gambles has also worked for Alliance and Leicester, and was involved in taking the bank through its acquisition by Santander. Prior to that, he was compensation and benefits manager for AAH Pharmaceuticals. He started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), where he held a number of reward roles.
Richard Higginson
Head of reward, Towry
Higginson has designed reward programmes for tea farms in East Africa, electricity firms in the Caribbean, oil palm plantations in Papua New Guinea, tobacco farms in South America and pharmaceutical factories in Europe and China. He has led compensation at CDC, the British government’s investment bank for the developing world, international assignments and policy at British American Tobacco, international benefits at GlaxoSmithKline, and now reward at wealth adviser Towry. Higginson won the Employee Benefits Award for ‘Most effective total reward strategy’ in 2010, and ‘Benefits team of the year’ in 2008.
Thomas Hiles
Benefits manager, BNP Paribas
Hiles joined the banking group in 2009. He manages all benefits and employee insurance arrangements, project management around mergers and acquisitions (M&A) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (Tupe), integration and harmonisation exercises, systems implementations, risk and change management. He has also implemented flexible benefits. Hiles moved to BNP Paribas from law firm CMS Cameron McKenna, where he managed the closure of the firm’s trust-based pension scheme and movement to a group personal pension. Previously, he was compensation and benefits manager at Bureau Veritas.Read also BNP Paribas banks on savings.
Ian Hodson
Reward and benefits manager, University of Lincoln
At the university, Hodson oversees all aspects of reward, including all employee benefits, pensions, payroll and role evaluation. He started his career in finance before moving into pay and benefits. His background covers both the public and private sector, having worked for Moy Park, Egg and Lincolnshire County Council. Hodson’s team was a category winner at the Employee Benefits Awards 2011.†
Read also Most effective benefits strategy in a public sector organisation.
Ken Horrocks
Reward manager, UK and Ireland, HJ Heinz Company
Horrocks joined Heinz in 2006 when the company acquired HP Foods from Danone. He is responsible for developing reward strategy. His role also includes management of the UK expatriate programme, long-term incentive plans, stock options, share incentive plans, flexible benefits, pensions, company cars and healthcare plans. Horrocks’ previous experience includes HR management at HP Foods. He started his career as a mechanical design engineer in the machine tool industry. Read also Heinz takes steps to manage high earners pensions tax changes.
Susan Hughes
Policy manager - UK pensions and benefits, BP
Hughes is a pensions and benefits specialist with over 20 years’ experience in the banking, broadcasting and energy sectors. At BP, which has more than 80,000 employees worldwide, Hughes manages company policy in respect of the UK pensions offer and is responsible for the benefits content and service delivery of the UK flexible benefits programme.
Read also Interview with Susan Hughes, policy manager of UK pensions and benefits at BP.
Thomas Humphris
Head office HR and UK reward director, Informa
Humphris began his HR career as an area HR manager for Boots the Chemist, responsible for all UK airport and train station stores. After 10 years at Boots, working in store management and HR, he left to become head of global HR for MMS International, a venture capital-backed business. After 18 months, the business was sold and Humphris integrated the business into the new parent company across 10 countries. He then moved to another venture capital-backed business, Snell and Wilcox, which manufactures broadcasting equipment. As head of HR, he worked across 11 countries before moving to Informa as HR director for its maritime and transport division. He has been at Informa for six years. Humphris’ team has won a number of industry awards relating to the UK employee benefits offering. Read also Informa focuses on workplace savings that suit its workforce.
Oli Husemeyer
Optimize Your Life (EMEA) and Emotional Wellbeing (global), Google
Husemeyer joined Google in 2010, having previously worked for Citi and BT. Formerly based in Belfast, New York, Singapore and Dublin, she is now UK-based and leads Google’s global Optimize Your Life programme for EMEA, which aims to support staff to become the ‘healthiest and happiest employees in the world’.
Breckon Jones
Director of health and benefits, EMEA, American Express
Jones is director of health and benefits in American Express’ global compensation and benefits team, with responsibility for the EMEA region. The organisation’s healthy living and wider benefits programme won the Employee Benefits Award for healthcare strategy in 2011. Jones joined American Express from Unilever, where he was employee health and wellness manager. Previously, he has worked with blue-chip firms in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region as a corporate wellness consultant, designing health, safety and wellness initiatives.
Caroline Jowett-Ive
Group vice-president reward, Travelport
Jowett-Ive joined Travelport in 2009 after five years with the Virgin Group, latterly as head of group reward. As a member of the HR leadership team, she leads a function based in the UK and US, which provides reward, compensation and benefits to employees in around 50 countries.
Read also Travelport migrates staff to single pension
Ethan Kelly-Wilson
UK HR manager, Epson Europe
Since January 2012, Kelly-Wilson has been UK HR manager at Epson Europe, supporting the UK senior management team. He also has accountability for payroll and benefits services across EMEA, supporting Epson’s businesses across Europe. In his previous role at the Institution of Civil Engineers, Kelly-Wilson implemented a number of pension and benefits changes, including the closure of defined benefit and money purchase pension schemes. In 2011, the ICE won the Employee Benefits Award for ‘Most effective pensions strategy’ as well as the CIPD People Management Award for ‘Performance and reward’. Read also Interview with Ethan Kelly-Wilson, group head of HR operations at Institution of Civil Engineers.
Sally Kennedy UK HR manager, Yazaki Europe
Kennedy has held the role of UK HR manager for Yazaki Europe since 2007, when she joined from Pilkington Automotive, where she had managed the start-up HR function for a joint venture based in China. Before that, she held HR management roles in the public sector and specialist HR roles in the private sector in the areas of training, development and recruitment. Kennedy was a key member of the Yazaki UK management team during the 2009 recession. In July 2011, its group personal pension plan was improved, along with a company-backed salary sacrifice contribution option.
Rosemary Lemon
Group head of reward and executive remuneration, Legal and General
Lemon has over 25 years’ experience working in business and HR, particularly with respect to remuneration and benefits. She has worked in FTSE 100 companies and a wide range of industries including oil and gas, container shipping and logistics, luxury retail and financial services.
Zara Loughrey
UK head of HR, Pall Europe
Loughrey has over 18 years’ experience in HR and reward. Before joining Pall Europe, she worked at Eli Lilly, NATS and VT Group, among others. Career highlights include executive compensation management, introducing broadbanding, implementing flexible benefits and share plans, developing employee communications and managing pension changes.
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