Confirmed Judges

Our esteemed panel of judges for the Yorkshire HR Awards bring expertise and experience from all areas of business as well as being HR leaders. Each category is allocated three judges who will meet face to face with our finalists at the judging day.

Judges are being announced daily so check back for more announcements.

Roberta Barker, Cluster Director of People and Culture, Teva Pharmaceuticals
 Read more about Roberta

Jason Boyle, Chief People Office, Flutter
 Read more about Jason
Samantha Brook, Group HR Director, Severfield
 Read more about Samantha
Bernadette Bruton, CPO, Leeds Building Society
 Read more about Bernadette

Rob Blomfield, Head of Global Business Services, Burberry
 Read more about Rob

Richard Chambers, HR Director, GEOAmey
 Read more about Richard

Paul Cogan, Group Finance & Resources Director, Bettys & Taylors Group
 Read more about Paul
Caroline Cording, HRD, Mamas & Papas
 Read more about Caroline

Louise Demetriou, Neuro-based Executive Coach, Senior HR Consultant, Founder of Culture Code
 Read more about Louise

Andy Dodman, Chief HR Officer, Leeds City Council
 Read more about Andy
Rachel Hannan, Investor & Trainer, BHP & Others
 Read more about Rachel

Sarnjit Kaur, Chief People Officer, Cox Automotive Inc.
 Read more about Sarnjit

Simon Kingsnorth, Director of Optimal Human Resources Ltd.

Read more about Simon

Mandy Kirk-Smith, HR Director, Equiniti Group
 Read more about Mandy

Jack Latus, CEO, Latus Group
 Read more about Jack

James Mason, Chief Executive, West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce
 Read more about James
Kay McCormick, Head of Talent, Jet2
 Read more about Kay
Richard Moran, Senior Partner, Clarion
 Read more about Richard
Richard Morgan, Director, Nigel Wright Group
 Read more about Richard
Sue O’Donovan, Associate Director, Nigel Wright Group
 Read more about Sue
Helen Saunders, People Director, Clarion
 Read more about Helen

Katie Shaw, Head of People and Partnering, Store Ops & Property, M&S

Read more about Katie

Anne Shiels, Exec Coach and NED (Newcastle BS), AS Consulting

Read more about Anne

Mark Simpson, Group Executive Director, Nigel Wright Group
 Read more about Mark

Paul Sutherland, Commercial Director, nesma
 Read more about Paul

Charlotte Sweeney, Global DEI Consultant and Author 
 Read more about Charlotte

Sarah Tahamtani, Partner, Clarion
 Read more about Sarah

David Temperton, People Integration Director, Rathbones
 Read more about David

Neil Thomas, Director of People, Quorn
 Read more about Neil
Naomi Thompson, Director of Organisational Effectiveness, Benenden Health
 Read more about Naomi
Annabel Tonge, Director & Board Member, Q5
 Read more about Annabel
Gareth Whalley, Former global DEI leader at Coca-Cola and Levi’s
 Read more about Gareth

Roberta Barker, Cluster Director of People and Culture, Teva Pharmaceuticals

Roberta Barker is Cluster Director of People and Culture at Teva Pharmaceuticals where she is responsible for leading the people agenda and enhancing the culture within the TEVA business across the UK and Europe. She has a wealth of experience, gained in a number of high-profile and demanding businesses where she operated at the most senior level, to drive organisational and commercial objectives. Previously she was Global Director of Talent and OD (including HR) for Halma plc, where she had both an international remit and individual responsibility for the Keeler Ophthalmic division.

She has also worked extensively within the NHS as a consultant, taking accountability for roles including NHS Digital, Director of People and OD (Interim) and Yorkshire Ambulance Trust Director of Workforce and OD & Deputy CEO (Interim.) In addition, she was Director of People and OD at the Business Services Authority, which deals with over £32 billion of public spending on healthcare services and was Director of People and Performance at Japanese pharmaceutical innovator Daiichi Sankyo EMEA.

Prior to that, Roberta was Head of Learning & Development EMEA  at international sportswear giant NIKE, which was a good fit for her having previously achieved world champion status in swimming.

Yorkshire born and bred, Roberta is married and has two daughters, who share her love of swimming, both achieving success in their own right at an international level.

Jason Boyle, Chief People Office, Flutter

Jason is currently the People Director of Strategic Change at Flutter UKI.  Jason’s career spans over 35 years working in Senior Global and International HR roles across multiple sectors including Telecoms, Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, Management Consulting and Utilities.  He is a generalist and use to working in entrepreneurial, fast paced and changing environments where the people agenda is at the heart of the business

Samantha Brook, Group HR Director, Severfield

Samantha is a Group HRD with a passion to help organisations grow through supporting their people in realising their own potential. Her HR career spans over 25yrs in Manufacturing, Construction, Energy, Hospitality, Retail and Financial Services. The majority of her career has been spent in Yorkshire based businesses, she is currently the Group HR Director for Severfield Plc (the UK’s largest Structural Steel Specialist) and her previous HR leadership roles were in Drax Plc and the FTSE100 global chemical manufacturer Croda.

Samantha is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute or Personnel and Development.  She holds a Master’s Degree in Career Management from the University of London, and a Management Degree from Aston University.

Throughout her career Samantha has overseen all aspects of HR transformation from learning and development to reward, HR systems, diversity, engagement, talent and organisational design.

Bernadette Bruton, CFO, Leeds Building Society

Bernadette joined the Society in October attracted by our purpose, culture and ambition.  She has spent most of her career in financial services undertaking a variety of front-line roles in retail banking before making the switch to HR. She has held a number of executive HR roles across banking, insurance, technology and telecoms and has led a range of business change programmes. She has a broad HR background and expertise in talent, leadership and organisation effectiveness.

Rob Blomfield, Head of Global Business Services, Burberry PLC

Rob is the Head of Global Business Services for Burberry PLC. He has direct responsibility for operational Finance, HR, and Procurement, whilst also working closely with IT and Customer services who are co-located in Leeds. Global Business Services are based across three primary locations; the UK, US and Hong Kong.

With a background in change and transformation, Rob joined Burberry in 2017 to lead the finance function as part of the establishment of Global Business Services and subsequently took over as the Head of Global services two years ago.

A qualified accountant, prior to Burberry, Rob worked in consultancy with PwC, EY and IBM and started he career with Marks and Spencer.

Outside of work he is married with two boys.

Richard Chambers, HR Director, GEOAmey

Richard has over 30 years HR experience leading large, customer centric HR teams in fast moving, organic growing businesses. Richard joined GEOAmey as HR Director in June 2024, prior to this he was HR Director at Redde Northgate plc and for over eleven years as HR Director at Jet2 and Jet2holidays during the exceptional organic growth of the company, becoming the UK’s largest tour operator. Richard has a wealth of experience in building and leading high performing HR teams across consumer, retail, leisure, and travel, both in the UK and globally having also worked as HR Director at Poundstretcher plc, Carphone Warehouse Customer Services and senior roles at Thomas Cook plc. Richard started his career on the Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd graduate scheme and is a member of the CIPD.

Paul Cogan, Group Finance & Resources Director, Bettys & Taylors Group

Paul joined Bettys & Taylors in 2012 as Group Finance & Resources Director and is responsible for all aspects of Group finance and governance, as well as IT, property, procurement and risk management. He also oversees Bettys & Taylors business transformation projects, which focus on the sustainable, long term growth of the Group.

Paul is a member of the Bettys & Taylors Group Board and one of five directors who form the Collaborative CEO – a structure based on shared responsibility for organisational strategy and development, and the operations of the Bettys and Taylors businesses.

Caroline Cording, HRD, Mamas & Papas

With 30 years plus human resources experience, in number of different sectors,  Caroline is an experienced strategic, operational and results orientated individual with high energy, experienced at senior leadership/management board level in the formulation of people strategy and policy during periods of high growth (organic, mergers & acquisitions) and substantial cultural and organisational change.    She have proven business and commercial acumen gained in fast moving commercially driven business from small/medium to large complex businesses in national, International and global matrixed organisations and brands . She has the ability to lead, influence and persuade at all levels with personal credibility, enthusiasm and flair for communication that gets things done.

With a passion for travel, Caroline and her husband have travelled to many placed to dive and now enjoy exploring the UK and Europe in their motorhome.

Louise Demetriou, neuro-based executive coach, senior HR consultant, and founder of Culture Code.

Louise Demetriou is a certified neuro-based executive coach, senior HR consultant, and the founder of Culture Code, a consultancy dedicated to elevating organisational performance through people. Specialising in leadership development for HR professionals, leaders, and CEOs, Louise partners with organisations to unlock potential and develop remarkable leadership, enabling them to operate at the highest, most optimised levels of performance.

Louise brings a unique blend of expertise in mindset, neuroscience, psychology, and behavioural profiling to drive transformational change across organisations and individuals. With over two decades of experience in senior HR leadership roles at global companies such as Inditex Group, LVMH, Selfridges, and Secret Escapes, Louise has a deep focus on engagement, company culture, and high performance.

Louise holds a Master's degree in Human Resources, is a Fellow Chartered CIPD member, and is an accredited coach and mentor. Her approach is grounded in a passion for helping organisations develop outstanding leadership and achieve sustainable success.

Andy Dodman, Assistant Chief Executive and Chief HR Officer, Leeds City Council

Andy Dodman is the Assistant Chief Executive and Chief HR Officer for Leeds City Council, the second largest local authority in the UK. He is responsible for its large and diverse workforce, business support and digital functions. Andy moved into local government in 2019 following a successful career at The University of Sheffield. At Sheffield he was the Director of Human Resources and more recently its Chief Operating Officer.

Andy has consistently appeared in HR Magazine’s Most Influential List for the past decade and contributes to a range of national publications including People Management and HR Magazine, and recently presented at CIPD’s annual national conference.

Rachel Hannan, Investor & Trainer, BHP & Others

Rachel has successfully founded, grown & exited her own £multi-million businesses, before becoming an active Angel Investor, Chair and Non-Executive Director, supporting many other businesses to grow. She currently Chairs 3 companies, has invested well into 7 figures in companies across a range of sectors, and is also Vice Chair of a University.

She has a particular specialism in leadership development, talent acquisition and retention having spent time in PwC’s Global HR Consulting practice in her early career and going on to grow her own leadership development and executive search consultancy into an established market leader.

Sarnjit Kaur, Chief People Officer - International, Cox Automotive Europe

Business Partner to the president, Sarnjit’s key accountabilities include the implementation and delivery of a people centric strategy, which ultimately enables the business to deliver it’s business plan and strategic priorities.

As part of her International remit, Sarnjt’s remit is to also share best practice people strategies across all international markets, to ensure we continue to attract, recruit and retain the best and top talent across all the markets and communities in which we operate. With a tenure of 5 years with CA, Sarnjit started her career as Head of HR for Manheim, then moved  into a HRD role for Europe, and is now looking forward to her current role as CPO, reporting to Michele Parks.

Sarnjit has a passion for all things people development and coaching and partners with a number of external organisations and professional bodies from a mentoring capacity,  including the CIPD (Chartered Institute for personnel and Development) Global BT mentoring programmes and supports a number of external companies. Her passion to support the next generation of HR talent has been recognized through external accolade received by her recent Inspiring Women,  Automotive 30% club award, and Northern Power Women’s awards UK.

Prior to joining CA, Sarnjit has spent over 20 years experience in financial services where she has conducted multiple operational roles across retail and the branch network, coupled with HR leadership  roles across all the 5 key divisions of Santander UK, including Global business markets and the CEO office.

Residing in Lincolnshire with her husband, Sarnjit enjoys running in the countryside, being mum to two teenage boys, Aran and Kam (two avid Man United fans) and her holidays.

Simon Kingsnorth, Director of Optimal Human Resources Ltd

Simon runs a small consultancy focused on leadership development, organisational culture and people strategy.

He has a multi-sector background including senior roles in pharma, professional services and financial services. The focus of his consulting work is targeted on building performance through great people experience.

Simon has Masters degrees in People Development and Psychology and an MBA. He is a chartered Fellow of the CIPD.

 

Mandy Kirk-Smith, HR Director, Equiniti Group

Mandy is a commercially driven People Leader with over 25 years’ experience in creating and leading people strategies, org design & development, business change & transformation and experienced in M&A and TUPE transactions.  She has led and implemented various people, business and leadership strategies including performance management, culture and engagement whilst coaching and influencing at Exco / Board level creating a strong people engagement culture that delivers results working in a wide range of industries and sectors mostly in the Private Sector.

Outside of work her time is spent with her husband, dogs and horses as they own a smallholding in Yorkshire and spend most weekends battling this lovely British weather…..

Jack Latus, CEO, Latus Group 

Jack Latus is the Co-founder and CEO of Latus Group, a renowned leader in occupational health services. With a deep commitment to improving workplace wellbeing, Jack has dedicated his career to developing innovative solutions that promote safety, productivity, and compliance. Under his leadership, Latus Group has become synonymous with excellence in corporate healthcare, now acting as a key advisor to UK Government (DHSC) on the subject of Innovation to improve access to occupational health.

James Mason, Chief Executive, West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce

James Mason is the Chief Executive of the West and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce. As a businessman in his own right, James (46) joined the Chamber in May 2022 after holding a number of high-profile roles throughout his career to date as well as building and exiting his own manufacturing business. James was Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, the tourism body promoting Yorkshire across the world as a place to visit and work. Previously he has held roles as Chief Operating officer / Chief Executive at Bradford City and Rochdale Football clubs, as well as a period working as a sports agent across the world. James studied Journalism at University and as a qualified journalist, he worked for many years as a news and sports reporter with the BBC. Away from work, James helped is the Co-Chair of charity, Active Bradford and the founder of two not for profit dementia cafes in West Yorkshire. In 2024 James received an Honorary Fellowship (HonF) from Leeds Trinity University for outstanding achievements in business and the community.

Kay McCormick, Head of Talent, Jet2

I am a passionate and determined Recruitment/ Resourcing Leader with 20 years + experience of creating innovative resourcing, robust talent attraction strategies whilst leveraging technology to improve overall hiring efficiency. Success in establishing, developing and leading in-house Recruitment functions across a number of sectors including Financial Services, Telecoms and Airline/Travel industry.
Ask anyone that knows me and they will say I am all about the candidate experience and ensuring everyone’s journey is positive, no matter the outcome.

Richard Moran, Senior Partner, Clarion

Described as ‘exceptionally calm under pressure’ and having a ‘tough approach to negotiating’, Richard is a corporate finance lawyer with over 25 years' experience. Advising on strategy as well as delivering transactions, Richard’s focus is on long-term client relationships. Senior Partner at Clarion, Richard sits on the Management Board.  As well as his leadership role at Clarion, Richard is the Chair of Connect Yorkshire, a unique not for profit membership group for ambitious entrepreneurs that enables them to learn from many of Yorkshire’s most successful business people.

Richard is also part of our International team and works with clients with interests around the world particularly international businesses with interests in the UK and Europe.

"Whether as a sounding board to clients or delivering their deal, I thrive on bringing practical solutions to often complex or difficult situations and playing my part in truly successful outcomes."

Richard Morgan, Director, Nigel Wright Group

Richard joined Nigel Wright Group in 2010, is a member of the Group’s Recruitment Board, with direct leadership responsibility for several business divisions within the Group’s Regional Business.

Richard personally delivers CFO, CPO, CEO, and COO remits across the North of England for Private and Public sector clients. These are under a range of ownership structures including Publicly Listed, Private Equity and Owner-Led. Recent clients include Barbour, Redde-Northgate PLC, and the Inn Collection Group.

Richard’s earlier career saw him train as a Chartered Accountant, having graduated from Cardiff University in 2003.

Sue O'Donovan, Associate Director, Nigel Wright Group

Sue manages the HR recruitment team in the Newcastle and Leeds offices and is also responsible for senior level appointments for Nigel Wright Group’s clients in the North and across the UK. Sue’s team provide permanent and interim recruitment solutions to clients for all types of HR and L&D roles which would also include specialisms such as recruitment, talent, reward, organisational design and learning & development.

As well as managing the HR recruitment team, Sue is also responsible for maintaining relationships with senior HR and L&D professionals including HR Directors and Heads of HR. She manages a number of networking events throughout the year including quarterly HR Leaders’ Breakfasts. These events are attended by a wide variety of senior HR and L&D professionals in the region from both private and public sector organisations and are excellent opportunities for Heads of HR and HR Directors to share experiences and ideas.

Sue Graduated from Newcastle University in 2001 with a BA Hons in Linguistics and spent two years working for Procter & Gamble in Newcastle and also working in various sites in Germany, Austria and Spain. She joined Nigel Wright Group in 2004 and spent 12 months recruiting within the finance team before transferring across to the HR division in 2005. Sue moved to London in 2007 and spent 3 years recruiting HR professionals for a wide variety of clients on both a temporary and permanent basis. Sue rejoined Nigel Wright in 2010 to build our presence across the North.

Helen Saunders, People Director, Clarion 

With over 25 years’ experience, Helen has extensive operational and strategic HR experience gained over her career working in food manufacturing, hospitality, advertising and more latterly in professional services.
“The range of my experience means I have learnt to adapt and flex to different industries and cultures.” Helen is responsible for devising and leading the people strategy for the business, covering all aspects of HR management from recruitment, employee relations, reward & recognition, internal comms, CSR and learning & development. “I am particularly driven by leading employee engagement and experience strategies aligned to the culture of the business, which support the delivery of commercial results.”
Within Clarion, Helen provides support, guidance and leadership to the Management Board, Partners and Operations team on all people matters and has played an integral role in the continued growth of the business through the building of positive relationships and collaborative working across the business.

 

Katie Shaw, Head of People and Partnering, Store Ops & Property, M&S

Following a 16 year career in retail operations, I made the move into HR as a regional business partner role. I have not looked back, enjoying a 10 year people career working for the UKs biggest retailers. I have undertaken a variety of senior people leadership roles, from leading a shared services, to leading People COE’s such as Colleague experience, DE&I, PMO and Change. I have spent the last 3 years leading people partnering for Marks and Spencer, partnering ExCo and being fully accountable for the retail people plan, enabling the business transformation and delivering high profile industry leading initiatives such as Worklife

Anne Shiels, Exec Coach and NED (Newcastle BS) , AS Consulting

Anne is an ex-CPO who now works as a leadership consultant and executive coach. She has decades of hands-on business experience, particularly when it comes to managing significant organizational change and transformation. Her work has taken her around the world in various industries, including FTSE, employee-owned, and family businesses. She now combines her coaching and consulting work with a non-executive portfolio, where she sits on the board of the Newcastle Building Society and chairs its remuneration committee.

Mark Simpson, Group Executive Director, Nigel Wright Group

Mark is a member of the Executive Board and has P+L responsibility for our Regional business based in Newcastle, Teesside and Leeds. He is tasked with expanding our presence further into the Yorkshire market and making Nigel Wright the pre eminent Northern recruitment company. Mark is also responsible for Group Marketing and the Training and Development of fee earners across the Group. He has been at Nigel Wright since 2000, prior to which he trained as an engineer and undertook operational roles in industry. Over the last 20 years Mark has built a unique level of experience recruiting board level appointments across the north of England.

Paul Sutherland, Commercial Director, nesma

Paul is responsible for developing nesma's business growth strategy and opportunities to meet our ambition. He is always interested in starting conversations about national and international opportunities, partnerships and collaborations to build nesma's brand.

Relevant Experience
Paul works in innovation and transformation in education. His roles have been focussed on researching, framing and realising new innovative offers, enabling investment and developing services, as well as building organisations’ capacity and capability to grow.

Paul has held posts including strategic advisor to Enginuity, DigitalCity (Teesside University), Assistant Director of Marketing Strategy at Northumbria University and Director of Innovation at NCFE. In teaching, his experience includes developing accredited and assured training and leading university undergraduate marketing and MBA modules.

Background
Paul is a serial entrepreneur and has had a career growing and diversifying businesses in various industries and education. Paul has been a director/ NED, owner and shareholder in businesses involved in construction, consumer goods, to cybersecurity and software, as well as running substantial marketing, research, PR and communications agencies.

Charlotte Sweeney, DEI Consultant, Charlotte Sweeney Associates

Charlotte is known as the ‘go-to’ expert when it comes to pushing the boundaries on creating more diverse and inclusive companies. Recognised as one of HR’s Most Influential Thinkers in the UK in 2022, she has specialised in large-scale change programmes with a focus on DE&I for over 20 years. She works with companies and C-suite executives from many of the FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies worldwide to drive inclusive leadership and cultural change.
Charlotte is co-author of the book ‘Inclusive Leadership,’ published by The Financial Times and shortlisted for Management Book of the Year 2018 by The Chartered Management Institute. Additionally, she is a Forbes Council contributor and hosts and chairs large conferences and virtual events.

Sarah Tahamtani, Partner Partner, Employment and Immigration Law, Clarion

Head of the Employment team, Sarah advises a diverse range of organisations and businesses, providing commercial and pragmatic advice on people issues. Described in Legal 500 as 'passionate, driven and determined', Sarah goes over and above for her clients applying her practical, solutions-oriented mindset to every situation.  Delivered in a straight talking, honest and direct manner, Sarah advises senior HR professionals, boards and business owners on all elements of their employment strategy with particular experience in supporting evolving organisations facing change either in terms of scaling up or down their workforce or changing how they do business.  Sarah’s skill is in identifying business threats and issues and providing a holistic, pragmatic solution (which may comprise of multiple disciplines) to achieve clients’ commercial objectives and manages the implementation of her recommendations, focusing on adding value and being proactive wherever possible.

“To make a difference and add value, I always make sure I clearly understand my clients’ business aims and motivators, only then can I give advice that will fully support the HR and overall business goals. I have extensive experience in strategic workforce issues such as collective redundancies/restructures, TUPE transfers and dealing with employment disputes."

David Temperton, People Integration Director, Rathbones

David is a senior HR professional with over 22 years experience. He has worked for many well known brands across the UK and in Yorkshire including Aviva, Tesco, HSBC, Skipton Building Society, Stepchange, Npower, John West Foods and Jet2.

Over the last 8-10 years David has mainly worked on an interim basis focussing primarily on change and transformation roles. His most recent roles include delivering a large transformation programme for Centrica who own British Gas and his current role working as People Integration Director for Rathbones following their combination with Investec Wealth Management. David is delighted to be joining the judging team this year for the Yorkshire HR Awards and is a passionate advocate for recognising excellence in the HR field.

Neil Thomas, Director of People, Quorn

Currently Director of People at Quorn Foods, I’ve over 20 years of generalist HR experience across numerous sectors. Starting as an HR grad in the steel industry, I’ve worked in senior roles across manufacturing, consultancy, food and nutrition businesses in European and beyond, working with some fantastic brands and incredible people. From Corus (then Tata Steel), PepsiCo (Walkers Foods), Glanbia Performance Nutrition (World’s largest sports nutrition brand family), and the last 4 years at Quorn Foods.

Outside of work, I’m married, with three children and a Labrador, and spend much of my free time coaching two junior football teams!

Naomi Thompson, Director of Organisational Effectiveness, Benenden Health

Naomi Thompson, Director of Organisational Effectiveness for Benenden Health. I am responsible for aligning business strategy, with people, technology, and process ultimately to drive business performance and employee engagement.  I am passionate about building a workplace culture where people thrive so they can perform at their best.

Annabel Tonge, Global Brand and Marketing Director, Q5

Annabel brings a wealth of practical experience from her 30 years career across sectors, countries, and functions. Throughout her career, Annabel has successfully led on the creation and execution of organisational health strategies and work streams, from complex transformation through to business growth strategies, organisational design, culture change to people and team development in tandem with successfully growing and developing clear Brand, Marketing and Sales Propositions, in the highly competitive Retail, FMCG and Utility Sectors.

Annabel joined Q5 five years ago to establish the Leeds Office and leads Q5’s Foundation work locally, supporting Partnerships with CATCH and the Leeds Learning Alliance as well as Q5’s pro-bono consulting work.

Gareth Whalley, Founder & CEO at Big Bang People Solutions

Gareth has spent over 20 years in HR leadership roles for multinational organisations including Procter & Gamble, IBM, The Coca-Cola Company, and Levi Strauss & Co. Over the past several years he has focused his efforts on driving meaningful culture change in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, first leading the global inclusion practice at Coca-Cola and then serving as the Head of DEI for Europe at Levi's. Through Big Bang People Solutions Gareth now consults with clients worldwide on DEI strategy, as well as reward and recognition and change management and communications, all in service of fulfilling his personal purpose to make work life better for as many people as he can.