Judges for 2025

 
More Judges to be announced..

We pride ourselves on the integrity and diligence of our judging process. Our esteemed panel of judges bring expertise and experience from all areas of business as well as being experts in business, finance and accounting. Each category is allocated three judges who will meet face to face with our finalists at the judging day.

Rob Blomfield, Head of Global Business Services, Burberry PLC
View Rob’s Biography

Samantha Brook, Group HR Director, Severfield
View Samantha’s Biography

Andy Dodman, Assistant Chief Executive & Chief HR Officer for Leeds City Council
View Andy’s Biography

Mandy Kirk-Smith, Hr Director, Equiniti Group 
View Mandy’s Biography

Gareth Whalley, Founder & Ceo, Big Bang People Solutions
View Gareth’s Biography

Rob Blomfield, Head of Global Business Services, Burberry PLC

Rob is the Head of Global Business Services for Burberry PLC where 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 three years ago.

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

Outside of work Rob is married with two boys.

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.

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.

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…..

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.