Leading HR

PAUL CHESWORTH has 23 years HR management experience within the commercial vehicles, defence and latterly telecoms sectors. He is currently HR Director, Vodafone Europe and Chairman of the Centre for Performance-led HR at Lancaster University Management School.DAVID FAIRHURST is Senior Vice President& Chief People Officer (Northern Europe) for McDonald's Restaurants, having been European Director of Recruitment and Leadership Planning for SmithKline Beecham, and Corporate HR Director for Tesco. David joined McDonald's in May 2005 and has board-level responsibility for HR, Training, Education, Customer Services and Environment. He is a Fellow of Lancaster University Management School, and in 2007 was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Business Administration by Manchester Metropolitan University Business School where he is a Visiting Professor. In 2007 and 2008 he secured the No.1 position in Personnel Today's Top 40 HR Power Players list; and in June 2009 he was voted the UK's 'Most Influential Practitioner' by readers of HR Magazine for the second consecutive year. SHERIEF HAMMADY is an Associate Director with Hay Group UK and is a member of the private sector consultancy leadership team. He has a PhD in organisational studies from the University of St Andrews.MATT STRIPE is currently Assistant Vice President Human Resources for Nestlé SA, with responsibility for Human Resources and Global Talent Management for Nestlé 's Strategic Business Units, Sales and Marketing, Finance and Head office. Prior to this Matt was the HR Director for Nestlé Confectionery Division having previously held a number of Senior HR roles for BAE SYSTEMS and MBD. HELEN SWEENEY is Group HR director at national building services provider, NG Bailey. Her responsibilities include developing and delivering a people focused strategy in support of the business, as well as overseeing all other HR activity. Helen has also held senior HR positions at Co-operative Financial Services, Barclays Bank and Unilever. She is passionate about developing talent and has an impressive background in introducing leading edge talent initiatives in the organisations she works for. JOHN WHELAN is currently the HR Director for the UK (Programmes and Support) business of BAE Systems. He has over 20 years of HR experience in large industrial companies in the UK and Europe.ROB WOOLLEY has worked for Co-operative Financial Services for 22 years working at all levels within the company and as a Director for the last 7 years. He moved into the HR arena after running the company's call centres for 5 years and has a passion about people and culture.