Movers & Shakers

Former trainee engineer at Kier, Louisa Finlay, has been appointed as Kier’s new Chief People Officer.

Louisa takes up the CPO role more than 30 years since she joined Kier as a trainee engineer and has worked at the business ever since. She is a trustee at the Construction Industry Training Board and a member of Build UK, the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) and the Construction and Property Industry Mentoring Circle. Louisa’s wealth of experience in Kier and the wider construction sector, as well as her commitment to building excellence across all aspects of the people, health, safety, wellbeing and sustainability agendas, mean she is well-placed to lead Kier’s our people function and drive progress across vital strategic areas, as the firm moves forward.

(March 2023)

AMS has appointed Nikki Hall to its executive team in the newly created role of Chief People Officer.

Nikki joins AMS from the leadership team of the international education provider, Study Group, where she focused on building people and transformation programmes in support of the organisation’s wider strategic objectives. Nikki brings over 25 years of experience in similar HR leadership roles, with 13 years spent specifically in the talent industry and has a strong track record of delivering people strategies which have had a direct impact on growth, development and transformation. Nikki’s appointment follows a period of strong global growth for AMS.

(March 2023)

Housebuilder, The Hill Group, has appointed Victoria Anthony as HR Director, to further strengthen the company’s Human Resourcing strategy.

The appointment comes at a crucial period of growth for the business as it works towards increasing its turnover to £1.2bn by 2025. As a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and the Institute of Recruitment Professionals, Victoria has extensive sector experience gained at Land Securities and latterly, Galliard Homes, where she was pivotal in implementing talent acquisition and retention strategies, apprenticeship and graduate schemes, reward, recognition, performance management and mental health and wellbeing campaigns. Victoria has vast experience in leading teams through business transformation and change management projects.

(March 2023)

Rick Kershaw has been hired as Chief People Officer, after senior HR roles at Meta and Expedia. As CPO, Rick will support the growth and development of loveholidays’ expanding team.

Online travel agent loveholidays has appointed former Meta and Expedia HR leader Rick Kershaw as its Chief People Officer (CPO) as the fast-growing firm continues its expansion. As CPO, Rick will lead loveholidays’ people function and spearhead the development and growth. With over 25 years’ experience in HR, Rick has worked with some of the world’s best-known brands and joins from Meta, Facebook’s parent company, where he led HR for the firm’s engineering and technology function in the EMEA region. He also spent more than five years with Expedia, where he was HR Director in the EMEA region.

(March 2023)

Fitness brand Gymshark has announced the appointment of Laura Hagan to the role of Chief People Officer.

Laura is the latest in a series of senior appointments at the company, following former Asos exec Mat Dunn as Chief Financial Officer, Burberry’s John Douglas as Chief Technology Officer and Carly O’Brien to VP, Marketing. She will be joining Gymshark after over four years as Tate & Lyle’s Chief HR Officer, where she oversaw the transformation across its food solutions business. Prior to that, Hagan served in a number of key roles over 11 years at Dyson, one of which included Global HR Director. Laura’s first key responsibility is to ensuring the retailer attracts the “right talent at the right time”, ultimately enabling growth in a considered, structured and sustainable way, as the firm looks ahead to the challenges and opportunities ahead.

(February 2023)

UK communications infrastructure and media services company, Arqiva, has announced the appointment of Sarah Jane Crabtree as Chief People Officer.

Sarah Jane is appointed to the executive committee, reporting to CEO Shuja Khan, to lead on the company’s people and culture agenda within its Vision 2031 strategic focus. Sarah joins Arqiva following 17 years at BT – most recently as HR Director BT Organisation Effectiveness – where she was responsible for setting the BT Group people strategy and policy. Before BT, she began her HR career in the Civil Service as HR consultant for the Cabinet Office and 10 Downing Street. Arqiva is a British telecommunications company which provides infrastructure, broadcast transmission and smart meter facilities in the United Kingdom.

(January 2023)

BNP Paribas Real Estate has announced that Vicky Ryan and Fiona Biddle will job share the role of UK HR Director.

Both Vicky and Fiona will become UK HR Directors, with full responsibility and accountability for the company’s HR department. They will work three days a week, splitting the responsibilities of the role equally and both will become full members of the Executive Committee. This flexible approach, has achieved a real win for the business – retaining the skills and experience that Fiona has brought to the organisation during the last year – whilst welcoming Vicky back from maternity leave, with the same responsibility and strategic weight, enabling her to achieve a work/life balance with her young family.

(January 2023)

David Miller is to become the Director of Workforce at NHS Fife, having worked for NHS Scotland for over twenty years in human resources.

David began with the NHS as recruitment assistant in Lothian and has worked across a variety of territorial and national health boards, prior to his current post as Chief People Officer for NHS Scotland with the Scottish Government at the Health and Social Care Directorate. He is renowned for providing credible, compassionate and values-based human resources for all staff, leading with engagement, empowerment and wellbeing. He joins NHS Fife to build upon its reputation for providing excellent standards of care – as well as being a great place to work – operating with collaboration, partnership working, commitment to accountability, good governance, probity, openness and equality of opportunity.

(January 2023)

Domino Printing has announced April Jones as the company’s new HR Director for Europe, Middle East & Africa.

April’s remit will be to work in partnership with regional HR teams and also support the company’s Digital Printing operation across the world. She joined Domino in 2019 as Senior HR Business Partner – following roles in various global businesses – where she focused on such areas as generalist HR, organisational change and supporting and coaching senior leadership teams. Now April will be responsible for driving key initiatives integral to making Domino a great place to work, building inclusion, engagement, talent development and delivering strong leadership to the HR team across territories.

(January 2023)

Shropshire’s largest independent not-for-profit care provider, Coverage Care Services has appointed Sam Woosnam as HR Director, as the sector continues to face mounting recruitment challenges.

Sam has 20 years of experience in HR, leading up to this promotion to the role of HR Director at Coverage Care Services. Shejoined the team eight years ago as a HR officer and has since worked her way up. Sam has overall responsibility for the HR, payroll and recruitment, setting the strategic direction across all 12 of the homes in an organisation that recognises and embeds care as a career.

She will be responsible for continuing to provide excellent training and offer a programme of development for those looking to advance and develop their skills, to build and support a driven, resilient and compassionate workforce that delivers a high level of care to residents.

(February 2023)