10TH ANNUAL

Paul was most recently  Global Head of Internal Communications at BG Group where he led BG’s communications for the recent acquisition by Shell. Prior to this, he was Global Head of Internal Communications for Philips based in Amsterdam and was Corporate Communications Director for Colt Group S.A. He was a Partner at Brunswick Group and created and led their Internal Communications Practice. He also led the Communications Practice at Hewitt Associates. Paul has a wide range of international experience in digital communications and led the team which created one of the most successful global enterprise-wide social media platforms. Paul has also created digital innovations in video and leadership communications which won the European Digital Excellence Award and Digital Company of the Year in the Netherlands. His also has experience in restructuring, M&A and post-merger integration, change management and HR communications. Paul’s early career was spent with NatWest Group where he was Speechwriter to the Chairman and Chief Executive and was responsible for developing leadership and employee communications for the RBS/NatWest acquisition process.

Katharina is an internationally recognised business communicator with proven delivery of effective global communication strategies and programmes, and has Lean Sigma qualifications for process and performance improvement.

Previous roles include Head of Internal Communications & Engagement at ABB, Head of Employee & Executive Communications at Zurich Insurance, Head of Internal Communications at Rio Tinto, Head of Global Internal and Management Communications at Shell, Head of Global Internal Communications at AstraZeneca, Corporate Communications Lead at GE Capital EEF and Corporate Communications Manager at Corange/Boehringer Mannheim. Katharina has worked in Nigeria, Hong Kong, the UK, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.

Liam FitzPatrick has 25 years of experience with change, PR and internal communications comes from working in-house and in consultancy.
Liam has worked in civil engineering, energy, manufacturing and transportation as well as telecoms. He was Global Head of Internal Communications at Marconi during its financial restructuring and has worked on change and transformation projects in a wide variety of situations. He is particularly interested in developing teams, research and planning.
He is a council member and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Phil Askham has over 20 years’ experience helping global corporates and public bodies become more productive, purposeful and fulfilling workplaces. He is expert in employee engagement, culture development and organisational change. As a former Global Head of Employee Communications at HSBC, Phil played a major part in strengthening the firm’s risk culture. He also helped propel O2 to become to the UK’s number one mobile provider by modernising its employee and customer experience. He is now Head of Organisational Change & Employee Experience at Montfort Communications, a specialist communications and reputation management consultancy.

Nicole Bearne has spent the last 25 years in the fast-paced world of Formula One motor racing.
Along the way, she has contributed to winning nine Constructors’ and eight Drivers’ World Championships. Her F1 experience spans executive and technical operations, internal communications and employee engagement. She holds a CIPR Diploma in Internal Communications and a Master’s degree in Organisational Behaviour. Nicole brings a blend of robust academic theory
and extensive real-world experience to building high-performing, people-centric organisations.
Nicole also speaks fluent Russian and spent several years living in the former Soviet Union.

Marianne Proudfoot is the Employee Communications & Engagement Consultant for the Siemens EA GB&I business who are driving the transition to sustainable energy with innovative technologies in electrification, automation and services.

Marianne Proudfoot has over 15 years’ experience leading strategic internal communications and engagement initiatives for some of the world’s leading companies in the media and technology space such as BBC, DAZN and Mulberry.

Her main passion lies in supporting businesses to engage their employees through times of transformation and change and is proud to have her APMG Change Management Foundation accreditation.

Mark has an impressive 27 years’ experience in hospitality. Simply put, his role is anything to do with people and ensuring they have what they need to perform at their best. At Fuller’s, he’s responsible for behavioural change management initiatives, learning and development, employee experience, leadership and exec-level development.

Marghaid spent 12 years in marketing before making the switch to internal comms in 2018. She now leads both functions at Scott Logic, a UK technology consultancy, where her responsibilities include devising and implementing the company’s first internal communications strategy.

Discussion thread: External marketing teams are blessed with a suite of tools and technologies that help them achieve their objectives – why can’t internal comms teams leverage some of these? By segmenting our internal audiences and delivering more relevant, targeted internal comms, we can improve the quality and perception of internal comms, becoming a more strategic business partner instead of the sender of ‘All Staff’ email broadcasts.