9th Annual

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.

Howard has worked in the world of employee communications for over 25 years.
His career has seen him work in both senior ‘in house’ and consulting / agency roles. Today Howard leads communications and engagement for the Clean Air sector of Johnson Matthey, a role he moved into over three years ago, having more recently worked in senior communication roles at global giants GSK and EY.

Over the past 18 months Howard has provided communications and engagement support to a major transformation of the Clean Air business. This support included creating and executing AirTime, a conversation-based activity that gave employees across the business the opportunity to build their understanding of what the changes meant to them. AirTIme was recognised externally at the Internal Communication Excellence Awards in June 2021 as it was won first prize in the category “Best communication of change or business transformation”.

Howard has long been passionate about the critical importance of listening for communicators, and by definition for the organisation. Together with colleagues Mike Pounsford and Kevin Ruck, Howard has published three reports on Listening in Communications, with the most recent in May 2021 reporting on the completion of a global survey of communicators.
Howard served as President of the UK Chapter of IABC for two years (2018-20). He declared his term as the ‘Year(s) of Listening’. Howard was also Chairman of Wealdstone FC, a semi-professional football club who play at the 5th level of English football for nine years until 2016, and (pandemic allowing) enjoys watching sport, going to the cinema and travel.

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.

Eric is a senior HR VP with an extensive international experience in developing HR into a global function, facilitating organisation transformation, driving sustainable performance, growing a diverse talent pipe-line, building an inclusive culture and coaching executives in line with the business strategy. He has worked in different industries during down-turn and high growth phases i.e. Oil and Gas, Mining, Manufacturing, Real Estate, Facilities, Financial Services and Professional Services. In addition to holding roles in the UK, France and Argentina, he has travelled and worked globally in particular in the emerging markets.

Eric has an executive degree from the Harvard Business School (AMP) in addition to an MBA and an engineer degree. He is a Board member of 2 international HR MBAs. He also does consulting and gives international conferences on leadership in a VUCA world, employer branding, global talent management, diversity, CSR and emerging markets.

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.

Nicholas has over a dozen years’ internal comms experience, both in the UK and in the Middle East. He’s worked in the public and private sector, and for for a major international retailer, Alshaya Retail Co. One of his IC campaigns at Alshaya won an Institute of InternalCommunications award.

Jean-Luc Marcelin works for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as a Partnerships and Talent Outreach Specialist with the UNDP Office of Human Resources (Talent Acquisition and People Programmes unit based in Copenhagen, Denmark).

Jean-Luc is in charge of an array of activities and initiatives related to talent outreach and communication, EVP activation and social media presence; resource mobilization, partnerships and reporting; as well as programme development in a talent acquisition context. He is also involved in recruitment and selection activities to identify young talent for UNDP.

Jean-Luc graduated for the Institute of Political Sciences (SciencePo) in Paris. He has 25 years of work experience in cooperation and programme development activities, including 20 years with the UN. He is fluent in French, English, Spanish, and Danish.

Neil Griffiths, ABC, Chart.PR, IABC Fellow is Global Head of Diversity, Equality & Inclusion at ERM, the world’s largest sustainability consultancy, where he is responsible for the global DE&I strategy and engagement plan. Neil’s background is varied, having spent the better part of 20 years in a series of external, brand, strategy and internal communication roles, before moving into DE&I. Neil has held leadership roles in a number of public, private and non-profit organisations.

In the volunteer space, Neil has held multiple leadership positions within the IABC and the Company of Communicators (CoC), which is one of the City of London’s modern Livery Companies. Volunteer highlights include being a member of the inaugural Global Communications Certification Council, Career Roadmap Committee member, Chair of the 2018 IABC World Conference (Montreal), Past Chair of IABC’s EMENA region and, as at November 2020, Junior Warden of the CoC.

Neil is a recipient of the IABC Regional Leader of the Year, Rae Hamlin and IABC Chair’s Awards. In 2019, Neil was named IABC Fellow, the highest honour bestowed on an IABC member.

Together with co-author Deborah Hinton, Neil has published two studies on the current and future state of the communication profession and advocates for channeling your best communication self regardless of where and how you work.

[http://uk.linkedin.com/in/negriff/ | @negriff]

ebecca is responsible for designing communication channels to reach all 70,000 Co-op colleagues. In her 6 years with the largest co-operative in the UK, she was instrumental in launching Yammer to 17k Co-op colleagues, with an 80% uptake in year one. A Microsoft Office 365 evangelist, she works tirelessly to help the Co-op realise the benefits of the platform.

Previously, Rebecca spent 10 years at first direct (HSBC), managing their internal communications team, liaising with the press, and developing their Twitter and online media newsroom channels, making them the first bank to have either.

I will be travelling from Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, so whilst I will endeavour to be there from 9am, I’d love it if my slot could be after lunch in case of any delays. Also, whilst I’ll no doubt have some slides, I’ll likely want to present a live version of Co-op’s Yammer feed, so I’ll need a strong Wi-Fi connection.