Speaker Profiles
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This conference took place on 1st December 2005. If you would like to order copies of the speaker's slide presentations, you can still do this using the booking page here.
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Chairs and speakers include: (Click on name to jump to profile)
Profiles:
John Philpot, Chief Economist, CIPD
 John Philpott has been Chief Economist at the CIPD since November 2000.
Prior to joining the CIPD John was, for 13 years, Director of the Employment Policy Institute (EPI), an independent policy think-tank.
John writes a quarterly statistical Work Audit for the CIPD and prepares the CIPD's quarterly Labour Market Outlook survey. His regular Perspectives essays provide accessible analysis of the changing world of work.
John holds a Doctorate from the University of Oxford (1985) and is Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Hertfordshire, a Fellow of the RSA and a member of the Society of Business Economists. He is a former Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Select Committee on Employment (from 1993-1996) and has also advised numerous other UK and international bodies, including the United Nations, the European Commission, the IMF, the OECD, the TUC and The Prince's Trust.
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Paul Norris, Research and Development Divisional Manager, UK NARIC
 Paul Norris has worked for UK NARIC for eight years and has lead responsibility for conducting specialised research activities on behalf of UK NARIC / NRP. Areas of expertise include credential evaluation and comparative analysis projects including sector-specific benchmarking exercises and qualification ranking exercises.
In terms of overseas experience, Mr Norris has conducted a range of activities. He has provided training on the UK education system and processes for reviewing international qualifications in a number of international countries, including Oman and UAE. Mr Norris has acted as a consultant to the South African Department of Education regarding the international recognition of newly developed secondary awards. He has also acted as a consultant for the Singapore Ministry of Manpower in developing criteria for selecting top international graduates.
In the UK, Mr Norris sits on a number of different steering groups and policy advisory groups, such as those for the QCA UK ReferNet Group, the QCA Sector Subject Categories Steering Group, the LSC Migrant Skills Steering Group and the LINKS Working Group (in standards for the early years sector).
An important, further achievement has been the establishment of the new National Reference Point for Vocational Qualifications (UK NRP). The UK NRP acts as a national agency for the comparison in standards of international vocational qualifications. This was created on the basis of decreased funding and is now self-financing.
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Dianna Yach BA LLB LLM, President, Ionann Management Consultants Ltd
 Dianna is a co-founder and President of Ionann Management Consultants Limited. Ionann works in partnership with clients in criminal justice, education, central, local government and the private and voluntary sectors to integrate equality into their core business functions.
She has a legal background and was a lecturer in laws at Queen Mary College, University of London. Dianna is a specialist in equality and anti-discrimination law and practice. She is the co-author of Community Policing in Action - A Practitioner's Guide, 1995 and has given keynote addresses on human rights and equality related subjects in the UK, South Africa, Turkey and Ireland.
Dianna was formerly Chair of Camden Race Equality Council, Director of a local CAB and is currently a trustee of the Camden Mayor's Charity and is a member of the Metropolitan Police Service Independent Advisory Group. She is a fellow of the RSA.
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Ian Westwood, Director, The Westwood Organisation Ltd
 Ian Westwood currently runs his own business, providing consultancy, training and immigration advice to a variety of both corporate and private clients. Ian is a well-established and experienced training consultant specialising in immigration law, team building and personal development. He is regulated by the Office of the Immigration Service Commissioner to provide immigration advice in the UK. Ian's training credentials include the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's Certificate of Training Practice and the Belbin Team-Role Accreditation.
Ian began his Home Office career in the Immigration Service in 1993 where he undertook a full range of immigration duties at 3 different UK ports (Dover, Heathrow and Gatwick) and specialised in forgery detection and training of airline staff. Ian then moved in the areas of business development and continuous improvement within the Home Office, including a period as a corporate training consultant. He left the Home Office in 2003 to set up his own consultancy business.
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Cheryl Gillan MP, Opposition Spokesman on Home Affairs
 Employment - International Management Group 1977 - 1984; Director, British Film Year 1984 - 1986; Senior Marketing Consultant, Ersnt and Young 1986 - 1991; Marketing Director, Kidsons Impey 1991 - 1993.
Political Activity - contested Greater Manchester Central 1989 European Parliament Election; Elected Member of Parliament for Chesham and Amersham since 9th April, 1992; PPS to Viscount Cranborne as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal 1994 - 1995; Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Education and Employment 1995 - 1997. Opposition Spokesman for Trade and Industry 1997 - 1998; Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs 1998 - 2001; International Development 1998 - 2001; Opposition Whip 2001 - 2003; Appointed Shadow Home Affairs Minister (responsible for Prisons, Drugs, Alcohol and Domestic Violence), 2003.
Special Interests - Home Affairs, Industry, Space, International Affairs, Defence, Education and Employment. 2003 Elected Treasurer of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association; since 1998 Member of the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, UK Branch. Member of the Worshipful Company of Marketors; FCIM; Freeman, City of London; Member RAC Club; Vice Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Friends of the Bahá'ís.
Countries of Interest - The Commonwealth, former Soviet Union, Europe, USA, Japan, Countries of the Pacific Rim.
Recreations - Golf, Music and Gardening.
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Tim Forster,
Head of Resourcing Media, Pricewaterhouse Coopers
 Tim is a Senior Manager within the UK Recruitment team of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC).
He has over 20 years recruitment experience, initially working as a consultant specialising in Financial Recruitment, before moving into corporate recruitment. He joined PwC in 1995 and for three years was responsible for recruitment for the Financial Services division of their Management Consulting practice.
In his current position, Head of Resourcing Media, Tim is responsible for PwC's recruitment advertising and marketing presence in the UK , both on and off-line. This includes PwC's award winning student marketing campaign "One. For All", their recruitment literature, their website www.pwc.com/uk/careers and their recruitment technology.
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Paul Maxin, Former Senior International Recruitment Manager
 Paul began his recruitment career 18 years ago and his experience is divided equally between the sell and buy side. Latterly, Paul was Senior International Recruitment Manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) where he was for eight years prior to deciding to take a brief career break to pursue some of his extra curricular activities this October.
Paul has been recruiting globally for over 10 years and in particular from Central and Eastern Europe, the rest of the EU, the Middle East, Australasia, Canada and the US. During his final year at PwC, the firm sourced experienced staff from over 41 separate countries. In a web enabled age this did not involve as much international travelling as one might think, however it is not surprising that one of his extra curricular activities is travel writing.
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Paul Holmes,
Managing Director, Breckenridge InterSearch
Paul has twenty one years experience of senior level recruitment, the last sixteen years being within Executive Search & Selection, initially with a large national search firm and then with two smaller practices before becoming Managing Director of Breckenridge InterSearch in early 2000.
During this sixteen year span he has been actively involved in international recruitment. Most experience has been within the engineering, manufacturing, process and scientific sectors recruiting Executive and Director level personnel, with salaries ranging from £40,000 to £250,000 for clients throughout the world.
As well as managing the business he is highly active recruiting senior level appointments across all sectors, predominantly on a search basis.
He is currently Chairman of the InterSearch Quality Committee responsible for worldwide standards and processes.
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Sumit Shome, Think Relocation
 Sumit Shome is working with the Think Relocation Ltd. as an Immigration Adviser providing consultancy, training and immigration advice to a variety of both corporate and private clients. He is regulated by the Office of the Immigration Service Commissioner (OISC) to provide immigration advice in the UK. Prior to this, he has been working with an Immigration & Asylum Consultants in Glasgow.
He has a legal background and completed his Masters of Law (LL.M) in Human Rights Law from Glasgow Graduate School of Law, Glasgow. He was actively involved with many human rights organisations in India especially with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, New Delhi.
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Austin Birks,
First Group plc
 Austin Birks joined the National Bus Company as a Senior Management Trainee in 1983, after graduating from Manchester University. After a succession of Senior Management appointments in 1986 he was part of a team that led a management buy out and moved from the nationalised world into that of the private entrepreneur. After several additional management positions Austin took control of the HR and recruitment and retention initiatives for a large subsidiary Company of the First UK Bus Division. A number of innovative projects were launched and as a result two and a half years ago AB was appointed to the position of Senior Manager Strategic Recruitment for the UK Bus Division. AB then set up the First group overseas recruitment project which has since received acclaim from within the UK at senior political levels and from the European Employment Service (EURES) as one of the most successful recruitment projects in Europe. AB is now working very closely with a number of key political agencies to elevate the values of good European recruitment practice, particularly with The Scottish Assembly and the Fresh Talent initiatives. Austin remains passionately committed to the commercial and personal benefits of good overseas recruitment as you will realise.....
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Sarah Francis,
International Recruitment Manager, NHS Employers
Sarah Francis joined NHS Employers in January of this year as an International Recruitment Manager. Sarah and her team offer advice, information and support to all NHS organisations who wish to recruit healthcare professionals internationally.
Previously Sarah worked for the Department of Health for a couple of years as a Project Manager. Her main duties were to attract, offer advice, assistance and support to doctors from India in order that they could achieve the necessary registration requirements enabling them to be eligible to apply for Consultant posts within the NHS.
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