Speaker Profiles
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This conference took place on 7th 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)
- Stephen Burke
CEO, Counsel and Care
- Sam Mercer
Director, Employers Forum on Age
- Dianah Worman
Diversity Officer, CIPD
- Vivienne Duke
Founder, Encore Recruitment
- Dr Kerry Platman
Senior Research Associate, CIRCA
- Patrick Grattan
Chief Executive, Third Age Employment Network
- Tara Brady
Employment Relations & Diversity Manager, B&Q PLC
- Andy Finnie
Company Director, Aged2Excel Ltd
- Matthew Cole
Partner, Prettys
- Dave Wilson
Head of Employment Policy, BT
- Chris Perry
Director, Age Concern Hampshire
Profiles:
Patrick Grattan, Chief Executive, Third Age Employment Network
 Patrick Grattan is Chief Executive of TAEN -Third Age Employment Network, a leading national centre of expertise on age, work, retirement and related issues of learning, career development, health and pensions. He is a Member of advisory boards and groups for the DTI, the Department of Work and Pensions, the Learning and Skills Council, Jobcentre Plus and a number of voluntary organisations. In 2002 he set up the Equality and Diversity Forum.
He has had a varied career, split evenly between the public, private and voluntary sectors, in the Diplomatic Service and Civil Service and in the oil industry, working in the UK , the USA and France . He ran the operations of the Prince's Youth Business Trust. Patrick Grattan was a member of the Parole Board from 1997- 2003 and a former Board Member of Notting Hill Housing Trust. He is an active performing musician.
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Vivienne Duke, Founder, Encore Recruitment
 Vivienne Duke is founder and director of Equals One Recruitment, a company specialising in flexible working recruitment and consultancy and sister company Encore Recruitment a company, which specifically supports the needs of mature job seekers.
A large part of Vivienne's career was spent with National Westminster Bank where she worked predominantly in 'HR/Training and Development' and 'Change Management' roles.
During her time at NatWest she job shared, for 6 years, in a variety of managerial roles and enjoyed a successful career with her job share partner.
Vivienne is actively involved in a number of equality and diversity programmes in the north of England and has also written a book entitled 'The Essential Guide to Job Sharing'.
Encore Recruitment was formed, in January 2003 and has enjoyed outstanding success since launch - including achieving the National Age Positive Recruitment Excellence Award 2004. Vivienne is also involved as a key partner in a European Commission transnational project - 'Fair Play for Older workers'
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Stephen Burke, CEO, Counsel and Care
 In March 2005, Stephen Burke became Chief Executive of Counsel and Care, the national charity getting the best care and support for older people.
Previously he was Director of the national childcare charity Daycare Trust from 2000. He led the charity's campaign for childcare for all, promoting children's centres in every community and securing substantial new investment.
Stephen has almost twenty five years' experience in public relations, journalism and fundraising. From 1996 to 2000, he was a communications consultant to national organisations including Daycare Trust, Family Policy Studies Centre, Better Government for Older People, British Society of Gerontology and Development Trusts Association. Previously he was head of external relations for Community Service Volunteers and head of public relations for Crime Concern after spells with the Association of Metropolitan Authorities, National Union of Teachers and NALGO. His work has been recognised in several major PR awards.
Stephen Burke is currently leader of Hammersmith & Fulham Council where he has been a councillor since 1994. He was chair/cabinet lead member for social services from 1995-1999 and has been chair of the Association of London Government's health and social care forum and a non-executive director of Hammersmith & Fulham Primary Care Trust. He is a primary school governor, on the management committee of a children's centre, and a trustee of several national and local voluntary organisations.
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Dr Kerry Platman, Senior Research Associate, CIRCA
 Dr Kerry Platman specialises in management approaches and policy responses to workforce ageing. She delivers seminars and presentations on the business impact of workforce ageing to senior executives and human resource managers in the private and public sector. Her research interests include the UK's 2006 legislation on age discrimination in employment, flexible solutions to premature exits from the labour market and management interventions to extend working lives. She is the author of a number of publications and reports on workforce ageing issues in both academic and non-academic journals.
As a Senior Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, she is currently working on an international comparative study of workforce ageing in the high tech sector. The research involves teams in Europe, Canada, the United States and Australia, and will be recommending good practice in the management of workers as they age over their lifecourse.
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Sam Mercer, Director, Employers Forum on Age
 Sam Mercer has been Director of the Employers Forum on Age (EFA) since July 2000. In addition to managing EFA on a day-to-day basis, Sam is responsible for determining key campaign issues with EFA employers, and the Forum's relationship with Government and the media. She represents EFA's 209 employers on the Government's Age Advisory Group at present consulting on the future age legislation and was a member of the Secretary of State's Retirement Age Group which advised Government on the future of mandatory retirement.
Sam is also responsible for the EFA's research programme and drafted EFA's flexible retirement report 2000 and co-authored the DWP report 'Flexible Retirement: A Snapshot of large Employer Initiatives' 2002. She has also been closely involved in the development of key EFA employer guidance and advice including 'One Step Ahead' EFA's audit toolkit and the recruitment guide 'Avoiding the Age Trap'. Sam also wrote the EFA's recent reports 'Age at Work' and 'Attitude not Age' which looked at the experiences of people at different ages in the UK workplace.
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Dave Wilson, Head of Employment Policy, BT
 Dave has been Head of Employment Policy at BT for just over a year. His responsibilities cover the whole spectrum of the employment relationship between BT and its people, including Equality and Diversity, Employment Policy, Agile Working and Employer Brand.
Dave's career has included a wide variety of roles including strategic recruitment, consultancy, sales and marketing, designing and writing software, market analysis and tractor driving. Dave regularly provides advice and guidance to Government and Industry, including the Home Office, Local Governments, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, OGCE, and has also worked with several Charities.
Dave's other interests include all sport, particularly golf and football and working with a range of community groups, particularly those involved with providing support to young people in the Midlands where he lives.
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Chris Perry, Director, Age Concern Hampshire
 Chris has had 34 years in local government/social services. For twenty of these years he was a deputy or chief officer including eight years as the Director of Social Services for South Glamorgan County Council. After taking early retirement in the run up to Local Government Reorganisation, he spent two years as a Consultant/Trainer before joining Age Concern Hampshire in 1997. Chris qualified in Social Work in 1965 and obtained a Master's Degree from Brunel University in 1973. He completed a Senior Management Development Course in 1984 and was invited to the first European Skunk Camp as a guest of the Tom Peters Group in 1989. Chris was trained in "work structuring" by Christian Schumacher, the son of the author of "Small is Beautiful" in 1995.
He is also a Non Executive Director of the Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust, Joint Chairman of the Hampshire COMPACT Development Group and was, until recently a Governor of Fareham College of further education. In 2004 Chris was awarded an individual "Age Positive Award" in recognition of his campaigning against age discrimination in the workplace.
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Andy Finnie, Company Director, Aged2Excel Ltd
 Andy Finnie is founder and managing director of Aged2Excel Ltd, a company that specialises in providing a complete portfolio of age diversity services. Originally set up to support the employment needs of the experienced job seeker, the company has continually developed and now offers a number of services, including advice, guidance and support for employers seeking to implement new policies, processes and procedures aimed at embracing the forthcoming age discrimination legislation.
Prior to the setting up and launch of Aged2Excel Ltd, Andy spent most of the last 15 years in senior marketing roles, including Head of Business Marketing at Cap Gemini.
Andy actively campaigns against age discrimination and has voiced his views both on Radio and the national press. He believes that for many companies, achieving a 'balanced' age diverse workforce would provide measurable and sustainable business benefits across the spectrum.
Apart from the delusion that he can play golf, Andy has written a novel aimed at the 'teenage fantasy adventure genre' and insists it will never get published. He is delighted and privileged to be asked to Chair this conference and is certain that with the quality of speakers on show, it will be a massive success and will play its part in eradicating ageism from the workplace.
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Dianah Worman, Diversity Officer, CIPD
 Dianah Worman has led a number of national-level equal opportunities initiatives, including work against age discrimination and bullying. She has also led research on diversity, race and employment, work and the family and disability.
Recent projects include a think-piece looking at why so few women are making it into the boardroom; a report looking at the relationship between changes in the business world and managing diversity. She sits on a number of national-level steering committees and government advisory bodies concerned with a range of equality issues.
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Matthew Cole,
Partner, Prettys
 Matthew is Head of Employment & Humn Resource Services at Prettys solicitors and also a Partner in the firm. In recent years he has expanded the range of services offered to include employment taxes, pensions and HR consultancy along with employment law. His team specialises in guiding employers through the minefield of the ever-changing employment legislation and offering bespoke services for HR professionals, delivering practical solutions with the aim of enhancing profitability.
Matthew's clients include FTSE 250 companies and a diverse mix of large private sector and public sector employers. His recent work has included advising a local authority agency on its transfer to the private sector, successfully defending several large health care providers (both public and private sector) against significant (six figure) employment claims; and advising a multi-national engineering company on the closure of its final salary pension scheme. His HR client profile is wide-ranging but includes sports organisations, high-tech companies, the insurance industry and shipping companies.
Matthew is a highly sought after speaker at conferences around the UK and a regular contributor to the events and media including CIPD, IOD and major recruitment agencies.
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Tara Brady,
Employment Relations & Diversity Manager, B&Q PLC
 After completing a BA (Hons) in Business Administration at the University of the West of England, Tara held a number of retail management roles with Powerhouse Ltd.
She joined British American Tobacco (BAT) in 1998 and started to develop her career in Human Resources. Positions held covered Management Development & Training across BAT's operations in the UK & Ireland, latterly moving into more generalist HR Management roles.
Tara joined B&Q in 2003. Her role focused on remuneration and benefits and specific HR related change programmes. In 2004 she was appointed to the role of Employment Relations Management and laterally she has also assumed responsibly for diversity at B&Q. This role covers all aspects of employment relations & diversity, with a strong focus on policy development aimed at making B&Q a great place to work and shop.
She is a member of the Charted Institute of Personnel and Development and British Psychological Society.
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