Meet the 2025 Speakers

Sophey Layton’s background is from a HR generalist experience within fast paced global retail focused businesses. Currently she is HR Director at Shiseido and has held roles at All Saints, BT, Currys plc, Samsung over the past 12 years. Sophey has a passionate people first approach as well as a focus on with fostering positive, engaging workplace culture.

With 15 years of experience in retail, Zoe Broadway has built a diverse career, starting in operations before transitioning into Human Resources five years ago. She has honed her skills across various roles, including Branch Manager, Regional Operations Manager, HR Business Partner, and HR Manager, ultimately becoming the Store People & Culture Business Partner at Primark’s largest store in Birmingham. Zoe is deeply passionate about ensuring that everyone has access to the opportunities they need to grow and shape their own career. In her current role, she works closely with the General Manager of fostering an environment that champions growth and development. In addition to her work at Primark, Zoe is a Careers Enterprise Advisor, building valuable partnerships with local schools, colleges, and universities. She is dedicated to preparing young people for success in the workforce, ensuring they are equipped with the skills and support needed to thrive after leaving the education system.

Darren Sanderson-Williams has been General Manager with Specsavers since March 2024. He was previously the Global Head of Leasing for Impress where he led site selection, negotiation and legals to lease in all seven markets. Darren is the Founder of Williams Harding Consulting working with start-ups, expanding and distressed businesses, primarily in retail and hospitality, but also outside of these sectors. In addition, he is Non-Executive Chairman of men’s skincare company Scrubd and a Trustee at Action 4 Youth. Darren has formerly held senior roles in several retail and hospitality businesses, including Hotel Chocolat and Unilever. He currently holds two ambassadorial roles, including Schools Role Model for Stonewall, and fundraising and awareness for Target Ovarian Cancer. Williams Harding also partners with a Bulgarian dog rescue centre.

Chris Barron has been with LinkedIn for over 8 years working in our talent solutions business.  He has worked with some of LinkedIn’s biggest UK based clients and lead the teams that helped make the successful. He has also been part of the Global Leadership team for LinkedIn’s internal resource group for Women as the Allyship lead and brings a wealth of experience when it comes to bridging gaps.

As People Director at Welcome Break and member of the Applegreen Senior Leadership Team, Nicola has forged an award-winning career in People Development and HR spanning two decades – bringing her expertise to the UK’s leading hospitality organisations in senior leadership roles across Whitbread, Greene King, and Travelodge. Nicola currently leads the global People functions across Welcome Break in the UK, ROI, and US – meticulously crafting the People strategy and vision to deliver impactful results that support over 6,000 team members. As Chair of the Welcome Break Charitable Fund, Nicola’s direction helped raise £1 million in 2024 to support its charity partners and local communities.

Blue Valentine (they/them) is the Head of Volunteering at Sue Ryder and the Engagement Lead in their LGBTQ+ staff and volunteer network. Addressing inequalities and mobilising social change through volunteering are the things that motivate and inspire her. Blue passionately believes in the power of inclusion and accessibility and these principles drive all her work. Her experience includes developing and implementing a national LGBTQ+ inclusion programme and introducing an inclusion passport scheme for their team of over 9,000 volunteers.

Rhianon Plews is an award-winning HR leader.  As the Head of HRBPs and Talent at Watches of Switzerland Group (WOSG), she leads the HRBP & Talent Team to support the business tackle their pressing issues and longer-term goals, through an aligned and integrated people strategy. Part of the People Leadership Team, Rhianon is dedicated to building high-trust relationships between HR and the business, embedding their new operating model and ways of working to drive business results.  Prior to WOSG, Rhianon was Head of HR for Boots Opticians, leading the People Agenda throughout Covid and beyond, followed by the Head of HR People Transformation and Change at Boots UK, leading the transformation agenda, driving strategic change projects with HR and for the business, ensuring they deliver benefits. Her early career started in food manufacturing, followed by roles in various financial services organisations, including in the UK and Australia and more recently, senior HR Roles in healthcare and retail.

Eddie Hartley is the Healthcare and Fundraising Volunteer Manager at Sue Ryder. He started his journey as a store volunteer at Sue Ryder when he was just 15. Since then, he has worked his way up from volunteer to sales assistant, to store manager, and now in his current role looking after the personal and professional development of their hospice and community-based volunteers. Eddie also chairs the staff LGBTQ+ Network and has worked on organising Sue Ryder’s Pride celebrations across the whole organisation for the past three years, increasing store-based colleagues’ participation massively, as well as working on our fantastic Rainbow Badge training. Equity and accessibility is at the forefront of his work within the organisation and he enjoys seeing the tangible difference their work makes to those across society who volunteer in our shops, centres and out in the community.

Kirsty Lister is the People Director of DeMontfort Fine Art, the publishing house behind Clarendon Fine Art and Atelier Galleries. As the first executive leader dedicated to the people agenda across the UK, US, and at sea, Kirsty was appointed to drive alignment of the people space with the company’s vision, strategy, values, and to elevate communication and connection in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial business on a remarkable growth journey. Before joining DeMontfort Fine Art, Kirsty was EMEA HR Director at Vax, for nearly a decade. Kirsty’s impact has been widely recognised, including accolades from HR Magazine’s Most Influential Practitioner Award, The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For, The JobCrowd Top Graduate Employer Award, Investors in People, and the CIPD HR Rising Star Award.

Tarra Simmons has worked for Midcounties Co-operative, for almost 40 years, with a background in food retail, holding various post before heading up Learning and Development, Colleague Engagement and D&I, taking up the current role as Head of Community and Democratic Engagement over 10 years ago. She has responsibility for the Society’s Community and Member engagement proposition ensuring Co-operative Values & Principles are at the heart of all that it does and delivering its purpose. She is also responsible for the employability support programmes Fairer Futures Programme working in collaboration with Miss Macaroon and Fairer Access to Work working in Partnership with Aspire Oxford. Tarra also sits on the Walsall Town Deal Board and on the Board of Governors of two Walsall primary academies.

As founder of Six Connections, Dave Scholes is a conversation starter. Tackling mental health as a legacy for his mate, he drives a purpose to make the conversations that we all need from time to time a normal part of the everyday. Starting with one conversation, Six Connections have helped 1000’s of people to open up with family, friends and colleagues and start healthy conversations in their space. Conversations before crisis – in the pub, in work or at the football. Incorporating creative training sessions and ‘conversation starting’ retail products, Six Connections are doing this differently. Creating genuine cultures of care with sustainable and practical outcomes – they save lives.

Rosie Ginday MBE is founder and CEO of Miss Macaroon, a community interest company that reinvests 100% of its prots in supporting young people who need a helping hand to gain skills that can  change their lives. Miss Macaroon is the only patisserie in the world that can Pantone colour match macaroons to brand colours, supplying Instagram, Google and Facebook. Miss Macaroon works with organisations such as the Department For Work And Pensions, job centres, prison probation programmes, care leavers’ services and women’s refuges to recruit trainees. Her work saw Rosie invited to the Royal Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and hosted HRH the Countess of Wessex at Miss Macaroon to meet the MacsMAD trainees and graduates. She was awarded an MBE in 2019 for her services to the community, and her work in providing support for young people facing long-term unemployment.

Tamia Mullaney is a Global Talent Acquisition Associate at Astrid & Miyu, a jewellery company she started with in 2023. Previously, she was in agency recruitment focusing on helping scale their Performance Marketing department. At Astrid & Miyu, Tamia recruits across office team members, UK, US and Amsterdam retail store teams, as well as Services Team members such as Piercers and Tattoo Artists.

Ryan Cheyne is a seasoned HR leader with more than 20 years experience driving people strategies that create exceptional workplaces. Until recently, he was Managing Director of People and Culture at Flutter UK & I, the home of gaming brands Sky Betting and Gaming, Paddy Power, Betfair and tombola. Ryan led the successful creation and rollout of new company values and achieved impressive engagement results, with the team winning awards for their approach and use of data. Prior to Flutter, Ryan was Interim Chief People Officer at Motorpoint, Senior People Director at Rentalcars.com which then merged with Booking.com and prior to that he spent 10 years leading the people team at Pets at Home, where they won the Sunday Times Best Place to Work award in 2013. Throughout his career, Ryan has demonstrated an ability to develop high-performing teams, reduce turnover, and significantly enhance organisational cultures, driving both employee satisfaction and business success.

Lucas Main has worked at LinkedIn for five years, all of that time within the talent solutions business. Starting as a Customer Success Manager enabling companies like Tesco to succeed with LinkedIn. to currently working as the Account Director for several retail clients including Boden and Charles Tyrwhitt.

Dr Petrina Carmody is a chartered psychologist and works with Great Place to Work UK as Chief Change Officer. The GPTW Change practice helps organisations move their cultures and people experience forward through evidence driven, expert partnerships with clients. Key areas of work for GPTW Change are leadership, culture & values, DEIB (diversity, inclusion, equity & belonging), and wellbeing. She has spent the last 30 years in the world of work and the last 20 or so of those since her doctorate specialising in advising organisations on engagement, trust, culture, leadership and change. Petrina works with a wide range of national and multi-national organisations. At the heart of her work is the simple view that prioritising how we interact and work with people as individuals drives positive experience for us as humans, builds trust and results in more productive and profitable organisations.

Thom Smith worked in recruitment and talent for seven years. Having been both agency side and an in-house recruiter, over the last seven years, he has recruited for a variety of different sectors and roles. His first role in recruitment gave him an incredible chance to cut his teeth and learn everything he could about recruiting, employment and candidate management. Since then, he has worked as Senior Talent Acquisition Manager for Lounge and during one of its busiest periods of growth – their talent team still only consists of two! Alongside Lounge’s incredible people team, they have recruited over 250 staff across Head Office and their six retail stores, with recruitment both here in the UK and also at their first international store in Germany.

Michael Spataro is the SVP, Partnerships & Employee Value Solutions at Legion. He has 30+ years of retail Workforce Management, store operations, and technology experience. He spent 16 years leading the Retail and Hospitality Services Practice Group at Kronos. His passion for Retail WFM is rooted in the ten years he was Director of Store Technologies at Gap Inc. Previously, Michael led the Kronos Services Group at Axium. After being a customer, vendor, and consultant, he has a unique vantage point, making him a trusted partner when showing retailers how to use Legion WFM to optimize labor efficiencies and empower frontline employees.

As Head of Sales, UK Retail at Reveal Media, Dinesh De Silva brings a decade of SaaS expertise, with more than five years specializing in security and safety systems. In this time, he has driven revenue growth across a diverse range of sectors – including retail, law enforcement, higher education, and real estate – leveraging his deep knowledge of Security Systems, CRM and PMS in global markets. Currently at the forefront of UK Retail Sales initiatives at Reveal, Dinesh is proud to represent the company as a leading body cam supplier. Reveal’s innovative solutions serve as an effective tool to de-escalate incidents involving retail colleagues, deter crime and theft, and document evidence to support training or prosecution when needed.

As Partner & National Head of Employment at Irwin Mitchell, Elaine Huttley has considerable experience of contentious and non-contentious employment work including tribunal litigation and advocacy, advising clients on day to day employment issues including disciplinary and grievance issues, drafting contracts and policy documents. She also deals with corporate transactional work and has a particular interest in high level employment disputes involving shareholders and/or senior executives.