The Firm Awards 2023

Peter has returned as Chair of the Judges for this year's Firm Awards, and is a talent acquisition SME for Genomics England. Peter has been a member of The FIRM from the beginning, a former member of the advisory board and chair of the Judging panel since the very first FIRM Awards. His career spans global head of talent acquisition roles in firms such as CEB/Gartner, XL (Now AXA), Capita, Link Group and he is also the author of some of the papers in the FIRM's expansive resource library.

Emma is Director of Marketing Operations for Capita’s Recruiting Partnering Project with the British Army. Responsible for marketing engagement across all owned channels, taking those with awareness and interest and converting them to applicants by showing the breath of the Army offer in a fresh and exciting way. She was previously a Resourcing Partner and member of the Resourcing Leadership Team at LV= where she was responsible for Employer Brand, attract and social strategy, working to ensure the group brand and employer brand and strategy aligned.

Heather is all about people and talent, identifying what motivates teams and supporting them to deliver great results, develop their careers and be successful. Heather started her career in hotel management but swiftly moving to recruitment for slightly more social hours! Heather has experience in all aspects of the recruitment industry, having worked in external Agency recruitment, Managed Services, RPO, and latterly moving to an In-house role.

Jon Hull is a veteran of the Recruitment industry, spanning a wide range of industries including, Distribution, Professional services, Financial Services, and Construction. He has been named in the most Influential voices in the industry on several occasions. He is passionate about ensuring that Resourcing is at the forefront of the commercial discussion, solving business issues through people and recruitment. He has a background in developing teams, leading transformation and data led decision making and the power of telling stories through data.

Jennifer was formerly the Global Head of Talent Acquisition and Employer Brand for Mondelez International, one of the world's largest snacks companies with 2019 net revenues of $26billion, over 90,000 employees and operations across 165 countries globally. Jennifer set and led the global TA COE strategy, agenda and organization of close to 300 TA professionals across 14 Business Units in N. America, Latin America, Europe and AMEA. She brought the team to new heights winning awards for Global Onboarding, their Global Employer Brand launch and Global Exec TA. For

Simon is a Resourcing leader with 10 years + experience within the UK resourcing scene. With a background in major resourcing turnaround projects, functional talent acquisition transformations and currently responsible for TA at the UK's Largest Private Healthcare Provider, Circle Health Group. Simon’s unconventional approach focuses on innovative and market disrupting talent attraction campaigns, hard hitting EVPs, process automation, modernisation of TA functions, and zany candidate experience methodologies. Simon’s sector background spans healthcare, logistics, outsourcing and construction.

Mark joined the global life science business Abcam as VP Talent Acquisition and Development in 2018 after enjoying over 20 years’ experience across HR in global roles at Marks & Spencer and Tesco. Throughout his career he has enjoyed enabling business growth through effective talent strategy including being part of the team contributing to Tesco growing from £9 - £72 billion revenue in 14 years  and more recently Abcam tripling in size in just 5 years to c.3 billion market cap. Mark is inspired by Abcam’s purpose, the work it does and how it enables positive impact on society. Outside of work he enjoys time with his family and sport including usually watching West Bromwich Albion losing on a regular basis.

In his current role, Will leads Total Workforce Strategy and Talent Acquisition Technology, Processes & Experiences at AstraZeneca, the global Biopharmaceutical organisation headquartered in Cambridge, UK. This involves managing the global external workforce programmes including Contingent Workforce and Outsourced Service Providers as well as the supplier relationships, processes, governance and technology which supports these programmes. Additionally, Will oversees the compliance, continuous improvement & innovation of the Technology & Processes that Talent Acquisition operate within and the Experiences created for Candidates, Hiring Managers and Recruiters.

Gemma is the Head of Recruitment at Wren Kitchens. Although her career in Recruitment only began 5 years ago, her passion for helping candidates achieve their dream job, alongside her love for recruitment strategy and innovation, has seen her rise quickly through the ranks. Becoming Head of Recruitment just over a year ago, Gemma not only looks after a large team of recruiters for the entire UK business, but also leads on strategic decisions and current market analysis. In her free time, Gemma likes to travel, venturing to the likes of New Zealand and Sri Lanka, alongside taking long walks with her Labradoodle Pippa

Erin has been in the world of In-house Recruitment for 11 years. She has worked across a range of sectors including Financial Services, Charity and Retail. She started her HR career with Merlin Entertainments, and since has worked for Nuffield Health, The Body Shop and Domestic & General, leading on recruitment for head office roles. At The Body Shop, she was their Early Careers Lead, with ownership for the Undergraduate and Graduate Programme, in alignment with L'Oréal. She has been an active member of The Firm for the last few years and won The Firm Awards Best Small Recruitment Team in 2022. She loves working within the industry, the people, and is always keen to connect, share insights and best practise openly.

Jose is originally from Venezuela and has lived for over 20 years and Germany, where he started his career in Talent Acquisition in recruitment agencies and later in the field of executive search. Since 2016, Jose has been a passionate in-house Talent recruiter and career coach. He supported different businesses in hiring the best talent in the market and creating talent attraction strategies. Currently, he is leading the Talent Acquisition and Employer Branding team at Tipico, the biggest sports betting provider in the German market. In the last 2 years, he and his team developed a new employer brand for the group and won the firm award for the best career website. Jose is a football enthusiast and passionate about ancient art and history, and that's his geeky side.