Rory is an accomplished Managing Director with over 30 years’ international experience with sector leading organisations in Healthcare, Technology, FMCG, Executive Education and Organisation Consulting sectors. His career has evolved from a corporate background, having been on the regional board of Johnson & Johnson (Middle East) and has held several leadership positions in the United Kingdom and South Africa. Over the past 20 years, Rory’s focus and expertise has been working with senior executives and organisations on leadership, strategy and change, where his work received a Silver Class Award at the highly acclaimed Management Consulting Awards (UK). 

As the Associate Dean and Head of Sport and High-Performance Business at Hult Ashridge Executive Education (UK), a Premier Executive Leadership Coach with the J&J Human Performance Institute (USA) and an Advanced Neuroscientific High-Performance Coach. Rory works extensively with Boards and Executive team leaders, focusing on achieving peak performance in challenging and complex environments. 

His work in this area is informed by his research into the high-performance parallels between executive business and elite sports teams, highlighted in his TEDxTalk ‘The Reality of Winning’.

Rory earned an MBA from City University, London, during which time he led a project team for the globalisation of GlaxoSmithKline’s nutritional healthcare division, and holds an MSc in Organization Consulting and Change, where he researched into accelerated development processes for senior leaders. He is also the External Examiner for the MSc in Sports Leadership at Cardiff Metropolitan Universities, School of Sport.

Reed has been working in HR roles, including L&D, HRBP and Talent Management for almost 30 years, across a number of Blue Chip global organisations. He left the UK in 2014 to move to a role based in Abu Dhabi and is now the Senior Vice President for Talent Management at e& (a global technology group). He leads the Talent Acquisition and Internal Mobility, Performance Management, Learning and Development, Assessment, Succession Planning and Executive Development teams. He’s focused on helping e& to have the right talent in the right roles at the right time with the right capabilities..

John Whelan is a Director at Corporate Research Forum. Formerly UK HR Director of BAE Systems, the FTSE 100 defence, security, and aerospace company, John’s experience and strengths lie in business and HR Transformation, Organisation Development and Employee Relations. Prior to joining BAE, he held a variety of HR roles in engineering, technology and manufacturing businesses across the telecommunications and semi-conductor industries including Matra-Marconi Space where he was HR Director for the UK and, latterly, Group HRD.

A Chartered Occupational Psychologist with over 20 years’ experience, Kathryn leads Talent Management and Assessment for FAB globally. Originally from a consulting background, Kathryn has been in the UAE since 2010 where she set up the Dubai office for Cubiks MEA and worked in the talent and assessment space at ADIA. Kathryn has a wealth of experience across talent management, leadership development, recruitment and assessment; working across a range of industries. A trusted advisor to senior executives, Kathryn has a core focus and drive around unlocking potential and implementing innovative yet pragmatic talent management and assessment practices globally.