Rob is Professor of Organizational Psychology at Queen Mary, University of London and Associate Research Director at CRF. He is also currently a Visiting Professor of Evidence-Based HRM at Birkbeck University of London and Professor at Oslo Nye Høyskole. He was previously co-founder and Scientific Director of the Center for Evidence-Based Management and has held positions at the Institute for Employment Studies, London School of Economics, Kings’s College (University of London), Bath University and University of Edinburgh. His publishing and research focus on topics including wellbeing, emotions, stress, motivation and everyday work behaviour.

As a seasoned CPO with over 20 years of experience operating at the C-level in global organisations, Bev Cunningham brings energy, dynamism, and a sharp focus to all she does. Bev’s background is in Human Resources with a particular emphasis on transforming organisations to drive growth, enhancing employee engagement, and building talent in leadership and digital capabilities. Her experience spans multiple sectors, including IT services, technology, FMCG, and manufacturing. Her expertise in talent management, organisational design, and leadership development has consistently delivered meaningful results, such as a substantial increase in employee engagement scores and the successful acquisition and integration of digital services businesses. She is enthusiastic about fostering a culture of trust, innovation, and continuous learning within organisations.

Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School. Alex has a PhD from MIT as a Fulbright Scholar and was previously a tenured professor at Wharton and an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. Alex has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos and given the TED talk “What to Trust in a Post-Truth World” and the TEDx talks “The Social Responsibility of Business” and “The Pie-Growing Mindset” with a combined 2.7 million views. Alex’s book, Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit, was a Financial Times Book of the Year for 2020.

Craige Heaney is an accomplished HR Professional with extensive experience in leadership development, strategic talent management, and organisational development across various industries, including FMCG, Retail, and Energy. With a unique blend of commercial acumen and a performance driven approach, Craige has a proven track record of driving large scale interventions that deliver bottom line growth. Over the course of 15 years, Craige has worked with leading companies including Pandora, Diageo, Centrica and PepsiCo. With a focus on helping them navigate complex challenges by enhancing leadership capabilities, optimising talent strategies, and large-scale people transformation. Understanding the context and ambition of the companies has been critical in tailoring people solutions that ‘stick’ and demonstrate value through growth and efficiency. Driven by a passion for developing people and driving organisational performance, Craige applies his background in Occupational Psychology to develop a cause and effect model in driving change. Defining success measures from the outset have become critical in prioritising, developing and deploying change that works. This has been enabled through effective leadership, strategic talent management, and performance optimisation that delivers sustainable change.

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.