Zoom Interactive Event: Strategies For Downsizing With Compassion and Care

Ian has worked at Bird & Bird since 1996, where he currently co-heads the International Employment Group and leads the employment team in London. Specialising in ensuring that clients, wherever they are based around the world, receive the level of support to get the best from their key asset – their people. Understanding the importance to clients of receiving advice from a trusted adviser, combining legal expertise with honesty, acute awareness of a constantly changing world and how those changes will impact their workforce and business. Ian’s aim is to ensure delivery of more than legal advice but to produce solutions based on a nuanced exercise of judgment of clients particular circumstances and priorities. Advising on all aspects of employment law on a multi-jurisdictional basis, moving people around the globe, protecting business interests, restructurings (including post-acquisition integration), investigations, establishing and maintaining an ethical workplace and evaluating people risks.

Bird & Bird also keep clients informed of legal developments and trends and most importantly how those developments and trends impact business to enable planning and decision-making in a controlled manner, rather than simply react to events.

Julie-ann is a Chartered Member of the CIPD with over 25 years’ experience working across a broad range of HR remits and in a variety of sectors including utilities, financial services, manufacturing, engineering, and logistics and distribution. Combining placing employees at the heart of everything she does with a pragmatic and collaborative approach, she is passionate about taking on challenges which drive cultural and sustained change. Currently, heading up several functions at Honda of the UK Manufacturing Ltd (HUM) including Corporate Communications, Associate and Organisational Development, and Associate Engagement. HUM announced in February 2019 that it will close its Swindon production facility in July 2021 with the loss of over 3,000 jobs. Since the closure announcement, Julie-ann has been leading several projects focusing on supporting leaders and associates through this significant period of change.

Gillian has worked as a senior HR practitioner and OD specialist for several organisations including Swiss Re, Vodafone and BAA. Prior to her HR career, she was a management consultant with Deloitte Consulting and is also a qualified solicitor. Gillian has written various CRF reports on subjects including HR strategy, organisation design and development, leadership development, coaching and diversity.

JC is Chief Executive Officer for the UK and Ireland of LHH, the UK’s leading integrated talent development and career outplacement provider. She oversees consulting and projects with more than 1,000 of the world’s largest companies annually, helping them transform their workforces to be future-ready. JC is a highly experienced CEO and Board member with more than 25 years of experience leading £100 million+ international consulting businesses in a wide range of sectors, including social/economic policy, energy, infrastructure, environment, health, and education. She is also a member of the CBI’s Economic Growth Board, a Senior Leadership Fellow at St. George’s House, Windsor Castle, and has been a board member in international subsidiaries (US, UK, India, and Belgium) of NASDAQ and LSE/AIM listed companies. She has significant experience in successful M&A, and large-scale commercial and government business development. JC is passionate about transforming the world of work by helping every individual reach his/her full potential, both individually and by transforming the companies in which they work in a way that creates a win-win by making employees more fulfilled and businesses more profitable. Throughout her career, she has focused on both generating high performing leaders and supporting highly challenged groups, including over-50’s, women, apprentices, veterans, exiting prisoners, and people with disabilities. She spent 9 years on the board of FedCap, a US-headquartered charity that helps people with barriers to employment find jobs and gain financial independence. JC holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from Brown University in the US, and her education includes studies on the European Economic Community (now European Union) at the Institute for European Studies at the University of Freiburg in Germany and studies on Mergers & Acquisitions at the Kellogg School of Business in the US.