The key to success
Meet the Work Foundation team and our associates.
Our Team
Our core team are at the heart of our organisation, bringing together vast research expertise and professional services skills to deliver and promote our high quality applied research that influences public policies and organisational practices while empowering individuals.
Our Associates
We are proud to work closely with a number of associates who share the values and vision of the Work Foundation. Our associates offer broad expertise from leadership and organisational development to economic and skills assessments. For enquiries about our associates, please contact info@theworkfoundation.com
Heather Carey
Research & Strategy Specialist
Sean McIlveen
OD and HR Specialist
Sean has global experience at Ford and Rolls-Royce, holding a variety of positions both in the UK and internationally, with responsibility for all aspects of human resources in the UK, US, Europe and Asia-Pacific. He now works extensively with UK SMEs, advanced engineering and manufacturing businesses and government agencies.
Ben Verinder
FCIPR, Dip CIPR, Founding Chartered PR Practitioner, MMRS
Ben is Founder and MD of a management consultancy, reputation and market research, public relations and communications training agency, specialising in the education sector. His clients include ZSL, NATO, UK Government, City & Guilds Group and a wide range of UK universities, colleges and school groups.
Lesley Giles
Director of Lesley Giles Associates
Director of L.G. Associates, Lesley Giles undertakes analysis and evaluation, and provides policy advice around workplace innovation and the world of work. Until recently, she was Director at the Work Foundation where she continues to work as an associate, offering insights to drive their work programme seeking to champion Good Work.
Carol Stanfield
Labour Market Research and Policy Evaluation Specialist
Carol’s experience brings together research, policy evaluation, policy design and implementation and programme management. She is able to translate research into policy and practice, solve difficult problems and work constructively with stakeholders.
Barry Flack
People, Culture and HR Technology Expert
People, Culture and HR Technology expert. He has been involved in business change for 25 years, working in senior HR and talent roles with such organisations as BT, O2, Barclays, UBS, Lebara Mobile and Primark to name a few. More recently, through his own consultancy and various partnerships, he is on a mission to help large and small organisations grow, transform and adapt to the changing world of work.
Dr Maria Kordowicz
Psychologist and Qualitative Organisational Research Specialist
Maria is a Chartered Psychologist and Management Consultant, specialising in qualitative service evaluation and organisational wellbeing. Maria has been carrying out independent organisational development and research consultancy work on behalf of public, private and third sector clients for over 15 years.
Nigel Hudson
Enterprise, Skills and Vocational Learning
Much of Nigel’s recent work has focused on enterprise, technology and related policy. He has extensive experience as a researcher and practitioner in small and start-up businesses. A particular interest is the growth of self-employment, the role of technology in facilitating this and the implications for continuing learning and development.
Heather Downey
Health and Wellbeing Specialist
Heather Downey is a specialist in work, health and wellbeing projects. She has worked at senior levels in the public, private and third sectors in the UK across health, skills, regeneration and environmental organisations. Heather has a longstanding commitment to local NHS governance structures, with a particular focus on working age patient and public involvement.
Dr Tony Moody
Economist and Skills Specialist
From 2013-2017, Tony led the Enterprise Analysis team in BEIS, the UK’s central Government business department. Tony has worked as a Senior Civil Servant for 15 years, previously in the education and employment departments. He has led on providing the economic and statistical analysis behind large items of Government expenditure.
Professor Anthony Woolf
Health and Wellbeing Specialist
Tony is Honorary Professor of Rheumatology, University of Exeter Medical School, and Plymouth Peninsula Medical and Dental College, and Clinical Director of the NHS National Institute of Health Research Clinical Research Network Southwest Peninsula. He is Chair of the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance, UK (ARMA).
John Kirkham
OD & HR Specialist
David Coats
Employment Relations Specialist
Perry Timms
OD & HR Specialist
Perry Timms has a mission: to design a better future of work for us all to lead more fulfilling lives. He is Founder and Chief Energy Officer of PTHR, with over 25 years experience in people, technology and organisational change and transformation. In October 2017, Perry’s first book project - Transformational HR - was published by Kogan Page.
Mervyn Dinnen
HR & Talent Analyst
Mervyn Dinnen is an HR and talent analyst who researches and advises recruitment and HR technology businesses on the emerging trends impacting the attraction, hiring, retention and development of employees. He is author of the book Exceptional Talent (published by Kogan Page in 2017), an award winning recruitment and workplace blogger, and an international speaker and writer.
Professor Anne Green
Labour Market Specialist
Anne Green is Professor of Regional Economic Development at City REDI (Regional Economic Development Institute), Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham. She is a career researcher, having worked at the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies at the University of Newcastle, at the University of Cardiff and for many years at the Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick.
Gareth Griffiths
Economist
Gareth is an experienced economist with professional expertise in the vocational skills, higher education and local economic growth policy areas. Throughout a 17 year career in the Government Economic Service (GES), he carried out extensive work on the economic returns to training and qualifications in Further Education, Higher Education and Adult learning, and is an expert on the role of skills in the labour market.
Professor Philip Taylor
Ageing Workforce Specialist
Philip Taylor has almost 30 years of experience as an expert researcher, policy writer and governmental and NGO advisor on workforce ageing. His interests include individual orientations to work and retirement, employer behaviour towards older workers and international developments in public policy aimed at extending working life.
Dr Mark Matthews
Innovation Strategy and Public Policy Specialist
Mark Matthews is a specialist on innovation strategy and public policy. He has worked at senior levels in academia and consulting in both the UK and in Australia. Over 2016/17 he helped to launch the consultancy firm SDG Economic Development (for whom he now works as a Special Advisor) and is currently working on a range of innovation strategy projects.
Jacqui Lyttle
Health and Wellbeing Specialist
Mark Spilsbury
Economics and Labour Market Specialist
Ken Walsh
Economics and Labour Market Specialist
Kenneth Walsh is a labour economist with extensive national and international experience of applied research and consultancy in the fields of employment, education and skills. He is Director of the Training & Employment Research Network (TERN) and Associate Fellow, Institute for Employment Studies (IES).
Fernando Artigiano
Web Development Specialist
Francesca Froy
Labour Market and Local Economies Policy Specialist
Francesca is a freelance international advisor on local employment and economic development policies. Until 2015, Francesca was a senior policy analyst at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) where she led international reviews on local employment and skills strategies, and on policies to raise skills utilisation and job quality at the local level.
Simon Fanshawe OBE
Simon Fanshawe OBE
Simon Fanshawe is co-founder of Diversity by Design – one of the leading consultancies in the UK in supporting effective action to change the diversity numbers for organisations and to develop the widest range of talent in businesses. To this end he developed proprietary DbD INSIGHT tools to enhance the power of staff engagement programmes.
Professor Peter Totterdill
OD & HR Specialist
Peter Totterdill is a Director of Workplace Innovation Europe, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of better ways of working through research, the dissemination of good practice, policy advocacy and practical consultancy. He is a passionate advocate of organisational practices that combine high performance and high quality of working life.
Dr Paul Sissons
Labour Market Specialist
Dr Linda Holbeche
OD & HR Specialist
Linda Holbeche is an international consultant, developer, researcher and author in the fields of HR, leadership, strategy and change. Through her consultancy, research and writing Linda seeks to contribute to leading-edge thinking and practice. Linda enjoys helping leaders and other change agents to make their organisations more agile and their environments conducive to 'good work'.
Dr John Philpott
Economist
John Philpott is a professional economist who, in a career spanning more than 35 years, has focused primarily on labour market issues. He currently runs The Jobs Economist, an independent consultancy specialising in analysis of employment and pay trends and related public policy subjects. He is a regular media commentator, blogger and platform speaker on employment and the workplace.
Jon Ingham
OD & HR Specialist
Jon has worked as a chemical engineer, an IT consultant, a government sponsored workforce development advisor and an international HR director. As an independent consultant, Jon has worked with companies in the UK and Europe, the Middle East, South Africa, Asia and Australia. He has provided training and spoken at leading HR, IT and Property conferences around the world.
Jane Abraham
Health, Work and Wellbeing Specialist
Jane is a Policy Fellow with the Government's Joint Work and Health unit and works within the Employers Policy Team. Jane leads on work to build the confidence and knowledge of employers to enable them to recruit and retain people with long term conditions and disabilities. She works with external key stakeholders to achieve this.
Hannah Hope
Research Specialist
Dr Glenn Athey
Local Economic Policy Specialist
Glenn Athey is a skills, labour market, and local economic development specialist and Managing Director of My Local Economy, with 20 years of experience working in the field. Glenn has held senior management positions at a LEP, three regional development agencies, and the Centre for Cities. He undertook pioneering work on labour market and skills analysis at Futureskills.
Stephanie Scott-Davies
Communications Specialist
Professor Geraint Johnes
Economics and Labour Market Specialist
Geraint Johnes is Professor of Economics at Lancaster University. He was formerly Director of the Work Foundation. His research specialism is in the area of labour economics, and he has a particular interest in the economics of education. He has published numerous articles in this area in journals such as the Economic Journal, Oxford Economic Papers, and the Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics.
Antonella Cardone
European Projects Specialist
Antonella Cardone is Executive Director of the Fit for Work Global Alliance (FfW GA). The FfW GA is a multi-stakeholder coalition championing change in health and work policy and practice, to benefit people with chronic health conditions. For over a decade, the FfW GA, led by the Work Foundation, has driven change for better lives worldwide.
Rosemary Thomas
Research Specialist
Peter Wall
Leadership Development Specialist
Peter spent the first 23 years of his career in the automotive sector, initially from a marketing perspective and then subsequently in quality improvement, strategic planning, product development etc. In the latter stages of this time he was the programme leader of the organisational change process that ultimately resulted in Jaguar Land Rover winning the Outstanding Workplace of the Year category at the 2006 National Business Awards.
Peter Forbes
OD & HR Specialist
Professor Michael West
Organisational Psychologist
Michael West is Head of Thought Leadership at the King's Fund, a policy advice and charitable body focused on developing health and social care services in England and internationally. He is professor of work and organisational psychology at Lancaster University Management School and Emeritus Professor at Aston University. He was formerly Executive Dean of Aston Business School.
Marjory Mair
OD & HR Specialist
Marianne Huggett
OD & HR Specialist
Maggie Smith
Leadership Development Specialist
Liz Cochrane
Employee Engagement Specialist
Liz is a director of Facta Consult, and is passionate about researching employee experiences to support organisations in achieving a 'good work' environment. In addition to her expertise in qualitative and quantitative research, Liz has over twenty years’ experience of working with organisations from all sectors
Julia Woodford
Employee Engagement Specialist
A Director of Facta Consult, Julia is expert in the design of high impact diagnostics: to deliver lasting positive organisational transformation. Originally a journalist and subeditor (and then Senior Consultant at the Industrial Society/Work Foundation for 11 years), Julia has a keen eye for detail which she likes to distil into its essence to paint a clear picture for her clients.
Jane Sullivan
OD & HR Specialist
