Richard Brice, MBA, CMgr, FCMI, Director
A senior HR consultant and director – Richard is a rarity in having over thirty years’ HR experience, but is academically qualified in general management. His particular specialism is HR Strategy/Management at executive level, but thoroughly grounded in the wider business context. Richard operates at strategic and tactical levels, in partnership with business leaders to enhance organisational performance. Although he has extensive experience of all aspects of human resource management in blue chip companies, SMEs and the public sector, he retains a freshness of approach which ensures innovative - yet practical - people management solutions. Hands on experience includes leading an HR team servicing 28,000 staff; managing complex employee relations issues against the backdrop of transformational change, including mergers, acquisitions, disposals and large-scale outsourcing; as well as delivering leadership development and cultural change programmes. A team player, creative, powerful communicator in written and spoken media, Richard has a strong record of delivery – in substance, to cost and on time.
Karen Barnes, Chartered FCIPD, Director
Karen is a senior HR consultant with over 20 years’ HR experience working across different disciplines, client bases, single and multi-site locations providing the full range of generalist HR support to staff and managers from recruitment through to induction, performance management, career progression and trade union negotiation. Karen’s specialism is recruitment & selection, but she also has significant change management experience covering business start up, mergers and acquisitions, organisation redesign, rebranding and cultural change programmes. Although primarily working in the private sector, Karen has also developed wide public sector experience. An HR strategist with a track record of delivering integrated HR solutions in line with business objectives, Karen is an NLP practitioner with well-developed facilitation and personal coaching skills gained from working in a dynamic commercial environment. She is also Level B qualified in psychometric testing and is a qualified MBTI practitioner.
Stella Day, BA (Hons), Chartered FCIPD, Director
Stella is an experienced senior HR professional and project manager who focuses on the delivery of real outcomes in the people arena. She has recently diversified away from her private sector foundations to work primarily with local authority clients. With almost 20 years’ experience across the full range of HR activities, she has managed major change programmes covering business start-ups, BPR, integration projects, disposals and merger & acquisitions. She has also contributed to HR strategy and plans on a pan European basis in a dynamic trading environment. Stella has extensive expertise in equality issues including equal pay audits, diversity policies, equality action planning and training. She works closely with organizations to help them understand their issues, identify solutions and plan practical outcomes – from policy design and implementation through to large-scale business transformation. She has excellent interpersonal skills including negotiation, coaching and counselling backed by a Certificate in Counselling Skills and is a qualified MBTI practitioner. Stella is also a tutor at Suffolk New College on the CIPD Certificate in Personnel Practice Course and is a school governor at two local schools.
Brian England, Chartered FCIPD, Director
Brian is a senior HR consultant with 30 years’ HR management experience, which sprang from a career start in general business and accountancy. Brian is a realist and accomplished communicator who brings a practical operational perspective to everything he does. An operational HR specialist, Brian has managed large groups of HR staff to provide business partnership with line managers delivering against the full range of HR activity from recruiting new staff to dealing with difficult people issues. A completer finisher by nature, Brian has developed and implemented HR strategy and HR measurement tools, as well as managing the introduction of two major HR information systems and exploiting their capability. Brian, who keeps himself at the forefront of HR thinking as Chair of his local CIPD Group has recently delivered projects providing compensation and benefits, policy development and employee relations specialist support. He has also managed major change management programmes involving mergers and acquisitions and internal re-organisations.
Lisa Thompson, BA (Hons) Chartered MCIPD, Consultant
With over 13 years experience in operational Human Resources spanning the public, private and third sectors, Lisa has worked across organisations of all sizes and cultures. Lisa’s experience has been in leading large HR teams to deliver a high standard of generalist service covering the entire employee life cycle. With an interest in culture and employee relations, Lisa has delivered employee engagement and recognition programmes and developed valuable working relationships with Trade Unions and Employee Representatives, leading to real benefits for the employer and employee. Lisa is an NLP Practitioner which underpins and supports her work in coaching senior management and their teams. Lisa is also Level A and B qualified in Occupational Testing.
Chris Whitfield, Chartered MCIPD, Consultant
Chris began his career in operational and management roles gaining hands on experience of sales and business administration before specialising in organisation and management development. He has held senior HR positions in a range of blue chip financial services companies as well as a global professional services firm. Over the past 10 years as an HR and OD Consultant he has worked in the public, private and not for profit sectors gaining considerable experience in change management methodologies, process improvement and systems thinking as well as generalist HR. A particular strength is the ability to work with senior managers at group and individual levels to improve their performance. In recent years Chris has worked on and facilitated the development of business strategies, transformational change projects, performance management systems, reward strategies, senior partner and management development, talent management, staff engagement and HR and business process improvement. Chris is also Level B qualified in psychometric testing and is a qualified OPQ32, Firo B and MBTI practitioner.
Jackie Clifford, BSc (Hons), FITOL, Consultant
Jackie has been working in the field of learning and development since 1990, prior to which she also worked in recruitment consultancy and generalist HR. With experience in the private, public and voluntary sectors, Jackie is in an excellent position to work with clients to develop learning and development solutions that are specifically tailored to meet their needs. She has always taken a consultative and facilitative approach to her work which has enabled her to produce results that meet identified requirements in a business-focused way. Jackie is as comfortable working on strategic development as she is when she is developing training materials and programmes. She particularly enjoys helping trainers to develop and, as well as designing and delivering many successful training programmes, she is the co-author of 3 books, all published by Kogan Page; "The Coaching Handbook" has been translated into Polish, Russian and Japanese. In 2007/8 she worked with a high profile Non-Departmental Public Body to develop a bespoke qualification for a group of their staff in addition to supporting a range of other ongoing learning and development projects. Jackie is a qualified assessor (D32/33), holds a PGCE, has the BPS Level A qualification and is accredited to use the 16PF psychological profiling tool; she is a Fellow of the Institute of Training and Occupational Learning. As well as working as a consultant, Jackie is a volunteer Ambassador for Girlguiding UK and is chair of a working group developing a Learning and Development strategy for the organisation's adult volunteers (of which there are over 65,000); she is also a member of the local CIPD committee and a part-time tutor on the Suffolk New College Certificate in Personnel Practice course.
Jeremy Webster MSc, Chartered MCIPD, Consultant
Jeremy is a Senior HRD consultant with over twenty five years’ experience in management development and training, specialising for the last fifteen years in management and leadership development. This experience has been gained in both the private & public sectors. Among other things in this time he has developed competency frameworks, performance management systems, and managing training and development to support both a business start up and a merger. Jeremy’s leadership and delivery style is practical, flexible and client centred focusing on making a real difference on performance. His work as a consultant has covered a range of management and leadership subjects including Performance Management, Change Management and Project Management using a range of management and leadership models. His approach has always been to help groups and individuals understand the practical application of such theories and models. A Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Jeremy has an MSc in Organisation & People Development, a Diploma in Performance Coaching, and is accredited to use a range of psychometric tests including MBTI, FIRO-B and OPQ.
Peter Revell, Consultant
With a 25 year career spanning public and private sectors and qualified in PRINCE2 and NEBOSH methodology, Peter’s key skills are around developing and managing change programmes often linked with accommodation reviews and relocation projects. With a keen interest in how the creation and use of effective work environments can encompass and stimulate cultural change objectives, (“work environments” in this context are not just the offices or the buildings we occupy - they include the way people work, the processes they follow, where they work from and the technology they use), Peter has led and delivered, on time and within budget, a number of multi-million pound change programmes. He utilises a collaborative approach along with robust programme management tools and techniques to help leaders drive change within their organisations.
Tel: 01473 281 650
Blue Star
Human Resources Ltd
13-15 Tower Street
Ipswich
Suffolk
IP1 3BE