Hedley May Thinking

We hosted an interactive webinar ‘Work Different, Achieve More’ with Helmut Schuster, special advisor and formerly Group HRD of BP plc, on Wednesday 4th November from 1200 - 1300. Helmut was joined by colleagues Levi Lundgreen and Ross O’Brien who shared personal and professional perspectives on a fast-changing world of work and how organisations can best capture the various emerging opportunities to boost productivity.

Nigel Boardman, Slaughter and May talks to Nick Hedley about what makes a great General Counsel. Nigel Boardman of Slaughter and May discusses the subject of “What Makes a Great General Counsel?” with Nick Hedley. This podcast follows an in-depth discussion at a lunch attended by some of the leading General Counsels in the UK. A great General Counsel is not “like a hamster in a cage who gets up in the morning, unthinkingly staggers your way on to the wheel, runs as fast as you can until it’s time to go home, staggers home and goes to bed only to get on the wheel again the next morning” – Nigel Boardman, Slaughter and May. Nigel shares his views on some of the great General Counsel with whom he has worked, and the attributes that they display. Nigel Boardman Slaughter and May Nigel’s broad practice includes domestic and international corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, IPOs, demergers, private acquisitions and disposals, private equity, public takeovers, issues of compliance and corporate governance and insolvency, restructurings and investigations. He also practises as a sports lawyer.

Helen Mahy CBE former General Counsel & Company Secretary of National Grid and Rosemary Martin, Group General Counsel & Company Secretary, Vodafone. As well as managing large legal teams they have or have had responsibility for Diversity and Inclusion in their respective organisations. In an illuminating discussion the two share some of the challenges they have experienced and the practical steps that can be taken to create a more diverse and inclusive work place … Diversity and inclusion applies to everybody, from the CEO to the janitor, and unless you get it right at all levels you are not going to move forward…”

A year after the Davies Report, there has been step change in the number of women appointed to FTSE 100 Boards. However, 87% of these board seats are non-executive. So how much has really changed and what more needs to be done to ensure women are better represented at all levels in organisations? Caroline Waters has established herself as a leading voice on diversity and inclusion both within BT and externally, regularly providing advice and guidance to the Government and industry. Caroline was awarded an OBE in 2010 for her services to diversity and equal opportunities. In this interview she gives her view on the controversial question of quotas and discusses some of the key barriers to progress and how these might be addressed.

Peter Newhouse SVP Global Head of Reward, Unilever Peter Newhouse discusses how Unilever is understanding reward from the consumers’ point of view and how the demands on Heads of Reward have changed now that we are in “the era of application”. He also dispenses some invaluable advice for the next generation of reward leaders. Peter joined Unilever in September 2010 as Global Head of Reward and a member of Unilever HR’s Leadership Team. He is a frequent speaker at international conferences, has had articles published on reward in newspapers and specialist publications and has featured on television and radio as an expert on pay. Peter was previously Group Head of Remuneration at Standard Chartered Bank and a senior executive at Ford. After graduating with a Law degree, Peter started his career in reward in 1980 when he joined the American consulting company Organization Resources Counselors Inc (ORC). As well as developing the reward consultancy services of MM&K, specialists in executive and incentive compensation, he has also run his own successful consulting business, Peter Newhouse & Co.