Speakers

Joe Wykes, Chief Executive, Jollyes

Sharlene John, Head of Recruitment and Induction, Selfridges 

Sharlene is an award-winning business leader with over 20 years’ experience in HR and recruitment. Since joining Selfridges in 2021, Sharlene has been instrumental in making progress towards Selfridges goal of building an inclusive retail culture. She is focused on engaging and educating Selfridges leadership and management, raising awareness around DE&I, inclusive hiring and HR best practices. Her work has supported closing the gender pay gap and has increased representation at different levels across the business. 

Sharlene is a recognised business leader who was awarded a British Diversity Award in 2023 and has been recognised by Diversity in Retail as a Woman to Watch in Retail and a Retail Role Model. Her passion for DE&I extends beyond the workplace. She is an active member of her community, supporting local authorities providing career advice to young people and mentoring women to promote empowerment and self-belief. As a woman of colour in business, Sharlene knows first-hand how critical representation is. 

Sonia Astill, Chief People Officer, Wickes 

Sonia joined the Wickes Group as Chief People Officer in February 2019 having previously been an HR Director within the Travis Perkins Group. She previously held several senior HR roles in Kingfisher and Home Retail Group over 18 years, latterly as HR and Organisational Design director of Argos leading the people and organisation aspects of the digital transformation. 

Sonia is passionate about building engaging workplaces where everyone can feel at home and have experiences beyond the everyday. She firmly believes that an inclusive culture where diverse teams thrive drives better performance outcomes for the business and customers as well as benefiting communities and society. Her focus has been on embedding a colleague-fed-leader-led approach to inclusion and diversity at Wickes, ensuring that the conditions for change are in place through increased levels of education, awareness and data insight alongside the development of relevant policies and practices. 

Sarah Willett, Chief People Officer, The Very Group 

Having joined the executive board in 2019, Sarah oversees The Very Group’s people agenda and led work to establish the company's digital operating model and inclusive culture. She has been at The Very Group since 2009, playing an instrumental and wide-ranging role. As People Director, she delivered the organisational change that moved Very from a catalogue to pure play retailer and embedded the purpose and values that have supported The Very Group’s rapid digital transformation. Sarah was previously head of HR at Marks & Spencer. 

Tolulope Oke, Global Head of Inclusion and Diversity, Diageo 

Tolu has led large-scale national DE&I programmes across the charity sector, UK construction industry, higher education, retail and most recently tech. In 2020, Tolu joined AWS to lead DE&I programmes across EMEA and made Amazon history by launching the first Autism at Work programme. She served as a Global ID&E Customer Engagement Leader where she collaborated with AWS customers through community impact partnerships, collaborative events, and executive engagements. She is now the Global Head of Inclusion and Diversity at Diageo, partnering with senior stakeholders across multiple markets, geographies and business functions to deliver an exciting and progressive D&I ambition for Diageo colleagues, customers, and consumers worldwide. 

Sue Tunmore, Vice-President of People Operations, Asda

Sue Tunmore joined Asda as Vice-President of People Operations in January 2023. Sue is responsible for all areas of people business partnering across the business, as well as Asda’s People Services and Future programme team. 

Sue has extensive experience in both retail and HR. Before joining Asda, Sue spent seven years as People Director for Co-op in their food and support centre leadership teams. After supporting Co-op with its Retail Business Transformation programme, Sue also led Co-op business services for the group. 

Sue previously held director roles at Britvic Soft Drinks, Deloitte and Andersen Consulting on large-scale transformation programmes. Since 2021, Sue has been on the board of trustees for Community Integrated Care, one of the UK’s leading social care charities. 

Paula Coughlan, Chief People Officer, Communications and Sustainability Officer, Currys

Paula is Currys' Chief People, Communications and Sustainability Officer, a role she has held since 2019, when she joined with the ambition to build and lead a world-class People Team that could shape and drive the business' cultural transformation. The latest results put Currys in the global top 5% of businesses for colleague engagement scores. 

Paula has extensive experience in managing global transformation programmes and organisational design having amassed over two decades of HR experience. She is passionate about developing and attracting top talent, enabling the success of happy, engaged and skilled colleagues and a champion of flexible working.  

Before joining Currys, Paula held several leadership roles at McDonald's. Most recently, she was Global Chief People Strategy Officer, where she was responsible for nearly 2 million colleagues and had a global remit that spanned the business' youth opportunity programme, employer reputation, digital engagement, change management, organisational design and people analytics and insight.

Nataly Quinn, Head Of Retail Operations (Technology & Change), Holland & Barrett 

Nataly brings a wealth of experience and passion to her role at Holland & Barrett, where she has been an integral part of the team since 2020. As the driving force behind the deployment of new technologies and transformative changes across all 800 stores in the UK and Ireland, Nataly's leadership touches the lives of 4,500 colleagues daily.   

Under Nataly's guidance, Holland & Barrett has undergone a huge evolution, propelling its retail operations into the future while empowering colleagues to deliver exceptional service. Holland & Barrett won the Customer Gamechanger Award at the 2024 Retail Week Awards, awarded for the amazing in-house application, Cerebro. This recognition is a testament to Nataly's visionary leadership and collaboration to drive impactful change.

Sarah Bohn, Global Head of People Experience, Pret a Manger 

Sarah leads Pret's global people experience, bringing a human approach to workplace culture, with people, diversity, equity and belonging and wellbeing at the heart of the business.  

At Pret, Sarah oversees employer branding, communications, and engagement teams, shaping both what external talent and internal teams can expect of Pret and the reasons they join, believe in and stay. Before stepping into her current role, Sarah actively supported leadership development efforts across various markets, preparing Pret’s leaders for the company’s growth trajectory.  

In addition to her contributions at Pret, she extends her impact by sharing her expertise through teaching and training mindfulness for positive mental health. 

Robyn Richards, People Director, The Very Group

Robyn Richards is currently the People Director for the Very Group, a multi-brand online retailer and financial services provider.  Robyn is an experienced people director with over 16 years of working in HR, talent, and OD roles. Her HR experience to date has spanned global retailer JD Sports and UK retailer Pets at Home before joining the Very Group in October 2023.  She is passionate about talent and succession planning, OD, the role of generative AI in both the people function and wider organisation and how HR can be at the forefront of driving skills, capabilities, and behaviours to support the changes to the working environment. 

Matt Ingram-Smith, Senior Sales Manager, Tribepad 

After 10 years working in software sales and then recruitment, Matt managed to combine both worlds by joining Tribepad six years ago. He's passionate about helping recruiters hire better, fairer and faster, and empowering them to do what they do best. Tribepad is used by more than 27 million people across the globe in 16 languages. Clients include Greggs, Tesco, Subway, Home Bargains, Carpetright and Selfridges. 

Robyn Brack, Senior Principal Managing Partner, Workday

Robyn Brack joined Workday in October 2018, supporting its largest UK-headquartered customer executives to continuously realise their investment in the business. Originally from Australia, her professional life spans more than 30 years in the UK, Singapore and India, from entrepreneurial endeavours during the dot-com boom era to senior management appointments leading multicultural teams. 

Robyn’s remits at Workday have included HR shared services, rewards and benefits, HR technology, payroll, recruitment and learning design, and performance management.   

Duncan Roberts, Futurist and Senior Researcher, Cognizant

Currently with Cognizant Research, Duncan Roberts joined the company in 2019 as a Digital Strategy and Transformation Consultant in industries ranging from satellite communications to educational assessment. He has advised clients on utilising technology to meet strategic objectives and discover the art of the possible through innovation. Duncan recently worked on Cognizant’s latest research report with Oxford Economics, New Work, New World, on the impact of generative AI in the US economy and the workforce, presented at the 2024 World Economic Forum.

Before Cognizant, Duncan worked for one of the largest publishing houses in Europe, playing a leading role in the digital publishing revolution, helping transform their operations and launching new innovative products.

Ellis Hawthorne, Features Editor, Retail Week

Ellis Hawthorne is Features Editor at Retail Week. She was previously Digital and Social Editor at The Grocer.

Rebecca Taylor, Commercial Content Manager, Retail Week

Rebecca Taylor is Retail Week Connect’s Commercial Content Manager, and is responsible for helping to grow and deliver Retail Week’s bespoke sponsored reports and events, across themes from stores and the consumer to supply chains and tech.

With more than seven years' experience in content-focused roles, Rebecca specialises in across-the-board brand interactions and storytelling; engaging audiences at all stages of their brand lifecycle through authentic, vibrant and quality content.