Danielle Amara Cotton
Former London Fire Commissioner
Dany joined the London Fire Brigade in 1988 aged 18, she was one of 30 women firefighters from a workforce of 9000.
She worked her way up through the ranks and in 2000 was the first woman Station Officer in the UK. Dany served in a number of different roles and departments including being the Director for Safety and Assurance prior to her promotion in 2017 where she became the first woman Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade in its’ 151 year history.
Dany has attended many high profile operational incidents including the Clapham train crash in 1988, just a few months after leaving training school. She was in charge of the Cutty Sark fire in 2007, and a 40 pump fire on the day of the Olympic closing ceremony in 2012. During her first six months in the role of Commissioner she led the Brigade during major incidents including the unprecedented fire at Grenfell Tower and the terrorist incidents at London Bridge and Finsbury Park.
She retired from LFB at the end of 2019. Dany was the Chair/Vice Chair of Women in the Fire Service (WFS) for 19 years. In 2004, Dany was the first woman to be awarded the Queen's Fire Service Medal for distinguished service, in 2010 she was named by The Independent as one of the ‘100 women who changed the world” and in 2011 was voted among the most influential women in London. In 2015 she won the Public Service Category at the First Women Awards and in 2017 she won the Women of the Year
Leadership Award.
Sessions
Thursday Sep. 24 - 06:00pm - 06:30pm (30 min)
Liana Attard
Partner, Asia Zone Consulting Leader at Mercer Health & Benefits (Singapore) Pte Ltd
Liana is a Partner based in the Singapore office and is the Multinational Client Group Leader for Asia. She has worked 18 years in the insurance, broking and consulting industry, with 15 years of experience focused on international consulting & employee benefit advice. Liana has been in Asia (Singapore) for 10 years and 12 years altogether with Mercer (originally based in Sydney)
Liana is well known across the Asia region for both her client work and leadership within Mercer. She is the Lead Chair for our Women@Mercer BRG for Asia. She is an ambassador of diversity and inclusion in the workplace across Asia driving thought leadership and related solutions on mental wellbeing, aging workforce and structuring inclusive rewards programs.
Liana is renowned for leading many global client relationships and advising on benefit and health strategies. The regional health consulting team has worked with some of Mercer’s largest GBM clients and under Liana’s leadership the regional health consulting business in Asia has grown by 150% over the last 3 years. Liana has also led on identifying emerging client needs, expanding Mercer solutions available in the market and for Mercer’s clients.
Liana is also the Mercer representative for the MMC Asia Pacific Risk Committee looking at issues impacting Asia and organisations from a risk, workforce, aging & automation and climate change/reliance perspective.
Prior to joining Mercer in 2006 as the Australian Health & Benefits Consulting Lead, Liana worked for various life insurance offices in roles ranging from business development to product management.
Sessions
Tuesday Sep. 22 - 04:05pm - 04:25pm (20 min)
Lewis Garrad
Principal & Business Lead, People Science, Growth Markets at Mercer
Lewis Garrad is the Principal and business lead for Mercer’s People Science consulting practice across the Growth Markets region (fast growth economies). In his role, he applies his training in organisational psychology and experience in the development of data driven talent, engagement and employee performance programmes to help business leaders and HR executives design people practices that improve organisational performance. Prior to his role in Mercer, Lewis was the Managing Director for Sirota Consulting’s Asia Pacific operation.
Voted a top 101 Global Employee Engagement Influencer he is a regular contributor to publications such as the Harvard Business Review, Talent Quarterly and HQ Asia in the areas of HR data, employee engagement and leadership.
Lewis has designed and implemented some of the world’s largest HR initiatives including engagement programs for companies like Shell, Lenovo and Keppel. He has also supported the development of HR capabilities programs, including a leading role in the development of the HR Skills Framework in Singapore, partnering closely with the Ministry of Manpower, Institute of Human Resource Professional and SkillsFuture Singapore. He has deep experience making HR programs relevant for C-level executives in global companies as well as facilitating Senior Leadership Teams to help them unlock leadership effectiveness.
Lewis is chartered by the British Psychological Society (BPS) as an Occupational Psychologist, he graduated from the University of Nottingham in the UK with an MSc in Occupational Psychology and a First Class Honours BSc in Psychology & Cognitive Neuroscience. Lewis is also qualified by the British Psychological Society to use both ability tests and personality questionnaires (Hogan, NEO-PI-r) to assess talent.
Sessions
Professor Veronica Hope-Hailey
School of Management, University of Bath
Veronica is a respected leader with senior management experience in higher education. She also has significant experience and knowledge of leading and implementing change across a range of organisations in the private, public and non-profit sector. In her different roles as manager, consultant, board member and trustee she has developed practical skills in governance, strategy development, and organisational design. She has worked internationally and has insight into the challenges faced by organisations working globally.
As a mother of five daughters Veronica has particular interest in developing opportunities for girls and women around the world. She is acutely aware of the challenges they face and how organisations of all kinds need to develop cultures and policies that support women in work.
Veronica is currently Vice President of the University of Bath as well as Dean of the University’s School of Management. As Dean she leads a School with 2700 students, 215 staff and has a turnover of nearly £40 million. Prior to this she was Associate Dean at Cass Business School, City, University of London.
The School of Management has achieved outstanding success under her leadership. Some of the indicators of this collective achievement include: the commissioning of a new £75 million building; that the School has nearly doubled its income in the last five years; that the School’s Marketing undergraduate programmes has been ranked by the Complete University as first in the UK for the last four years and its Business and Management programme is now ranked second in the UK.; the most recent Global QS Research ranking placed the School 15th and 23rd in the world on its two research metrics.
Veronica is a member of the University of Bath’s Senior Management Team and through this role has developed understanding of the varied challenges managing academic and administrative staff, the wider strategic challenges facing the higher education sector. She has been actively involved in significant change processes including: the appointment of a new Vice Chancellor; the restructuring of the School of Management; and working to develop the University’s external profile in the UK and internationally. She has led University missions to China, India, Singapore and South Africa, and the USA – some of these with the Chancellor, the Earl of Wessex. As University Vice President Veronica leads on developing and facilitating long-term partnerships with business and industry.
Sessions
Peck Kem Low
Government Chief Human Resource Officer
As the Chief HR Officer and Advisor (Workforce Development) for the Public Service Division, Prime Minister’s Office of Singapore, Peck Kem is responsible for professionalising HR in the public sector of 16 Ministries and more than 60 Statutory Boards. She is also the elected President of the Singapore Human Resources Institute (SHRI).
Prior to her current appointment at the PSD, she was the Senior Director for HR & OD for a not for profit organization, The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) based in Geneva, where she was responsible for HR, OD, Legal, Internal Audit and Corporate Administration for the 15 global offices at GAIN.
Peck Kem has the unique combination of experience from a quality engineer to manufacturing manager to VP Human resources in the private sector (Tandon, Western Digital, Hewlett Packard, Agilent Technologies & Avago Technologies), a Divisional Director of National HR Division in the Singapore Ministry of Manpower in the public sector, a Senior Director ODHR in GAIN, a not for profit organization based in Geneva to now a Chief HR Officer for the Singapore Public Service Division. This combination has widened her perspective in private, public and NGO sectors, and viewing the leadership from an Asian and European perspective.
Peck Kem has a Masters in Human Resource Management from Rutgers University and a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from NTU. She is also a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and IHRP Master Professional.
Sessions
As the President for Cisco in South East Asia, Naveen leads a diverse set of countries and leaders and is responsible for owning and accelerating business execution and strategies across Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, and the Indochina region. Naveen joins Cisco from global management consultancy A.T. Kearney, where he was Partner and Head of the Communications, Media and Technology practice for Asia Pacific.
His 17-year consulting background means he brings a very strategic mindset to the role. He has served many of Southeast Asia’s top Service Providers and companies across Enterprise and Public Sector on a broad range of technology, internet and telecoms topics, including mobile broadband, ICT growth, and digital technology strategy. Naveen has served as a knowledge adviser to the World Economic Forum on the areas of personal data, security and privacy; and he has an interest in social impact, bridging technology and entrepreneurship with social and economic outcomes.
He has an MSc in Chemical Engineering from Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) and an MBA from INSEAD (Fontainebleau/Singapore).
Sessions
Commander Martin Moore
Royal Navy, Defence Adviser at British High Commission
Commander Martin Moore joined the Royal Navy in 1991 after being sponsored through Buckingham University where he read Politics, Economics and Law. A Warfare Officer he has served in Destroyers, Frigates, the Ice Patrol Ship and Mine Countermeasure Vessels employed on operations from Antarctica to Russia and Peru to Borneo.
Qualifying as a Principal Warfare Officer (Underwater Warfare) in 2000, he has extensive joint, operational and international experience. He has served in Northern Ireland – Op BANNER, the Adriatic, South East Asia - Five Power Defence Arrangements, Arabian Gulf - OP VERITAS, Op TELIC – both at sea and ashore in Multi-National Division South East (Iraq ) - USS Harry S Truman Battle Group and the South Atlantic and Falkland Islands as Head of Intelligence and Operations).
Staff trained, he attended ACSC 15 (2011-12) where he also completed the MA in Defence Studies from Kings College London and was awarded a Commandant’s Commendation for his performance at Staff College. He served at Flag Officer Sea Training as Deputy Commander Mobile Sea Training (2005-07) and in the Portsmouth Flotilla as the Staff Executive Officer (2009-2011). He has also been employed in the Personnel area as the Warfare Branch Manager and Chief of Staff to DACOS Branch Management, responsible for personnel issues for all 32,000 people in the Naval Service. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
He assumed his role as Defence Adviser to Singapore in July 2017 and is married to Alexandra (Alex), a lawyer and they have two sons William (16) and Thomas (14). In his spare time he enjoys all sport, running, travel and reading about both modern and ancient history.
Sessions
Thursday Sep. 24 - 06:00pm - 06:30pm (30 min)
