Sir Mark Weinberg
Sir Mark Weinberg founded the St James’s Place Group and holds the position of Life President. He is also Chairman of the Pension Corporation and of Synergy Insurance.
Sir Stephen O’Brien CBE
Sir Stephen O’Brien CBE is Chairman of London Works and a Trustee of the Mayor’s Fund For London, Barts Charity and Foundation For Future London. He was the first Chief Executive of Business in the Community and is a Vice President of the charity.
John Healy
John joined Allstate in January 2016 as Managing Director responsible for more than 2,300 employees based in Allstate three locations in Belfast, L’Derry and Strabane.
John joins Allstate from CITI where he served as Head of their Belfast Service Center providing IT, operations, human resources, legal, finance and risk services to the broader Citi group as one of 27 global delivery centres. Before serving in this position, John held senior management roles as head of technology and as a business unit manager for CITI. John also has extensive experience in leading teams to set strategic goals and deliver practical solutions to address business and technology issues. These capabilities were built over many years working in senior leadership roles at Grafton Recruitment, Liberty IT, J P Morgan Chase, St George Bank Treasury and Merrill Lynch.
John has developed strong relationships with the local Universities and Invest NI and serves in a variety of industry, university and community settings including the board of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and the Professional Advisory Board, School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Queen’s University Belfast to name but a few. John earned his bachelors and masters degrees in Engineering and Computer Science from Queen’s University Belfast.
Lynn Hawkins
Lynn has worked across geographies, businesses and led parts of the human resources (HR) function during her 20+ years with GSK. This has included leading the Reward Centre of Excellence and the Asia Pacific Region based in Singapore. She is currently the SVP HR for the Research and Development organisation at GSK where she is accountable for leading the Talent, Culture & People Agenda.
She believes HR plays a critical role in achieving GSK’s goal to be the most innovative, best performing and trusted healthcare company.
She is passionate about how HR can deliver value to the business and is excited about the role digital technology can play in enabling it to anticipate customers’ needs, deliver a consumer grade experience and become a modern employer. As a member of the global gender diversity council at GSK, Lynn is committed to driving gender equality in the workplace both inside and outside GSK.
Lynn joined the Business in the Community Gender Leadership Team in September 2019.
Lynn enjoys spending quality time with family and friends, open-water swimming and travelling, ideally where the sun is shining.
About Business in the Community’s Gender Equality Leadership Team
Each area of work Business in the Community (BITC) undertakes is led by a group of senior executives who provide strategic guidance and support us in achieving our objectives.
The purpose of BITC’s Gender Equality Leadership Team is to help ensure that women can achieve their full potential at work.
Find out more about BITC’s work on gender.
Leigh Lafever-Ayer
As HR Director/VP Human Resources, Leigh Lafever-Ayer oversees human resources (HR) for all operating groups and the UK corporate headquarters. She has over 25 years of experience with Enterprise and has held a variety of roles in management and HR.
Leigh champions, advises and sponsors diversity initiatives at Enterprise, which has been recognised by The Times as a Top 50 Employer for Women each year since the award’s inception in 2005. Leigh was shortlisted for the Directing Diverse Talent Award by Opportunity Now in 2012 and 2015.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car is an employer of graduates in the UK and recruits from more than 100 universities nationwide. The company has been nationally recognised for work done on university campuses in the area of employability and social mobility.
Leigh is originally from Cookeville, Tennessee, and now lives in Surrey with her husband and daughter. She is an advisory board member for Global Diversity Practice and is an adviser for Bridge Builders Mentoring Scheme.
About Business in the Community’s Gender Equality Leadership Team
Each area of work Business in the Community (BITC) undertakes is led by a group of senior executives who provide strategic guidance and support us in achieving our objectives.
The purpose of BITC’s Gender Equality Leadership Team is to help ensure that women can achieve their full potential at work.
Find out more about BITC’s work on gender.
James Burleigh
James has enjoyed a 25-year career with global visitor attraction operator Merlin Entertainments PLC.
After graduating from Huddersfield University with a BA Honours degree, James took up his first role in industry working for Trafalgar House in their Cunard Hotel and Cruise Ships division, comprising both the Ritz Hotel and QE2. He joined Vardon plc in 1993 as Head of Procurement including working with their attractions division, then consisting of just a few Sea Life and Dungeon attractions in UK/Germany, and which in 1999 was to become Merlin Entertainments following an MBO.
As part of the Vardon Attractions team James became General Manager of Sea Life Weston-Super-Mare in 1995, moving later that same year to Weymouth, where he managed not only the attraction but also the wider south coast region.
From there James progressed to role of Head of Commercial Services and Business support before returning to his first love Sea Life, as Divisional Director in 2005. A promotion saw him take up the broader responsibility of Divisional Director for all of Merlin’s ‘Midway’ Attractions in mainland Europe – Sea Life, Dungeons, Madame Tussauds and Legoland Discovery Centres. In 2011 James became the Divisional Director responsible for opening Merlin’s new Midway attractions around the globe, a role he undertook until late 2015.
James heads Merlin’s Conservation, Welfare and Engagement division and leads on all the work and activity that underlines Sea Life’s strong ethical stance, and the campaigning and conservation activities which are at the heart of everything it does. He is also a board member of the Sea Life Trust.
About Business in the Community’s Environment Leadership Team
Each area of work Business in the Community (BITC) undertakes is led by a group of senior executives who provide strategic guidance and support us in achieving our objectives.
The purpose of Business in the Community’s Environment Leadership Team is to help business drive innovation that turns the threats of the climate emergency into opportunity for people and nature.
Find out more about BITC’s work on the environment.
Steven Thompson
Steven is National Grid’s Environmental Sustainability Manager. He is responsible for the development of National Grid’s environmental sustainability strategy and supporting its global business to implement it, focusing on carbon and waste reduction, and increasing natural capital on National Grid’s land. He is also responsible for setting National Grid’s environmental policies and standards.
Steven joined the Business in the Community (BITC) Environmental Leadership team to demonstrate that business has a hugely important role to play, and to support BITC in illustrating the business and societal benefits of being a responsible business. He believes the leadership team needs to demonstrate that sustainability is not just the role of environmental professionals but should be at the core of every employee’s role.
Steven has worked for National Grid and its predecessors for 24 years in roles including Stakeholder Strategy Manager for the UK transmission business and Energy Forecasting Manager in the future energy scenarios team. In addition to his work at National Grid, Steve is a non-Executive Director of Sustainability West Midlands.
About BITC’s Climate Action Leadership Team
Each area of work BITC undertakes is led by a group of senior executives who provide strategic guidance and support us in achieving our objectives.
The purpose of BITC’s Climate Action Leadership Team is to help business drive innovation that turns the threats of the climate emergency into opportunity for people and nature.
Find out more about BITC’s work on the environment.
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Business in the Community is innovating to sustain and repair our planet
Steve Rowe
Steve has extensive experience across all parts of the business in a Marks and Spencer career that has spanned more than 25 years.
He joined M&S in 1989 where he progressed in roles within store management. He joined Head Office in 1992 as a Merchandiser for Menswear, working across all areas of the group. In 1998 he became Category Manager in the furniture department, leading the team developing the home growth strategy. Steve was appointed Head of Home categories in 2003, going on to become Director of Home in 2004. Between 2004 and 2008 Steve also assumed responsibility for Beauty and New Business Development.
He was appointed Director of Retail and a member of the Executive Committee in March 2008 and his remit was extended to include e-commerce in 2009. He was then appointed to the board in October 2012 as Executive Director of Food before becoming Executive Director of General Merchandise in July 2015.
In January 2016 it was announced that Steve was being promoted to Chief Executive Officer, and he assumed his role in April 2016.
Kirstie Mackey
Kirstie is responsible for citizenship for Barclays UK with a particular focus on skills and business growth.
One of the key initiatives is the LifeSkills programme which she created and launched in 2013. The motivation behind the LifeSkills programme is to inspire millions of young people and equip them with the key skills to move forward into the 21st century work place. LifeSkills brings together educators, businesses, young people and parents to achieve this, as increasingly young people need to leave education not only with appropriate academic results but with the skills that we know businesses need now and in the future as technology reshapes our working world. Since launch, more than 6.5 million young people in the UK have already participated in the programme.
In addition to citizenship, Kirstie’s brief covers Consumer Affairs, managing Barclays’ engagement with consumer campaign groups such as Which?, Citizens Advice and Age UK on their priority issues for banking consumers. Through this engagement, she and her team work with colleagues across the bank to define Barclays’ strategy on issues such as financial inclusion, financial difficulty, accessibility and vulnerability customers to deliver tangible change for our customers.
Barclays has launched Thriving Local Economies, a five-year programme that aims to join forces with local authorities, academics, schools and business groups to boost local economic growth to ensure that every part of the UK can prosper. She is excited to be part of Business in the Community’s (BITC) Place Taskforce as it is a great opportunity to share learning from their programme and collaborate with others who are passionate about helping communities thrive.
Aisling Ryan
Aisling Ryan is Managing Partner and Global Consulting Principal at The Corporate Practice at Ogilvy. The Corporate Practice provides global advisory services to corporate, government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to maximise impact in their sector and society.
Aisling is passionate about the role business can play in transforming society. She founded The Corporate Practice with the belief that impact is accelerated by partnership between corporates, government and NGOs. She works with these stakeholders to optimise their relationships. She consults across sectors and has over 25 years of experience in global strategy and communications. Areas of interest include reputation management, corporate responsibility, diversity and inclusion, sustainable transformation and impact consulting. The Corporate Practice leads all sustainability consulting for WPP.
Aisling heads WPP’s relationship with the United Nations with a focus on the Global Goals, also known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and climate change. In 2018, she pioneered The People’s Seat for the United Nations and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, providing an opportunity for people to have their voices heard by world leaders with #TakeYourSeat. The campaign was launched by Sir David Attenborough and dominated global media. It was honoured at the UN SDG Awards. Aisling is working with the UN on a behavior campaign in preparation for the UN Secretary General’s Climate Change Summit.
In 2016, Aisling led the launch of #JoinTheHerd – a global lobby platform created to stop the ivory trade, resulting in four UN resolutions and legislative change in China, Hong Kong, UK, US, Canada and France.
Aisling’s work has been awarded with creative and effectiveness awards including Cannes Lions, D&AD Pencil and the Grand Prix at the Marketing Society Awards.