Workplace Trends: Environments for Wellness and Health

John Alker, UK Green Building Council

John leads on programme strategy, policy, government relations, campaigns and communications, and led the development of UK-GBC's current three-year strategic plan. John regularly works in conjunction with WorldGBC and authored the high profile 2014 global report Health, Wellbeing and Productivity in Offices: The next chapter for green building.

Prior to joining UK-GBC shortly after its launch in 2007, John led political communications on the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and sustainable homes campaign for the environmental charity WWF-UK, where he managed the famous trip to the Arctic with David Cameron. He has also previously worked as an MP's researcher and speech-writer in the House of Commons and in commercial public affairs.

Peter Cheese, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

Peter Cheese joined the CIPD as chief executive in July 2012 and is leading a significant change agenda for the CIPD and for the future of the HR and Learning professions.

He had a long career at Accenture holding various leadership positions and culminating in a seven year spell as Global Managing Director leading the firm’s human capital and organisation consulting and services practice.

After leaving Accenture in 2009 and before joining the CIPD, Peter became Chairman of the Institute of Leadership and Management, was an Executive Fellow at London Business School, and continued with some consulting as well as teaching and writing.

Peter is a member of the Advisory Board of the Open University Business School, a member of the Board at BPP University, and a member of the Council of City&Guilds. He has authored numerous articles, speaks on many platforms, and has authored a book on globalisation and the trends in organisations and people management called ‘The Talent-Powered Organisation’. He holds an honorary doctorate from Kingston University, is a Fellow of the CIPD and a Fellow of AHRI, the Australian HR Institute, a Companion of the Institute of Leadership and Management, and a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute. He was voted the most influential thinker in HR in the UK by HRM Magazine in 2013.

Bill Browning, Terrapin Bright Green

Bill Browning is one of the green building and real estate industry’s foremost thinkers and strategists, and an advocate for sustainable design solutions at all levels of business, government, and civil society. His expertise has been sought out by organizations as diverse as Fortune 500 companies, leading universities, non-profit organizations, the U.S. military, and foreign governments.

Nigel Oseland, Workplace Unlimited

Nigel is a workplace strategist, change manager, environmental psychologist and author with 10 years research and 15 years consulting experience. He helps occupiers redefine their workstyle to create space-efficient and cost-effective workplaces that enhance business performance.

Nigel specialises in strategic briefing and alternative working; he creates workplaces that improve collaboration, enhance creativity, respond to new organisational structures, and deliver maximum value. Through his career at DEGW, AMA Alexi Marmot Associates, Swanke Hayden Connell Architects and Johnson Controls, Nigel has worked with many corporate and public sector organisations developing their workplace strategies, standards and processes.

Read more on Nigel at www.workplaceunlimited.com

Neil Usher, Sky

Neil is Workplace Director at Sky.

He is experienced property professional working in the sparsely populated area at the intersection of workplace, HR and social business. Neil has successfully designed, delivered and managed workplaces in over thirty countries in a variety of industry sectors.

Neil has an established personal blog (workessence), - he says becuuse "I am interested in what I do and want to talk about it and learn from others. I conceived the #workplaceblogs Twitter hashtag as a place to find great thinking, brought pecha kucha to the UK property industry, and may just be the UK’s only workplace poet".

"Use social technologies to extend my network to areas beyond property and the workplace in order to see what I do from different perspectives. I value creativity, openness, and the courage to experiment and change."

Read Neil's blog at www.workessence.com
Follow Neil on Twitter at @workessence

Neil Usher, Sky

Neil is Workplace Director at Sky.

He is experienced property professional working in the sparsely populated area at the intersection of workplace, HR and social business. Neil has successfully designed, delivered and managed workplaces in over thirty countries in a variety of industry sectors.

Neil has an established personal blog (workessence), - he says becuuse "I am interested in what I do and want to talk about it and learn from others. I conceived the #workplaceblogs Twitter hashtag as a place to find great thinking, brought pecha kucha to the UK property industry, and may just be the UK’s only workplace poet".

"Use social technologies to extend my network to areas beyond property and the workplace in order to see what I do from different perspectives. I value creativity, openness, and the courage to experiment and change."

Read Neil's blog at www.workessence.com
Follow Neil on Twitter at @workessence

Hilary Jeffery, AECOM

Director, Workplace Strategy at AECOM.

Simon Carter, National Grid

Simon is Head of Corporate Property at National Grid. Read more about Simon on his LinkedIn page. 

Frans van Eersel, Google

Frans van Eersel started his career in the international hotel industry. After working in London and Paris, he decided to continue his career in Real Estate. The combination of hospitality and real estate is what drew him to the study International Facility Management and Real Estate in Breda.

Alongside his work as a real estate project manager in The Nederlands, he has obtained his Masters degree (Organisation of Cultural diversity) from the University of Tilburg and North West University (South Africa) in 2010.

Over the last couple of years Frans has worked as a Google Facilities Manager in the Benelux and Poland. He’s currently based in London to foster a Googley work environment that's collaborative, friendly and fun. A fast-paced environment with the highest standards of excellence.

Fiona Adshead, Bupa

Fiona is Bupa’s Chief Wellbeing and Public Health. She is responsible for leading work on prevention, behaviour change, workplace health, partnerships, and catalysing Bupa wide action on improving the health of the world by creating pathways to make people healthier in a commercially sustainable and globally recognised way. 

Before joining Bupa, Fiona was Director of Chronic Disease and Health Promotion at the World Health Organization, with five years’ experience as Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Director General in the UK Government, responsible for health improvement and health inequalities. This included responsibility for inequalities, tobacco control, obesity, diet, physical activity, behaviour change and social marketing in relationship to health behaviours. Fiona has also worked as a Director at PwC in their health and sustainability teams.

She is a high profile public health leader with a track record of reframing thinking and developing innovative policy and programmes at the heart of government and business.  She has extensive experience of working with the World Bank, European Commission and other international agencies. She has worked with business leaders including BiTC, WEF and WBCSD on public health and sustainability issues.

Fiona is currently an international adviser to the Royal College of Physicians, a visiting Professor at UCL, Brunel, Exeter, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is a Senior Associate at Cambridge University’s Sustainability Leadership Programme, where she teaches regularly. Fiona is also a trustee of the UK Health Forum and the London Sustainability Exchange.

Philip Tidd, Gensler

With more than 20 years of experience in workplace consultancy, real estate advising, and design and urban strategy, Philip has worked with global organizations across mainland Europe to implement workplace programs attuned to the region’s many cultural and legislative variations. As a Consulting Practice Area Leader in Gensler’s London office, where he focuses on global clients and the EMEA region, Philip has also advised numerous European public-sector organizations on how enhanced work environments can lead to improved performance. Through his conference participation, articles and blogs, Philip regularly addresses how the rapidly changing nature of work impacts people, buildings and cities. An active member of CoreNet Global, The British Council of Offices and the Urban Land Institute, Philip serves as an Adjunct Professor of the Master of Workplace Design course at the IE School of Architecture in Madrid/London. He is an Architecture Graduate of the Royal College of Art in London.

Su Butcher, Just Practising

Su Butcher trained in Architecture at the University of Liverpool and worked in affordable housing before becoming an academic and teacher of architecture students. She then managed three successful architects practices in London and the South East; culminating in five years with Barefoot & Gilles.
 
Su’s online networking began in 2004 and she has developed a reputation as the go-to person for people who want to work with architects online. She has been writing and speaking about social media in construction since 2009.
 
In 2011 her blog about architects JustPractising won the first Be2camp Award for Best AEC Social Media Blog, and in 2012 the ArchitectMap iPhone app (developed with Mark Schumann) won the Woobius/Building Centre Built Environment App of the year in the ‘Best Useful Tool or Guide’ category.
 
Su now spends her time consulting on social media strategy, talking to product manufacturers about how to sell to architects, and teaching anyone who wants to know how to use Linkedin, Twitter and Blogging to support their clients and get more business.