Judges

Clodagh O’Reilly

Clodagh is a Certified Principal Business Psychologist working as a Talent Specialist, applying strategic thinking and behavioural science to deliver results in challenging situations, with a track record of performance turnaround, practical innovation, and talent development.

Clodagh is an Honorary Member of the ABP who served as Chair of the ABP from 2013 to 2015, and again in 2023 and early 2024. She was the Founder of the ABP Workforce Experience Awards which she subsequently supported as a Judge for many years. With the Awards Programme now in its tenth year, she has returned as Convening Judge.

She has been a beneficiary of the ABP Certification Programme and supported the Biz Psych Cup as both an Angel and Judge. Clodagh has been a guest speaker for various universities’ business psychology and management strategy degree courses, and has addressed conferences on the benefits of Business Psychology in the UK, US, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Her focus as Convening Judge for the Awards in 2024 is on demonstrating the APB’s values of inclusivity and accessibility, whilst celebrating high standards of practice in the industry.

Maria Gardner

Maria is an award-winning Chief Business Psychologist and Founder of Psychology Works; a global small business renowned for transforming clever ideas into deceptively simple solution – revolutionising how businesses recruit, develop, retain, and grow.

With over 20 years of experience spanning the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors, Maria has made significant contributions in the fields of assessment, leadership development, organisational change, and wellbeing. As well as leading multiple award-winning initiatives, Maria is also an experienced event speaker, and former ABP Board Member.  On a mission to optimise organisational performance and the employee experience, Maria’s describes her approach as one that blends knowledge, humour, style, and a great pair of shoes!

After being truly honoured to win the ABP 2023 Excellence in Organisational Change (Private Sector) Award, Maria is excited to support this year’s Awards as a member of the 2024 Judging Panel.

Agata Perepeczko

Agata Perepeczko is a Business Psychologist and a coach. Her experience is a combination of clinical psychology and business psychology. She was educated in Poland and London. She is currently undertaking the Professional Doctorate at Birkbeck University, where she is focusing on building and maintaining resilience among workforces.

Agata uses her unique combination of skills and knowledge to support her clients as part of her work for Resilient WorkForce LTD. Agata is a Member of the British Psychological Society, CIPD, Association of Business Psychology and EMCC. She is the President of The Society of Business Psychology Middle East.

Antonia Dietmann

Dr Dietmann is an experienced leader working at the heart of UK government applying organisational and behavioural science to major policy challenges and change programmes. She is a Fellow and Chartered member of the British Psychological Society as well as a Registered Psychologist with the Health & Care Professions Council.

With nearly 20 years’ experience in three central government departments, she is currently DWP’s Chief Psychologist and both the DWP and Government Head of Profession for Occupational Psychology. She leads a team of Occupational Psychologists providing evidence-based advice on human behaviour at work for DWP policy making. Antonia is also the professional lead for the ~85 psychologists working in Job Centres supporting our most vulnerable customers into work. In her Head of Profession roles, Antonia leads the profession’s Board to deliver a sustainable strategy for the profession, set standards, increase visibility, and meet the needs of members.

Well-regarded in the UK Occupational Psychology community, Antonia has won a number of awards including the British Psychological Society’s prestigious Practitioner Occupational Psychologist of the Year award in 2017 and she is a previous Chair of the Division of Occupational Psychology.

Claire Garner

Claire is a Director at YSC Consulting, part of Accenture.  She consults globally on assessment, benchmarking, coaching, and leadership development. With over 20 years of experience in this field, she specializes in the practical and pragmatic implementation of cutting-edge research into client systems, across a range of industries and geographies, including infrastructure, financial services, retail, and the public sector.

She is also an ICF PCC qualified coach and a co-author of Meaning, Inc., a book on achieving happiness, motivation, and performance at work for individuals and organizations. She is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist by background, who has worked in the field of business psychology since 2001.   She is passionate about exploring meaning and purpose, and how they translate into sustainable action for leaders.

She is delighted to be invited to be a Judge for this year’s Association for Business Psychology’s Annual Awards.

Ines Wichert

Dr Wichert is the managing director of Talupp where she works with her team to provide talent management and development through innovative technology and in-person solutions. Ines has over 20 years of experience in HR, advising over 100 organisations across various sectors and countries on complex talent and leadership issues. She holds a PhD in organisational psychology from the University of Cambridge and is an HCPC-registered occupational psychologist.

Ines’ research includes significant contributions at IBM, where she led the Women in Leadership Research hub. Her books “Where Have All the Senior Women Gone? Nine Critical Job Assignments for Women Leaders” and “Accelerated Leadership Development: How to Turn Your Top Talent into Leaders” reflect her deep knowledge of accelerating leadership capabilities in the modern workforce.

Ines’ work has been featured in top-tier publications such as the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal Europe, and she regularly contributes to HR and leadership discussions.

Jessica Pryce-Jones

Jess started her career in finance where she learned about numbers, strategy, and leadership. After 10 years she switched focus, using a degree in psychology as her lever. That started her on a new career in 2001 coaching senior leaders and their teams while also acting as adjunct faculty in 10 of the top 20 global business schools.

Her clients include multinationals in FMCG, tech, biotech, professional services, banking, creative, education, manufacturing, publishing, and engineering industries as well as the public and not-for-profit sectors. Her coachees and delegates appreciate her approach which is warm, challenging and rooted in practicality and positive psychology.

With two publications under her belt, ‘Happiness at Work: Maximizing Your Psychological Capital For Success’ (2010) and ‘Meetings and Workshops for Dummies’ (2014), she has just completed a third, ‘Intuition at Work’ published this summer.

Jess lives in France but works all over the world. In her spare time, she likes to weightlift and walk her dogs in the woods.

Jonathan Passmore

Prof Passmore is an award winning business psychologist with a background in the commercial sector having worked for PWC, IBM, OPM and EZRA Coaching, LHH  over the past 20 years.

Jonathan has also spent time in academia, and currently is professor of coaching and behavioural change at Henley Business School . He has published widely with over 40 books and 250 scientific articles and book chapters, making him one of the most influencing coaching researchers, as well as being listed in the Thinkers 50 and Global Gurus coaching lists. He continues to offer coaching, supervisor and training, and publishers his work for open access via his website: www.jonathanpassmore.com.

Sam Spoors

Sam is an entrepreneurial, proactive, and professional business leader with a rich background in people development, talent acquisition, business strategy and growth; and a passion for fostering valuable community connections and driving change.

As Founder and Managing Director of Talentheads, Sam has experience of building high performing teams both within her own multi-site business, and the local businesses that she is in partnership with. A thought leader within the talent sector, Sam is driven by a passion for her local community, participating and leading local business networking opportunities, and creating a legacy through her industry disrupting business model, where people are “More Than A Number” and the right values fit is paramount. Sam was hugely honoured to be named the North East Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneur of the Year 2023 and is also a Global 100 2024 Women in Leadership Winner.

On the home front, Sam is hugely passionate about her family and is a proud role model to four beautiful children, and two gorgeous dogs. She has enormous love for her home town of Morpeth and the beautiful North East of England.

Steve Carter

Steve is an award-winning Business Psychologist, who has held senior positions with Apter Development LLP (of which he was founder) Director of TDA Consulting and Head of Management Development at the Chartered Management Institute where he represented the Institute at European level with the European Forum for Management Development. He has been described as one of Europe’s leading business psychologists, known both for his insights as a leadership development strategist and for leading the practical interventions that flow from this.

Steve has written several books including the ‘Road to Audacity’, Renaissance Management and Mentoring in a Week, a regular blog (Leadership Matters), published over 50 articles, and speaks at international conferences.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society; a former board member of the Association of Business Psychologists. Other former memberships include the Association of Psychological Science, the Society of Authors and the British Psychological Society. He is a qualified mediator and Clinical Hypnotherapist.

Dave Millner

Dave is a Consulting Partner with a business background working in financial services in retail/corporate lending and risk for some eight years, followed by over 35 years of internal and external HR consulting experience in NatWest/RBS, Psychometric Services Ltd, Kenexa and IBM as an occupational psychologist (CPsychol, FCIPD, ACIB).

Dave worked directly with different global and multi-national based companies offering organizational effectiveness-based solutions focusing on future-proofing their businesses.

His first book ‘Introduction to People Analytics’ on the changing role of HR and the increasing demand for data insights was published in April 2020 and has also been published in China and Russia in 2022. A second updated version of the book was published in July 2023.

He’s referenced as being a key influencer on ‘X’ (formerly known as Twitter) via @HRCurator in several HR subject areas (c33.5k followers). He’s an Associate with Corporate Research Forum (CRF), GPS Asia, Hult Ashridge Business School, MBL Seminars, EY, Emeritus, and the Centre for Effective Organizations (CEO) at the University of Southern California (USC), focusing on delivering people analytics learning and briefing for HR practitioners. He is also an Adviser to iPsychTec, a cultural analytics provider.

Shelly Rubinstein

Shelly Rubinstein (CPsychol, C.Sci, AFBPsS) is Chief Executive of Impact Psychology for Business and is a Chartered Psychologist, Registered Occupational Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and a Counselling and Coaching Psychologist, Associate Fellow of British Psychological Society and a Member of the Division of Occupational Psychology.

Shelly founded Impact Psychology for Business in 1994. She draws upon over thirty years of high-level commercial experience and has led organisational development across a vast number of private, public, and voluntary sector organisations, in both professional and managerial capacities. She is an expert in Board Development and is uniquely placed to work with the very top tier of any organisation having held a position as a Non-Executive Director for an NHS Trust and as Chair of North West in Business for five years. Shelly is particularly well known for her work in conflict management and mediation following investigations into bullying using the Organisation Behaviour Audit tool. She has been successful in saving time and money for organisations by implementing mediation processes which have reduced sickness absence and costly litigation against employers.

Shelly has an in-depth understanding and robust experience of fundamental organisational change, its impact on leaders and managers and the consequences for services to customers which is demonstrated through an extensive and wide-ranging client base. Shelly has a strong commitment to values-based management and makes this explicit in her work through adherence to the British Psychological Society Code of Conduct. Shelly is committed to training Occupational Psychologists and has created an intern programme for post MSc graduates. She has presented at the British Psychological Society Occupational Psychology Conference and has been awarded the British Psychological Society Lifetime Achievement Award for Contribution to Occupational Psychology, awarded at the Conference in January 2020.

John Cooper

John Cooper is a strategic advisor and Chair of the Science Advisory and Innovation Board (SAIB) at Thomas – working alongside 11 leading experts in fields such as Psychology, AI, Data science, Behavioural Economics, Law, HR, Augmented reality and Entrepreneurship. John guides strategic direction and drives innovation for forward-thinking talent management solutions and is passionate about enabling stronger interpersonal connections in teams.

John founded JCA Global in 1993 which pioneered business wide EI solutions and global programmes. JCA joined Talogy in 2019 and John became SVP Talent Development with M and A remit. In private practice (Cooper McKenzies) nowadays he undertakes leadership assessment, coaching and company board development.

A former lecturer in Organisational psychology, and Founder Member of ABP, John is passionate about research and application of business psychology to improve performance and health at individual and company levels. he also has a particular interest in the ethical aspects of applied psychology and the application of AI in people science.

Joanne Allden

Joanne Allden is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and Culture Lead at Standard Chartered Bank. Joanne has over fifteen years of experience, across a range of industries, typically working at pace to re-design and implement Programmes that improve the employee experience and drive business outcomes.

In her current role, Joanne is responsible for the culture blueprint which demonstrates how culture, purpose, values, and strategy align and act as a lens through which decisions are made and actions taken as well as embedding our culture blueprint and values throughout the organisation in order to impact behavioural outcomes and influence the way business is done.

Known for getting things down, working at pace and driving global collaboration across multiple teams to deliver impactful change. Joanne’s mantra is ‘ask for forgiveness not permission’. Outside of work Joanne loves life and embracing all it has to offer- you will find Joanne at gigs, festivals, eating out, traveling, spending time with friends and family and pottering around vintage shops.

Philip Wilson

Phil Wilson is the Head of Training, Assessment and Curriculum, Chief Psychologist and Chief Assessor for the Civil Service Fast Stream and Emerging Talent programme.

Phil has led the design of the Fast Stream assessment process, along with the diversity and inclusion strategy and leadership curriculum for Civil Service Fast Stream and Emerging Talent. He also oversaw the multi-award winning Summer Diversity Internship Programme, Early Diversity Internship Programme, Autism Exchange Internship Programme and other positive action and outreach activities.

Prior to this role he was Head of Occupational Psychology at the London Fire Brigade, as well as Acting Head of Occupational Psychology for Greater Manchester Police and has operated as a consultant for a range of industries. He has presented at numerous professional conferences and seminars, chaired national committees and currently sits on a variety of advisory boards.

Colleen Amos OBE

Colleen Amos is a distinguished communications and marketing specialist with over 30 years of experience. Her diverse career spans secondary teaching, TV presenting, and senior roles in both private and public sector organisations. As the co-founder and CEO of the Amos Bursary, a nationally recognised charity, Colleen is dedicated to ensuring that talented young British individuals of African and Caribbean descent acquire the skills and mind-set to excel in higher education and their professions.

Colleen’s professional qualifications include a degree in Social Science, a PGCE in secondary education, an ILM Diploma in executive coaching and mentoring, and certifications in psychometric personality tools such as Lumina Learning and Facet Five. Her extensive experience in the UK and Zimbabwe has fuelled her passion for improving individual performance and inspiring young people, adults, and organisations to value inner belief, effective communication, teamwork, and leadership.

She is an Honorary Member of the Association for Business Psychology, serves on the Advisory Board of GRIT, and is a Trustee of the London Interdisciplinary Foundation and ARC Theatre for Change. In 2019, Colleen was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, recognising her exceptional contributions to education and community development.

Dr Liza Walter-Nelson

Liza is a Solutions Director at MindGym in the UK, where she drives innovative strategies to foster company-wide behavior change. She specializes in areas like Leadership Development and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, ensuring high-quality solutions across MindGym’s offerings.

With a blend of academic and hands-on experience, Liza is a Chartered Psychologist and a CIPD Fellow. She excels in evidence-based organizational design and has led impactful change initiatives. Liza has developed large-scale coaching interventions using Solution-Focused methodologies and has spearheaded strategic policy development and talent programs.
Liza holds a Doctorate in Occupational and Business Psychology, focusing on mobility and bias in sector switching. Her career spans both public and private sectors, with roles in HR and product development. Before joining MindGym, she was the Chief Product Officer at 10x Psychology, overseeing product development and marketing. Earlier, Liza served as Executive Director of HR & OD in the NHS and further education sectors.