Past speakers – June 2021

Philip Hammond was a UK Cabinet Minister and key member of the British Government for almost a decade.  Leading four departments over nine years, and rising to the second most powerful job in government, he was one of only three people to serve continuously in the UK cabinet from 2010 to 2019 throughout the tenures of Prime Ministers David Cameron and Theresa May. 

Taking on the role of Chancellor of the Exchequer shortly after the 2016 Brexit Referendum, Hammond took charge of the UK economy at a time of unprecedented uncertainty. Firm in his belief that nobody voted for Brexit with a view to becoming poorer or less secure, he fought strongly for a negotiated outcome with the European Union that would allow a continued close economic partnership between Britain and the EU. 

He was part of the “E3+3” team that negotiated the JCPOA nuclear arms control deal with Iran in 2015. During his tenure as Defence and then Foreign Secretary, Hammond built strong links with the US and other allied counterparts, both civilian and military, and was a frequent visitor to Afghanistan during the ISAF mission there. 

As Chancellor and as Foreign Secretary, Hammond played a major role in managing the UK’s evolving relationship with China and has clear views about the importance of effectively integrating China into the global system as a major economic and strategic power.  He also has strong connections in the Gulf region. 

As Chancellor, Hammond focussed on the key strategic challenges facing the UK and other developed economies: the technological revolution and how it is already transforming the way we work and live our lives; climate change and how to harness the market economy to deliver decarbonisation; demographic shifts and the challenges of an ageing population, and particularly in the UK, the challenge of raising productivity. He believes these challenges – none of which have been diminished by the Covid-19 pandemic – will shape the next decade. 

Philip Hammond grew up in Essex, and studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at University College, Oxford. Before entering Parliament in 1997, he had a wide-ranging business career across a number of sectors including healthcare, oil and gas and property, in the UK and in Europe.  He stepped down as the Member of Parliament for Runnymede and Weybridge in November 2019 after nearly 23 years serving the Surrey constituency.  He was awarded a life peerage by HM The Queen in July 2020. 

Brian Worrell is the Chief Financial Officer for Baker Hughes. With more than 30 years of experience as a financial executive, he most recently served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for GE Oil & Gas since January 2014. In December 2010, he assumed the role of Vice President, GE Corporate Financial Planning & Analysis.

Worrell was Vice President of the GE Corporate Audit Staff from January 2006 to December 2010, where he led a team of 750 people in ensuring financial statement integrity, controllership, compliance, and best practices throughout the company. He has worked on five continents and in multiple businesses throughout his career and has served on several Boards of Directors for companies and non-profits.

Worrell is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with an honors degree in economics.

He and his wife Kate have two daughters and a son, and they support numerous educational and healthcare charities.

In his role as Chief Financial Officer for IKEA UK and Ireland, Constantinos is a Company Director and an active member of the Country Management Team, responsible for steering long-term and sustainable profitability and securing operational excellence and compliance with internal and external rules and regulations. Constantinos first joined IKEA in 2005 in IKEA Greece and since then has also worked as Store Manager in IKEA Cyprus, as Deputy Finance Manager in IKEA UK&IE and in Sweden as Commercial Plan Leader for INGKA Group. Prior to his current role, he was the Chief Financial Officer for IKEA Netherlands.

Luke has been at TUI for the last 8 years after previously gaining his CIMA qualification at Stonegate pub company. He has a strong background in FP&A and led the Performance and Planning function at TUI UK&I for 3 years. For the last 18 months he has been the Finance Director for the UK and Swedish airlines and recently has moved to be the Finance Director at TUI Musement, a digital platform plus business providing experiences to customers both home (wherever that may be) and in destination. 

He has two young children, although he and his partner combined have four. He is a keen cyclist and enjoys films. 

Oscar Started with Transparent in 2009 developing the German speaking and Eastern European market. Today he is responsible for the EMEA team. The team processes the active projects for EMEA clients and takes care of the quality of the services provided. Developing new services in the P2P environment and making sure Transparent stays state of the art contains one of the daily tasks. Before Transparent Oscar was active as derivatives trader on the Euronext and Eurex for Binck Bank, OTCex and Rabobank. Oscar holds a degree in Business Economics.

I am an experienced Procurement professional with relentless drive, determination and a proven track record in delivering tangible business benefits applying Procurement best practices in fast pace ever changing environments.

I’ve led numerous complex transformational projects within the various sectors I’ve worked in during my 20 year career in Procurement; which includes Services, Banking, Financial and FMCG.

I’ve been instrumental in developing and retaining strong relationships with business partners to demonstrate the value of strategic Sourcing and build a sustainable long-term working model.

I’ve developed collaborative Supplier Relationship Management programmes with strategic partners to drive innovation, maximize commercial opportunities; while managing business risk and measuring for success.

Optimist. Dreamer. Trailblazer. Passionate about technology and fashion. Growth enabler. Currently busy driving Innovation in Finance following Delivery Hero growth from bustling Berlin. Proven leader of high performing and diverse teams over six countries across three continents.

Results-driven finance leader with extensive experience in both public and privately owned companies. Motivated by supporting entrepreneurial driven companies towards profitable international growth. Enabled several highly successful exits. Brings the best out of people and teams. Broad experience in finance, tax, HR, legal and IT, multisite international operations, M&A and strategic planning skills. Extensive experience with bank relationships and private equity.  

Divya Krishnan is a senior product marketing manager at Celonis, driving Celonis’ procurement, supply chain, and operational finance offerings. Prior to Celonis, she was a management consultant for several years delivering finance and procurement transformations for Fortune 500 companies. Her client experience includes procure-to-pay process transformation, target operating model design, sourcing strategy, shared service operations, and e-procurement suite implementation. 

Shaan is a highly experienced programme and project leader with 13 years of consulting experience. He specialises in delivering large scale, multi-function EPM programmes across multiple sectors, including Consumer Goods, Retail, Life Sciences, Technology and Telecoms. 

• Fiona has 18 years experience in the field of people and culture. ​
• Holding Chartered CIPD with degrees in HR and Psychology, she also has extensive global working experience, and has held positions in both in house people roles and consulting with FTSE 100 clients on major transformation programmes.​
• Fiona is part of KPMGs People Consulting practice, specialising in change, culture, talent, and learning. ​
• She combines her industry knowledge of on the ground application in matrix and devolved organisations, with her expertise in psychology and behavioural science to enable clients to embed sustainable change, transform cultures and provide teams with the skills and capabilities required to maximise the performance of their people and the return on investment from their programmes. 

Shawn began his career in finance before moving into Management Consulting where he focused on large scale transformation programmes including Target Operating Model design and implementation. His passion for business transformation led him to Albida where the focus is to help ambitious organisation thrive and grow while delivering change and transformation at pace with measurable outcomes. 

Brian is Finance Director at Workday where he’s been for 12 years, seeing it grow from a small, equity funded start-up to a large, publicly quoted, multi-national company. He is responsible for the accounting and controllership function for Workday in EMEA, APJ and Canada and ensuring that as we grow the company, we maintain the best-in-class financial management systems. 

Brian is passionate about the intersection between people and technology as the finance function’s role changes and develops and is a firm believer that embracing technology is central to the finance function’s position as an effective business partner.