Lord Holmes

Christopher Holmes, Baron Holmes of Richmond MBE is a British life peer in the House of Lords and former swimmer. He won a total of nine gold, five silver, and one bronze medal at the Paralympic Games. Holmes represented Great Britain at four Paralympic Games between 1988 and 2000 and is the only British Paralympic swimmer to win six gold medals at a single Games. After retiring from swimming he worked as a journalist and solicitor. He was Director of Paralympic Integration for the London Olympics and it was announced that he would be elevated to the House of Lords in August 2013, as a Conservative Party peer.

Joe Robertson MP

Joe was born and grew up on the Isle of Wight before studying geography at University College London and law at the BPP University Law School. He was called to the Bar by Middle Temple in 2010. He was elected to Isle of Wight Council in 2021 and served as the Conservative group leader between 2021 and 2023. In the 2024 General Election Joe was elected to Parliament as MP for Isle of Wight East with 30.6% of the vote.

Lee Barron MP

Lee was born and raised in Northampton and started his career with Royal Mail before becoming the Communication Workers Union's (CWU) Midlands Regional Secretary. He later became the Midlands Regional Secretary for the Trade Union Congress (TUC) representing over 1 million workers. A former Northampton Borough Councillor and leader of the local Labour group, in 2024 Lee was elected as MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire with a majority of 6,331. Lee is the Chair of the Modernising Employment All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) and has also been a Northampton magistrate for over 20 years.

Keith Rosser

Keith is the Chair of the Modern Work Foundation which runs the Better Hiring Institute (BHI) and JobsAware. The BHI and JobsAware help tens of thousands of employers, work seekers, and workers a year. Keith is also a Non-Executive Board Member with public bodies in UK Government and Scottish Government. Keith founded and runs Reed Screening for the Reed Group, the largest family-owned recruitment business in the world. Reed Screening is the UK's only employee screening business open 24/7 fully in the UK working 1 day a week for charity.

In recent years Keith has worked with UK Home Office, Disclosure Scotland, Disclosure & Barring Service and other departments to transform UK hiring policy, and launched the world's first online recruitment scheme. Keith sat on the Ministerial Advisory Panel for Good Work and the Name Blind Recruitment Committee with then Prime Minister, David Cameron. For his work transforming the UK labour market Keith received a Home Office Commendation Award, a Community Leader Award from Buckingham Palace, became an Honorary Fellow of Lancaster University, and has won numerous industry awards.

Peter Cheese

Peter is the Chief Executive of the CIPD. Alongside his role as CIPD Chief Executive, Peter sits on many forums linked to wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, routes in to work and skills, flexible working, and corporate governance. He is Chair of Engage for Success and the What Works Centre for Wellbeing, and sits on the Board of the College of Policing. Peter writes and speaks widely on the development of HR, the future of work, and the key issues of leadership, culture and organisation, people and skills.

Before joining the CIPD in 2012, Peter was Chair of the Institute of Leadership and Management, an Executive Fellow at London Business School, and held a number of board-level roles. He had a long career in consulting at Accenture working with organisations around the world and, in his last seven years there, was Global Managing Director for the firm’s human capital and organisation consulting practice. He is a Fellow of the CIPD, AHRI (the Australian HR Institute), the Royal Society of Arts, and the Academy of Social Sciences. He’s also a Companion of the Institute of Leadership and Management, the Chartered Management Institute and the British Academy of Management. He holds honorary doctorates from Bath University, Kingston University and Birmingham City University, and is a Visiting Professor at Aston University and Unitar University, Malaysia.