Risk Management Leader, Europe, Marsh McLennan

Carolina was appointed Risk Management Leader for Europe in October 2020. She oversees Marsh’s Risk Management teams in the region and leads the development of strategic solutions that support and enable Marsh’s largest clients to navigate the global risk landscape. Carolina is a member of the Marsh Europe Executive Committee and serves as the official Marsh McLennan spokesperson for the Word Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report.

Carolina joined Marsh in 2017 as CEO of Marsh’s Northwest Europe Region. Before joining Marsh, she held several senior positions with AIG, most recently as President of its US South region, responsible for AIG’s commercial business in 11 states. Carolina has also held the position of Country CEO of AIG in Sweden, and under her leadership, AIG was named Insurance Company of the Year at the 2013 Insurance Awards held by R&F, Sweden’s leading insurance publication.

As a keynote speaker, panellist and guest lecturer, Carolina speaks frequently about risk and resilience, change management, and the importance of inclusive leadership. She has appeared on Swedish business weekly Veckans Affärer’s list as one of the 125 Most Powerful Women in Business for three consecutive years. In December 2013, Carolina was named honouree for the Business Insurance magazine's Women to Watch, and she is one of the co-authors of the book Words of Wisdom from Women to Watch: Career Reflections from Leaders in the Commercial Insurance Industry (Wiley, 2016). In 2022, she was named Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) Profile of the Year in Sweden. Carolina is a non-executive director on the board of Anticimex Group AB and serves on the board of the Business Insurance Foundation.

Total Rewards Leader, Medtronic Global Regions (APAC, EMEA and Americas regions)

Sofia is currently the Total Rewards Leader for Medtronic Global Regions (APAC, EMEA and Americas regions). With a diverse background and extensive experiences in multinational corporations and professional HR consultancy, Sofia is a recognized HR leader and international rewards practitioner. Her expertise extends to rewards supporting diverse markets, businesses, and transformations and collaborating with cross-cultural teams on a global scale.

Global Diversity and Inclusion Manager and Global Diversity and Inclusion Committee Leader, Chiesi

Arianna has been with Chiesi Group since 2015. Originally in a role completely focused on talent acquisition and people development for Chiesi’s Italian headquarters, she now has global responsibility for diversity and inclusion as well as wellbeing.

Arianna is passionate about her role and her purpose in improving the quality of human life for people at Chiesi and in the external community, doing her best to embody the DNA of this B-Corp-certified and shared-value-oriented company.

She has the honour of leading the company’s Global D&I Committee, a body representing all of Chiesi’s geographies. The committee’s responsibility is huge: defining and implementing the company D&I strategy and creating plans at a global level to ensure an inclusive way of working and doing business.

Arianna has spent her professional career working in human resources in various companies and sectors. She began her career in selection before moving to the management of production plants for a large metalworking company. Her favourite project involved several years at a metalworking plant in Matera in Southern Italy as it was being built from the ground up. This project gave her the opportunity to acquire new “human touch” skills and allowed her to experience different cultures, mindsets and ways of working.

Head of Rewards, Western Europe Cluster, Novartis

Carsten has worked for various large corporations in strategic and operational HR roles over the past 20 years. His focus has been on HR management, compensation and benefits, and talent management. Today, he leads rewards for several markets in Europe at Novartis, develops new approaches in the rewards field and supports the rollout of strategic rewards projects.

Global Head of Rewards and Mobility, Iveco Group

Robert is a leading HR rewards professional with more than 25 years of experience working for a variety of multinational companies in the IT, financial services and manufacturing markets. In his current role as Head of Rewards and Global Mobility at Iveco Group, he leads a team of rewards and mobility experts focused on continual development and improvement of rewards and mobility practices.

Reward Director, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, Reckitt

From the beginning of her professional career, Karolina has been associated with Reckitt, and this year, she will celebrate her 12th anniversary with the company. She gained her professional experience in Poland, Germany and the company’s global headquarters in Great Britain.

Karolina has a diverse range of experiences from her work in local, regional and global positions. She has participated in numerous large-scale projects, including restructuring and implementing compensation and bonus systems for about 50 countries.

Currently, together with the team, she is responsible for implementing remuneration policies, conducting annual remuneration processes, supporting leaders and the HR department in making business decisions, and coordinating all activities related to remuneration policy for 23 countries.

Head of Reward and Performance, Pandora

Veronique has 20 years of experience in executive and equity compensation, with more recent experience in total rewards. After 10 years in the financial services sector and as a consultant, Veronique moved “in house” to head up a number of global rewards functions in London and now Copenhagen. Passionate about the role of rewards in delivering business value, engaging employees and transforming leadership, Veronique has just joined Pandora as Global Head of Reward and Performance.

Global Head of Reward, Just Eat Takeaway.com

David is the Global Head of Reward for Just Eat Takeaway.com. Since joining the company as a graduate in 2015, David has worked with the Reward Team to build reward strategies from the ground up targeted at delivering business success while supporting the employee experience. He has significant experience with M&A on both sides, and his areas of interest lie in creating reward programs that are strongly interconnected with the wider HR ecosystem.

David graduated from York University with a Bachelor of Science in accounting, business finance, and management and subsequently obtained his Level 7 CIPD and a Master of Arts in human resources management from The University of Westminster.

Global Head Org & People Capability & HR Functions, Standard Chartered

Andrew joined Standard Chartered in November 2019 as Global Head, Organisation and People Capability. His portfolio includes learning and development, leadership, organisation design, and people analytics. He is also Head of HR for all global support functions. Before joining Standard Chartered, Andy spent six years as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company and 25 years in the British Army. At McKinsey, he focused on post-merger integration. As a soldier, he spent most of his career with UK Special Forces, where he commanded his regiment before retiring as the Assistant Director Special Forces. Andy is also a member of the board of trustees for RE:ACT Disaster Response, a disaster relief charity that leverages the unique skills of military veterans and former emergency service personnel.

Global Head of Reward, JDE Peet’s NV

George leads the Reward function at JDE Peet’s, the world’s leading pure-play coffee and tea company. He has more than 20 years of experience in the areas of reward and corporate governance in both consulting (Hay Group, Deloitte) and corporate (Reckitt Benckiser, Direct Line Insurance) roles. His passion lies in developing reward propositions that motivate people to perform at their best. George also teaches various reward courses for World at Work in Europe as part of the Global Remuneration Professional (GRP) certification.

Head of Global Rewards, Chiesi

Marco has 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical sector, with a focus on the compensation and benefits area and the development of rewards systems. He had the opportunity to support Chiesi in its evolution from a promising multinational pharmaceutical company to a leading midsize global bio-pharma group with B Corp Certification. People and patients are at the centre of Chiesi’s values, and every action is aimed at improving their experience and the quality of their lives.

Marco has a master’s degree in economics, with a thesis on distribution in the automotive industry. His passion for organization and managing people led him to choose a postgraduate specialization in human resources, from which his professional journey began.

Global Head Total Rewards, SAP

Chetna is a global HR professional with 23 years of human resource and compensation experience in high-tech industries, financial services and start-ups in Asia, North America and Europe — a leader who has lived and worked across three continents.

Chetna is a highly passionate and results-driven strategic leader with extensive experience in partnering with board members and senior executives to drive business outcomes by harnessing cognitive diversity.

Head of Global Compensation Solutions, Takeda

Martin is the Head of Global Compensation Solutions within Takeda, a global pharmaceutical company.  He has more than 20 years HR experience in European, Asian and American companies, across different industries and has led total rewards activities supporting global Mergers & Acquisitions and Integrations, Spin offs, New Market Entries, Globalization, Restructuring and HR Transformation.  Martin holds an MSc in International Business Studies from Maastricht University, is a Certified Global Remuneration Professional (GRP) from the World at Work, and has an MIT Sloan Executive certification on the Implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Business Strategy.

Vice President Total Rewards, Garrett Motion

Panos leads the Total Rewards Centre of Excellence at Garrett Advancing Motion, a global innovator and technology leader that enables vehicles to be cleaner, more efficient and connected.

He has more than 15 years of total rewards experience in both consulting and corporate roles, based in Greece, the United Arab Emirates and, most recently, Switzerland.

Panos has led numerous total rewards activities, from establishing a total rewards centre of excellence to supporting global M&As, spinoffs and HR transformation.

Panos graduated from the Athens University of Economics and Business with a Bachelor of Science in international economics and later earned his Master of Science in international economics, banking and finance from Cardiff Business School.

Global Head of Rewards, Adyen

Frank heads the Total Rewards function at Adyen. Before joining Adyen, he worked at Booking.com and ING, where he gained his experience in compensation and benefits. At Adyen, everything is focused on long-term growth and keeping things simple. For rewards, that means staying away from rigid policies and structures. For benefits, the key is flexibility.

European Consulting Hub and Transformation Operations Leader, Mercer

Alma has been with Mercer for 11 years, holding a variety roles at the firm. Currently, she leads the European Consulting Hub and the EMEA Client Solutions Team. The European Consulting Hub collaborates with clients and other Mercer consultants from the region, providing advisory in the areas of rewards, workforce analytics and transformation. The Client Solutions Team supports clients with topics related to mobility and rewards data.

Alma is an enthusiastic and passionate advocate of diversity and inclusion within Mercer and externally. She is a devoted and curious learner. She sponsors all of Mercer Poland’s employee resource groups, with agendas comprising topics such as diversity, career development, well-being, mentoring, inclusive leadership and overall employee experience.

Alma has more than 19 years of experience in consulting, outsourcing and shared service environments, with a special focus on client services, sales support, contract management and operations. She also has significant experience in the areas of transition and transformation, along with project management.

Before joining Mercer in 2012, Alma worked for several well-known companies, including Accenture, HP and Huawei. Alma holds a Bachelor of Law from Universidad Santa Maria La Antigua in Panama City and a Master of Laws in international business and trade from Erasmus University Rotterdam.

UK and European Practice Leader, Executive Reward, Mercer

Peter is Mercer’s UK and European Practice Leader for Executive Reward, based in London. He has 25 years of experience advising the remuneration committees and management teams of major companies on executive compensation matters. He works with a wide variety of leading organisations in the UK, the rest of Europe, Asia and North America.

Advisory Solutions & Insight Leader, Mercer

Kate Bravery is Mercer’s Global Advisory Solutions & Insight Leader (GBS, and Career).  She has over 25 years of experience – in Asia, Australia, US and Europe – helping organizations achieve a talent advantage through their people.

In her current role, she supports Mercer’s thought leadership, talent advisory and colleague enablement agendas. She has held office, practice and market leadership roles in various countries and prior to her current position she was the Career Global Practice Leader and before that the Growth Market’s regional practice leader for Talent Strategy and Organisational Performance.

She is the author of Mercer’s annual Global Talent Trends study, works closely with the World Economic Forum on talent and workforce related topics and is a frequent speaker on a number of topics, most notably the Future of Work.  

Kate is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist with Master Degrees in both Organizational Psychology (City University of London) and Business Management (Macquarie Graduate School in Sydney).

European Commercial Leader, MMB Multinational, Mercer Marsh Benefits

Paul works with Europe’s leading multinational businesses as they transition to a global operating model for the management of their employee benefits programmes around the world.

Originally from the UK, Paul is based in Aix-en-Provence, France, and is a partner in the firm, having transitioned into Mercer Marsh Benefits (MMB) in 2016 following the acquisition of Thomsons Online Benefits.

Consulting Leader, Technology and Life Science Sectors, Mercer

Gaurav is a senior principal with Mercer and an experienced executive team and management advisor, with expertise in helping organisations develop strategy and operations to drive growth and manage risk. With more than 17 years of consulting experience spanning organisations headquartered in Europe, the US and Asia, Gaurav has focused on helping private and public companies from the technology and life science industries for the past 14 years.

Gaurav is based in London but works extensively across geographies to lead global client relationships and teams that deliver industry insight and capabilities. Gaurav’s passion is helping clients navigate strategic challenges and opportunities regarding workforce, performance, reward and risk.

Partner, Global Rewards Solution Leader, Mercer

Gordon is Mercer’s Global Rewards Solution Leader and has more than 25 years of consulting experience, advising clients on how to strengthen the relationship between business strategy and people programs. He has extensive experience advising boards of directors and senior management on the design of market-competitive total rewards programs that attract and retain top talent, align decision-making with organizational objectives and are consistent with sound governance practices. Gordon has held a variety of leadership roles at Mercer and is currently responsible for ensuring that Mercer’s rewards solutions are best in class, allowing local consulting teams to deliver leading advice to clients and build total rewards programs that are future focused in a rapidly changing and globally competitive marketplace.

European Leader, Industries and Networking, Career, Mercer

Patrick leads the Industries and Networking Team in Mercer’s European Career business, servicing clients by combining industry-specific services and research with networking activities. Patrick is focused on data-backed decision-making, helping HR and the business to leverage pay information and workforce metrics data.

Partner, Transformation, Mercer

Paul is a recognized thought leader in workforce transformation and building Skills based organizations. He has more than 25 years experience in Human Capital Consulting across many industry sectors including Financial Services, Life Sciences, Aerospace / Defence, Energy, FMCG and High Tech. He has led enterprise wide workforce transformation projects that have realized £100m+ in value to clients and resulted in successful reskilling and upskilling strategies.

Paul was trained in Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) by the Human Capital Institute and is passionate about skills based workforce planning as a foundation for organisations to transform. He also has a background in Talent Acquisition and Contingent Workforce Management having started his career in recruitment and recruitment outsourcing.

Prior to Mercer, Paul worked at IBM as an Offering Leader, developing new methods and technologies including Agile Talent Acquisition, Dynamic Resource Management and SWP Tools.

Senior Principal, Rewards Leadership, Mercer

Bjoern is a senior principal and member of Mercer’s Rewards Leadership Team for Central & Eastern Europe. Bjoern specialises in executive compensation and rewards and is responsible for leading large and medium-sized international compensation projects for Board members, management and employees.

He has 15 years’ experience of rewards in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the UK, as a consultant and an in-house function leader. Prior to joining Mercer, Bjoern was a partner at hkp/// group and Head of Compensation and Benefits at Porsche AG. Bjoern started his career as a consultant with Towers Perrin (now Willis Towers Watson) in London, moving later to their Frankfurt office.

Bjoern holds a diploma (master’s equivalent) in business administration from the University of Göttingen and a doctorate from the University Witten/Herdecke. During his PhD studies, Bjorn was a research scholar of the London School of Economics.

Bjoern is a lecturer in personnel economics at the University of Mannheim (Germany), with a focus on incentives and their impact on company and employee performance.

Global Leader, Transformation Services, Mercer

Ravin is a senior partner and the Global Leader for Mercer’s Transformation Services practice. He is a recognized global thought leader, futurist, and author on the future of work and workforce transformation. He has led multiple research efforts on the global workforce, the emerging digital economy, the rise of artificial intelligence and the transformation of work. Ravin has led numerous research projects for the World Economic Forum, including many of its groundbreaking studies on the transformation of work and the global workforce. He is a regular participant and presenter at the World Economic Forum’s annual meetings in Davos and Dalian/Tianjin and is a member of the Forum’s Steering Committee on Work and Employment.

Ravin has been a featured speaker on the aforementioned topics at conferences in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America. He has also been featured and quoted extensively by leading business media, including CNN, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Fortune, FT, The Nikkei (Japan), Les Echoes (France), De Telegraaf (Netherlands), South China Morning Post and Dubai One TV, among others. Ravin was also an advisor to and featured prominently on PBS’s widely acclaimed documentary series The Future of Work. Ravin is a frequent guest lecturer at universities around the world, including Caltech, Oxford University, Northwestern University, New York University and the University of Southern California.

Ravin was named to the Thinkers 50 Radar Class of 2020. He has also been recognized as one of the top 25 most influential consultants in the world by Consulting Magazine, one of the top eight future-of-work influencers by Tech News and one of the top 100 HR influencers by HR Executive. He is the author of the books Transformative HR (Wiley, 2012), Lead the Work: Navigating a World Beyond Employment (Wiley 2015), Reinventing Jobs: A 4-Step Approach to Applying Automation to Work (HBR Press, 2018) and the Wall Street Journal bestseller Work Without Jobs: How to Reboot Your Organization’s Work Operating System (MIT Press, 2022). Ravin has authored more than 200 articles, including 15 for the Harvard Business Review and the Sloan Management Review.

Ravin holds both a Bachelor of Business Administration and an MBA in finance and is a CFA® charterholder. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). Before joining Mercer, Ravin was a managing director and global business leader at Willis Towers Watson for 26 years and a consultant with Accenture’s strategy consulting practice.

Principal, Career, Mercer

John is a principal based in Stockholm and the commercial lead in Europe for Mercer’s Skills Edge products and job architecture solution (JAT). John also leads industry networks for the European Industries and Networking team and is involved in the development of new industry initiatives.

John was previously part of the Swedish consulting team focusing on projects related to executive and workforce rewards. Among the team’s accomplishments were projects developing job architectures, reward structures, remuneration benchmarking, job evaluations and pay equity.

John holds a Master of Science in finance and strategic management from Copenhagen Business School and a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Lund University in Sweden. In pursuit of his degrees, he has also studied at NUS in Singapore and ESCE in Paris.

HR Transformation, Pay Equity Leader, Europe and UK, Mercer

Lea is a principal and part of Mercer’s HR Transformation team, where she serves as Pay Equity Leader for Europe and UK. She joined Mercer in 2019 as Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Consulting, supporting Danish and international companies in building more diverse and inclusive workforces. 

Besides working with clients from a broad range of industries (energy, pharma and life sciences, finance, technology, and manufacturing), she supports clients in the non-profit sector (arts, human aid and intra-governmental). Leveraging her experience in the non-profit sector, she has represented Mercer and MMC in several AmCham and European Commission fora and is part of Mercer’s advisory team for the World Economic Forum’s Closing the Gender Gap Accelerators.  

Partner and Rewards Practice Leader, Europe, Mercer

Seán is a partner and Mercer’s European Rewards Practice Leader, overseeing our rewards products and consulting solutions across the region. Seán has 25 years of experience in the human resources and rewards consulting space, including compensation (executive and broad based), engagement, communications, transformation and digital.

Before taking on his European role, Seán led Mercer’s Southeast US People Consulting practice from 2011 to 2023, managing sales, delivery and operations for a large team across all solution areas. He was also client relationship manager for a number of key local clients.

From 2007 to 2011, he held a rewards advisory role with PwC, managing a variety of human resources and compensation projects for major clients across pharmaceutical, financial services and manufacturing sectors, including Coca-Cola, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Boston Scientific and Allianz Insurance. He also developed PwC’s human capital metrics offering and launched the first survey of its kind in Ireland.

From 1998 to 2007, Seán managed his own boutique compensation consultancy in Dublin, focusing on consulting opportunities across both public and private sectors in Ireland. He published a number of highly respected compensation surveys in Ireland and Europe, including Executive Salaries & Fringe Benefits in Ireland, 1999–2006.

Global Pay Equity Solutions Manager, Mercer

Lucye is a principal based in Milan, Italy, working with Mercer’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Consulting Team and is the Global Pay Equity Solutions Manager.

Lucye has more than 15 years of international consulting experience working with clients across Mercer’s career, pay equity and DEI solutions offerings, using data and analytics to design and implement business-centric solutions.  

Her extensive consulting experience includes working with companies on pay equity and gender pay disclosure, diversity and inclusion strategy and policy reviews, total rewards, executive remuneration and incentive design, pay for performance, performance management, and HR transformation. 

Practice Leader for Employee Engagement and Experience, Mercer Europe and UK

Katerina is a business psychologist and the Practice Leader for Employee Engagement and Experience at Mercer Europe and UK. She has deep international experience in the design and development of employee feedback and engagement programmes and helps HR and C-suite executives drive business performance and goals. She leads employee research programmes for a wide range of global clients in the FMCG, manufacturing, high-tech, financial services, retail and luxury goods sectors. She is also a regular public speaker on the topic of employee listening and talent management.

Career Business Leader, AMEA & Pacific, Mercer

Puneet is senior partner and leader of Mercer’s career business in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. With over 23 years of consulting experience, Puneet has provided advice to leading local and multinational organizations across more than 25 countries in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa.

Puneet has worked extensively in areas of talent engagement & management, total rewards, workforce analytics, talent assessments & proctoring, HR & workforce transformation, and cloud implementation areas, with in-depth exposure to multiple industries across the region. He has also advised organizations on HR audits, managing people issues in mergers and acquisitions, and compensation outsourcing.

Puneet is an experienced facilitator and instructional designer, with competencies in designing and delivering HR workshops and training for clients.

Prior to joining Mercer, he worked with AON (formerly Hewitt), where he headed their broad based rewards practice for SEA. Puneet has also worked with ABN AMRO Bank in UAE where he was head of HRBP for ABN’s Consumer and Private Banking Business.

Puneet holds a postgraduate diploma in management.

Partner, Latin America Career Leader, Mercer

Javier is a partner with Mercer and the Career Business Leader for Latin America, responsible for all information and consulting business within the region. He advises large multinational and national enterprises in rewards, talent strategy and transformation. Before joining Mercer, Javier acted as CHRO for Pampa Energia, the largest energy group in Argentina, with assets in oil and gas, electricity and construction. He developed his career in several HR managerial positions with Citibank, Reckitt Benckiser and Roland Berger & Partners.

Global Client Manager and M&A Consultant, Mercer

Rob is a principal in Mercer’s Multinational Client Segment responsible for the M&A business in the Nordics and Benelux, along with global client management of large accounts in the region. He has more than 12 years of experience as an HR consultant and in various commercial roles in Europe and the Middle East. In recent years, his focus has been on HR topics in the deal context. Before his current role, Rob led the energy sector vertical and global mobility function out of Mercer’s Dubai office.

Principal, HR Transformation, Europe and UK, Mercer

Helen is a principal in Mercer’s Global HR Transformation Centre of Expertise (COE). With a passion for driving change, Helen has helped numerous organisations to reimagine their HR and people functions for better alignment with business goals. In addition to her consulting work, Helen is a thought leader in the HR transformation space. She has published articles and spoken at conferences on topics such as HR digital trends, change management best practices and the future of work.

Senior Reward Consultant, Mercer

David is a principal and senior reward consultant with Mercer, based in London. In this capacity, he helps clients across Europe maximise the value from their reward budgets by increasing the efficiency, effectiveness and sophistication of their compensation programmes.

David’s consulting work focuses on aligning human resource and compensation systems with business objectives. In this role, he helps clients develop grading structures and design and implement total remuneration strategies and supporting compensation programmes (including flexible benefit frameworks). He also helps clients determine appropriate reward governance structures and assess the impact on function design. He is particularly interested in employee engagement (usually with respect to rewards) and advising on how companies can improve manager understanding and employee appreciation of their organisations’ reward frameworks.

A significant amount of David’s time has been directed towards merger and acquisition projects and supporting clients with their post-completion harmonisation (including consultation). David advises clients on the impact of evolving employment regulation and helps develop innovative and practical solutions to this ever-changing minefield. David has a number of overseas clients whom he assists in unravelling the complexities of UK employment practice.

David joined Mercer in 1998 after 12 years in corporate HR roles, principally in the IT/telecomm sector and subcontract services. Before his existing role, David was a regional leader of the Information Product Solutions practice, coordinating Mercer’s suite of surveys and analytical offerings across the UK and Ireland. He subsequently led Mercer’s European compensation management business.

Region Sales Leader, MMB Europe

Based in Vienna, Helena is a global professional driving collaboration and visionary leadership. As Senior VP and Regional Sales Leader at Mercer Marsh Benefits Europe, she champions cross-border teams, fuels collaboration and paves the way for business growth. With a mission spanning 30+ countries, Helena ensures organisations are equipped with MMB’s premier employee health solutions. She is a firm believer in intergenerational collaboration and serves as a mentor, author and speaker, guiding millennials and Gen Zers toward new-age leadership. Her latest book, Dear Monsters, empowers young professionals to elevate their careers.