2026 European Rewards Conference

Writer and consultant specialising in the future of work

Christine is a writer and consultant specialising in the future of work, workplaces, leadership, and company communication. She is the author of The Mother of All Jobs: How to Have Children and a Career and Stay Sane(ish). She also co-founded the communications consultancy Jericho Chambers and now leads her own consultancy Armstrong & Partners, which helps businesses to operate in an uncertain, disrupted world.

Christine looks at how the workplace has evolved over the last twenty years and the pressures it has brought with it. She covers the successes and failures of diversity and inclusion strategies, workplace culture (including productivity, the myth of flexible hours and attitudes towards paternity leave), maintaining social networks, and understanding the demands and stresses of being a working parent. She looks at what employees demand from their companies, and how to respond in order to attract and retain the best talent. With the rise in demand for a balance between working from home and being in the office (especially in a post-Covid-19 world), she considers the complex factors employers now have to manage, from the cost of running an office to differing personal and professional priorities amongst different age groups and personality types.

In her book, The Mother of All Job s, Christine looks at the social and economic pressures of being a workingmother, the cost of childcare and how parenting and work compete with each other. She draws on her own experience, extensive research, and personal accounts of women in senior executive positions. The book debunks some of the myths around motherhood and family-work-life-balance and reveals the culturally ingrained hostility towards mothers in the corporate world.

As well as the future of work and work-life balance, Christine also writes and speaks about communication, and the circular economy, drawing together many aspects of her experience to analyse key shifts in the business world. She is a contributing editor at Management Today and has written for The Sunday Times, The Times, The Telegraph and Grazia, and has appeared on Radio 4’s Women’s Hour.

Group Chief People Officer, Lloyd’s Register Group

Gareth is the Chief People Officer at Lloyd’s Register, a 260-year-old global leader in maritime classification, advisory and digital Solutions. In his current role, he partners with the C-suite and serves on the Group Remuneration Executive Committee, shaping and driving the global people strategy across 72 countries. His leadership spans the full spectrum of the people agenda, from organizational transformation and cultural evolution to talent development and operational excellence.  

With almost 20 years' experience across financial services, professional services, and regulated industries, Gareth brings deep expertise in strategic HR leadership. Prior to Lloyd’s Register, he held senior HR roles at Deloitte — including HR Director — and spent over a decade at Barclays, where he built a strong foundation across all HR disciplines.

Head of Performance & Reward, Europe, KONE

Eva is Head of Performance & Reward, Europe at KONE, where she leads the performance and reward agenda across 32 countries for a workforce of more than 22,000 employees. With over 20 years of international HR leadership experience, she has shaped reward strategies across Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the United States. Her expertise spans compensation governance, pay-for-performance, incentive design, and large-scale transformation in complex multinational environments.  

At KONE, she is leading Europe-wide readiness for the EU Pay Transparency Directive, helping to define forward-looking reward practices that balance fairness, competitiveness, and business performance. Eva is widely recognized for her strategic judgment, international perspective, and ability to translate evolving regulatory and workforce demands into sustainable reward solutions.

Global Reward Director, Lloyd's Register Group

Kathryn Edgington is the Global Reward Director at Lloyd's Register Group, a global organisation operating in more than 70 countries and a leading provider of classification and compliance services to the marine and offshore industries. She leads Lloyd's Register’s global reward agenda, with responsibility for compensation, benefits, executive reward, recognition, pay transparency, and reward strategy across a diverse international workforce.

With more than 25 years of experience in HR and reward, Kathryn has held senior leadership roles across financial services, sport, cybersecurity, and maritime. Her career includes reward transformation roles at Swinton Insurance, Liverpool Football Club, NCC Group, and Lloyd’s Register.

Kathryn has extensive experience in designing and implementing global reward strategies, executive compensation frameworks, job architecture, pay transparency programmes, and recognition initiatives. She regularly partners with executive leadership teams, remuneration committees, works councils, and employee representatives to deliver reward solutions that support business performance while enhancing colleague experience.

At Lloyd's Register, Kathryn is currently leading several strategic global initiatives, including reward modernisation, recognition strategy, performance and reward transformation, and readiness for emerging pay transparency requirements across multiple jurisdictions.

Head of Reward for Corporate & Commercial, International Businesses and Professional Services, Bank of Ireland

Fionnuala Edge is Head of Reward for Corporate & Commercial, International Businesses and Professional Services at Bank of Ireland and a senior HR and Reward leader with over 20 years' experience across people strategy, organisational effectiveness, communications, culture, colleague engagement, and reward. She currently leads several strategic people initiatives, including the Bank’s preparations for compliance with the EU Pay Transparency Directive.

Fionnuala's work focuses on building a high-performing organisation through fair, transparent, and sustainable reward practices that support business performance, talent attraction, retention, and career progression. Her responsibilities span reward strategy, pay governance, market benchmarking, pay equity, regulatory compliance, and the design of reward frameworks that enhance colleague experience and organisational effectiveness.

She holds a Master's in Management, Leadership and Executive Coaching from the Irish Management Institute and is passionate about creating inclusive workplaces where colleagues can develop, perform and thrive.

Chief of Staff, Bitrise

As Chief of Staff at Bitrise, Zsombor leads the company’s people-related functions and help drive the people strategy that supports its growth and culture. His role spans organizational effectiveness, employee experience, and cross-functional alignment, ensuring teams have the structure and support they need to do their best work. He is passionate about building a high-performing, unique environment where people feel safe and valued, and in which Bitrise can scale sustainably.

Head of Reward Transformation, Danske Bank

Since 2006, Lea has built extensive global experience in organizational development and human resources across private and non-governmental organisations. She specializes in leading cultural and business transformations, both as a consultant and internal transformation leader, and has successfully guided teams to higher performance and engagement in the USA, Qatar, and Denmark.

In her current role as Head of Reward Transformation at Danske Bank, she leads the Pay Transparency Program, driving the development of a new framework for job levelling, role clarity, and equitable pay. She is responsible for change management related to pay transparency, including communication and training for HR professionals and leaders, while ensuring alignment with the bank’s broader Pay Transparency Program and HR strategy. She works closely with stakeholders across all levels of the organization to support successful implementation and sustainable change.

Director of Reward, Bank of Ireland

David is Reward Director at Bank of Ireland Group, with extensive experience in reward strategy, executive remuneration, performance, benefits and remuneration governance within the financial services sector.

He advises Remuneration Committees, Executive Committees and senior leadership teams on complex reward and regulatory matters. David has led significant reward transformation initiatives, including the reintroduction of variable pay following the removal of a number of crisis-era remuneration restrictions, the implementation of flexible benefits, the EU Pay Transparency programme and executive remuneration reforms.

He combines strong technical expertise with a practical, business-focused approach to delivering reward solutions in highly regulated environments. 

Head of Global Compensation & Benefits, Booking.com

Themis is Head of Global Compensation & Benefits at Booking.com, where he leads the design and governance of the company’s global reward strategy across base pay, incentives, benefits and job architecture in more than 70 countries.

He has more than nine years’ experience at Booking.com, alongside previous experience in rewards and organisational effectiveness in Qatar and Greece.

Themis holds an MSc from Manchester Business School and a BSc from Athens University of Economics and Business.

Total Reward Expert, Bayer

Tracy Paech is a Total Rewards Expert in Bayer’s global Total Rewards team, based in Leverkusen, Germany. She leads work in both the cross-border workforce and pay equity space.

With extensive experience in global mobility, compensation, benefits, and workforce strategy, as well as a long-standing passion for pay equity, Tracy focuses on navigating complex international employment challenges while enhancing employee experience and operational effectiveness. Her work spans cross-border assignments, remote work arrangements, and pay equity topics, including the EU Pay Transparency Directive, helping Bayer adapt to the evolving world of work.

Tracy is passionate about developing practical, fair, and equitable solutions that balance employee needs, regulatory requirements, and organisational objectives. She is recognised for building strong partnerships across functions and geographies, and for driving continuous improvement in global workforce programmes.

Compensation Director, EDP 

Fábio is a Compensation Director at EDP, with over eight years of experience in global rewards, HR strategy, and compensation governance. At EDP, Fábio leads the Global Compensation Framework and KPI Performance Model, ensuring strong alignment between reward systems and organizational strategy. He plays a key role in shaping equitable and performance-driven compensation structures that support employee engagement, retention, and business outcomes across a global workforce.  

During his tenure at EDP, Fábio has progressed through several roles in Global Rewards, contributing to the design and implementation of compensation policies, benchmarking practices, and performance-linked reward models. His expertise includes salary review cycles, incentive plans, and the integration of performance metrics into reward strategies. Prior to joining EDP, he held roles in HR analytics, benefits, and labor relations, building a solid foundation in data-driven HR and employee value proposition design.

Partner, Freshfields

Karin Buzanich-Sommeregger is a Partner at Freshfields, based in Vienna, where she heads the People and Reward practice. Her work spans both advisory and contentious matters. She specialises in employee and board member conduct issues, negotiations with employee representatives, and representing employers in employment and pensions litigation.  

Karin advises on labour relations and individual labour law issues, including boardroom issues, compensation and benefits, company pensions, employment-related internal investigations, and the legal aspects of corporate culture. She has particular experience in the financial services, industrial, and pharma sectors.  

On the transactional side, she advises on employment issues arising in in M&A and restructuring projects, including employee co-determination, cross-border mergers, multi-country corporate transactions, and post-transaction integration. Karin also works with the Institute for Labour and Social Security Law at the University of Vienna, supporting employment law moot court competitions. She has also lectured at the Institute for Austrian and European Labour Law and Social Security Law at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Global Head of Compensation, Boehringer Ingelheim

Reward Transformation Lead, Astellas Pharma

Gamze Yalcin is Reward Transformation Lead at Astellas Pharma, where she leads global reward transformation initiatives across more than 50 countries. Her work spans compensation strategy, job architecture, pay frameworks, short-term incentives, and reward technology.  

With extensive international reward experience, Gamze specialises in translating complex market data and reward principles into practical, globally consistent solutions. She has played a key role in the design and implementation of global pay structures, short-term incentive programmes, benchmarking methodologies, and reward frameworks that support organisational transformation.  

Gamze holds a PhD in economics, with research focused on gender inequality in the labour market, bringing together deep analytical expertise and practical experience in global reward. 

Head, Global Rewards and Global Mobility, Astellas Pharma US

Simon is the Head of Global Rewards and Global Mobility at Astellas Pharma, where he leads the company’s global strategy for compensation, and mobility programs across more than 50 countries. Simon is recognized for designing forward‑looking reward frameworks that balance competitive market positioning with organizational purpose and long‑term sustainability.  

At Astellas, Simon oversees global compensation architecture, executive remuneration, equity programs, mobility policy, and workforce deployment strategies. He is a trusted advisor to senior leadership, known for aligning people strategy with business transformation, operational excellence, and a culture of innovation.

Partner, Marsh

Anja is a Partner at Mercer | Profil M and co-founder of Profil M, a leading German consultancy specializing in leadership development. With a background in psychology and over 30 years of experience in the field, she has established herself as a recognized expert in leadership development and assessment. Throughout her career, she has focused on supporting organizations in addressing complex talent management challenges, especially in transformation contexts. Her work spans executive assessment, development programs, and strategic talent initiatives across diverse industries.  

In recent years, her expertise has expanded to explore the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on leadership and organizational structures. She is particularly fascinated by how AI is fundamentally reshaping leadership requirements and the competencies leaders need to succeed in this new era. Her insights are grounded in both psychological principles and practical consulting experience, making her uniquely positioned to address the evolving challenges leaders face in an AI-driven world.

Partner, European Practice Leader (Executive Reward), Marsh

Peter is Mercer’s European Practice Leader for executive reward, based in London. He has 29 years of experience advising the remuneration committees and management teams of major companies across Europe and beyond on executive and workforce remuneration in both steady-state situations and in the context of IPO/M&A.

Senior Principal, Reward, Marsh

Will is a senior principal in Mercer’s UK Career team, responsible for supporting our clients with a wide range of insights-driven data products. With 17 years of experience supporting HR &and reward leaders globally, Will understands how crucial it is to have accurate, up-to-date and market-led insights to support decision-making for your people, and that understanding the true value of talent is essential for driving organisational success. He has been with Mercer for 14 years, including one year in the Wealth group.

Fair Pay and DEI Consulting Leader, UK, Marsh

Lucy Brown is a Senior Principal at Mercer, part of Mercer’s Workforce Transformation team, where she is the UK Fair Pay & DEI Consulting Leader. Lucy has 12 years of consulting experience working with global, regional and local clients across Pay Equity, Pay Transparency and DEI solutions offerings, as well as EVP and ESG projects.

European Executive Rewards Market Lead, Marsh

Debbie is the European Executive Rewards Market Lead. She has over 15 years of experience and advises Remuneration Committee and Reward teams on both executive and workforce rewards. Debbie works with a range of clients across the UK, Nordics, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. She also has experience working with clients in North America, the Middle East, and Japan. Debbie specializes in drawing together her knowledge from an executive and workforce rewards lens to deliver holistic advice on key remuneration and reward issues.

UK & European Consulting Leader — Technology and Life Science Sectors, Marsh

Gaurav Dutt is an experienced adviser to executive and management teams, with more than two decades of consulting experience. He specialises in strategy development and operational management, helping organisations drive growth while managing organisational and workforce-related risks.

For the past 17 years, Gaurav has focused on advising both private and public companies in the technology and life sciences sectors, working with organisations across Europe, the US, and Asia. He leads global client relationships and teams, delivering tailored, industry-specific advice and solutions.

Guarav’s is passionate about guiding organisations through critical decisions related to business growth, workforce planning, performance optimisation, compensation systems, and risk mitigation, helping them seize opportunities and thrive in a competitive landscape.

Global Rewards Solution Leader, Marsh People and Investments

Gordon is Marsh’s Global Rewards Solution Leader and is a member of the Global Workforce and Rewards Practice leadership team. He has over 30 years of consulting experience, advising clients on how to strengthen the relationship between business strategy and people programs. In his current role, Gordon is responsible for ensuring that Marsh’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.

Executive Principal, Marsh

Nina is an experienced consultant with more than 15 years of expertise supporting Boards of Directors and corporate secretaries in the areas of sustainable corporate governance and compensation. In 2011, she was a member of the founding team of hkp///group, which over 14 years developed into the leading German consultancy linking corporate governance, HR, strategy, and finance. In October 2025, hkp///group was acquired by Marsh.  

As Executive Principal in the Corporate Governance Advisory practice, her scope of work includes corporate governance, management board and supervisory board compensation for listed and non-listed European companies as well as corporate governance and compensation in the context of IPOs. Furthermore, she is actively involved in the continuing education of board members, serving as a lecturer at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. She regularly publishes articles in leading business magazines and professional journals.

Senior Principal Global Mobility Consultant & Europe & Middle East Legal Industry Leader – Career, Marsh UK

Based in London, Michael is a Senior Principal Global Mobility Consultant. Michael also leads the Legal Industry vertical for Europe & Middle East in Mercer’s Career line of business.  

Prior to joining Mercer in 2013, Michael spent six years at EY where he supported and advised on clients’ mobility programmes, including working in-house at Electrolux and Lloyds Banking Group.  

In his current role, Michael manages a portfolio of multinational clients, providing guidance and support in the areas of expatriate compensation and global mobility policy and programme design. He also leads the delivery of Mercer’s global mobility client training.  

Michael holds a bachelor’s degree in European politics and Spanish from Cardiff University. In addition, Michael speaks Portuguese, German and French, and is currently learning Dutch.

Partner, Strategic People Advisory, Marsh

Thomas is a partner at Mercer and a member of Mercer’s Strategic People & Corporate Governance Advisory Leadership Team in Germany. He leads our Products Business for Germany and brings more than 20 years of experience in compensation and benefits, employee engagement, talent assessment and workforce analytics. He advises organizations from SMEs to large enterprises on broad-based and executive compensation, job architecture, pay transparency, and the design and implementation of incentives.  

Before joining Mercer in 2019, Thomas held senior roles at Kienbaum and Hay Group, now Korn Ferry, in Frankfurt. He has worked with clients across a wide range of industries, including automotive, life sciences, chemicals, consumer goods, and high-tech. Thomas is especially passionate about technology,  AI, and using people-related data to support better decisions and stronger HR outcomes.

Principal, Workforce Transformation and Operating Model Leader

Guided by a focus on human-centric innovation, Becky bridges the gap between visionary strategy and practical organisational transformation. She brings a blend of in-house HR experience and consulting expertise, having spent a decade leading global workforce transformation programmes for clients.

Today, she shapes the future of work as the leader of Marsh’s Operating Model and Organisation Design practice for UKI, where she develops new propositions for AI-enabled operating models. Becky partners with senior leaders to co-create holistic people strategies that drive long-term stakeholder value and make a meaningful difference to the employee experience.

Her work focuses on redesigning work and the workforce in alignment with business strategy, ensuring the right skills and service delivery models build organisational resilience and deliver measurable results.

Partner, Health & Benefits Multinational, Marsh

Kay is a partner and leads the Marsh Health & Benefits Multinational Advisory Team outside the US and Canada (US&C). She has over 25 years of experience consulting in employee benefits.  

Kay works with multinational companies on worldwide employee benefit issues with a focus on strategy and design, retirement, and broader benefit governance including leading the Centre of Excellence outside US & Canada for the impact of global pensions and benefits on the EU Pay Transparency Directive. Kay also provides M&A due diligence, as well as separation and integration advice and support. As an actuary, she works with clients to manage accounting for pensions and other benefits under various standards. She works with some of Mercer’s largest clients across all sectors.  

Kay holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Manchester. She qualified as an actuary and became a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 2005.

Partner and Rewards Practice Leader Europe, Marsh

Seán is a Partner and Mercer’s Europe and UK Rewards Practice Leader, overseeing our rewards products, consulting and technology solutions across the region. Seán has 25 years’ experience in the rewards and broader human resources consulting space, including compensation (executive and workforce), engagement, communications, transformation and digital. 

Prior to his European role, from 2011 to 2023, Seán led Mercer’s Southeast US People Consulting line of business, managing a team of 50 consultants, covering sales, delivery and operations across all solution areas. He was also client relationship manager for a number of key local clients. 
Between 2007 and 2011 he held a Reward Advisory role with PwC, managing a variety of human resource and compensation projects for major clients across pharmaceutical, financial services and manufacturing sectors, including The Coca-Cola Company, 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.

Partner, Talent Growth Leader Europe, Marsh

Stefan is an experienced senior executive advisor who partners with C-suite and HR leader to position their organizations and future talent more effectively for success. As a trained IO psychologist, Stefan believes that leveraging data, insights, and technologies to provide advise to clients is key to success. He has led many people transformations for global mid-sized and large firms through programs covering employee experience, culture transformation, leadership assessment, employee engagement, leadership development, HR transformation, and purpose activation.

Senior Employee Change Communications Consultant, Marsh

Russ has worked in internal communications for more than fifteen years. He has delivered award-winning, consumer-grade experiences for employees of some of the world’s best loved brands, spanning all industries — including finance, energy, FMCG, utilities, retail, travel, and professional services. He has delivered projects across strategy, culture, values, and behaviors, as well as cyber-security, health and safety, and transformation. 

Russ has a particular speciality for engaging employees in the topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion. He helps large organizations to adapt to the changing external pressures on leadership teams, while still creating a culture in which people feel psychologically safe and able to perform at their best.

Partner, Marsh

Michael is a Partner at Mercer | Profil M and co-founder of Profil M, a leading German consultancy specializing in leadership development. His focus is on identifying and developing leadership talent. He accompanies organizations through transformation processes and supports them in making leadership effective, future-proof, and culturally aligned. In doing so, he combines diagnostic precision with a clear eye for business realities. Active as an author and thought leader, he advocates a nuanced, practical perspective on leadership. His goal is to develop leadership that is not only effectively strategically, but also achieves the greatest possible impact in day-to-day business.

Fair Pay Leader, Europe and UK, Marsh

Lucye is Marsh’s Fair Pay Leader for Europe and the UK, with more than 19 years’ international experience across EMEA, Europe and global markets. She helps organisations develop fair, compliant and future-ready reward strategies, with a particular focus on global pay equity.

Lucye leads Marsh’s Fair Pay team across Europe and the UK, helping clients balance regulatory requirements with business priorities and use technology to streamline processes and deliver scalable solutions. She also represents Marsh in external technology, legal and certification partnerships, strengthening service delivery and compliance.

Lucye brings a global perspective and a collaborative, practical approach to advancing pay equity and building trust through fair and transparent reward practices.

Partner, Employee Experience, Europe / UK, Marsh

Katerina is a Business Psychologist and the Practice Leader for Employee Experience at Marsh Europe and UK. She has over 15 years of deep international experience in the design and development of employee experience programmes and helps HR and C-Suite Executives drive business performance and productivity. She leads employee research programs with a wide range of global organisations in the FMCG, manufacturing, HiTech, financial services, retail, and luxury goods sectors. She is a regular public speaker on the topic of employee experience and talent management. She studied Organisational and Business Psychology at the University of Bath and Goldsmiths College in London, and is certified in various psychometric assessments.

Pay Equity Senior Consultant, Marsh

Anna Szczerbak is a Pay Equity Senior Consultant in Mercer’s European Consulting Team, where she leads a team delivering pay equity projects. The team analyses gender pay gaps and guides clients on reporting requirements under the EU Pay Transparency Directive.

Previously, Anna was an Operations Leader, developing and supporting Darwin^TM implementations across EMEA in Mercer Marsh Benefits. Before that, she was a Portfolio & Planning Manager in the Analytical Solutions Team, with responsibility for products and workflow management for the team supporting Europe and the UK.

Anna graduated from University of Warsaw with an MSc in applied mathematics.

Senior Principal, Marsh

Oxana leads the UK CRM Team within Mercer’s UK Reward & Talent business, bringing almost 20 years of experience. She began her career as a junior analyst in Mercer’s data business and has grown into a leader who delivers data-driven insight and reward solutions for UK‑headquartered clients.  

A multicultural professional who grew up in different countries, Oxana has also worked for Mercer in Hungary, the UAE, and the UK — experiences that shape her global perspective on people and pay. She now leads a team of eight dedicated account managers who support clients’ data, insights, and rewards requirements, and is motivated every day by creating solutions that genuinely make a difference.