Securing your A-Team

Jon is Sales Director and Director of People, Places & Purpose at Tyler Grange, and Environmental Consultancy, with offices in Manchester and across the UK. Jon has been instrumental in building the company culture at Tyler Grange and champions their employer brand. He’s been key in launching many initiatives including a Tyler Grange Partner Network, community projects and most recently, moving the company to a 4 day week model as part of the national 4 day week pilot programme. Jon has a wealth of experience in building a fantastic place to work, and how to use this as a competitive advantage to attract the best talent.

Lorna Culpin is the Co-Chair of the newly launched EY Social Mobility Network. She comes from a career in DE&I most recently working in EY’s neuro-diverse centre if excellence. Having previously spent 7 years with Teach First, a Social Mobility focused charity she is passionate about Social Mobility and supporting those within the work place from all backgrounds.

As a joint venture between EY and the EY Foundation the Network aims to provide a belonging and wellbeing space to those who identify from a lower Socio-Economic background at EY and for allies to learn. In doing so EY have taken an important step forward for their DE&I agenda and well being agenda. Already we are seeing a number of important topics being addressed including accent bias, cost of living and career progression.

For the last 6 years I led the Co-op’s wellbeing team and revolutionised the Co-op’s approach to supporting the wellbeing of its c62,000 colleagues across retail, logistics, funeralcare and support functions. We put wellbeing on the map at the Co-op and saw positive growth, year-on-year, of our colleagues feeling empowered to take control of their own wellbeing using the tools, products and services we provided. In late 2022 I joined the team at YuLife where I’m now using my experience to help others evolve their wellbeing thinking and supporting the YuLife mission to help everyone to live their best lives.

Nikki holds the position of Chief of Staff at the Manchester site, one of the company’s six strategic locations. With 30 different functions and comprising 2000 employees, Nikki provides direct support to the Site Executive. Her role encompasses leading the Management Office team, implementing site strategy, managing relationships with charitable organisations, government entities, and industry partners, supervising diverse projects, enhancing the firm’s reputation to attract new talent, and advancing the infrastructure and real estate development plans.

Nikki embarked on her career with BNY in January 2011 as a Human Resources recruiter and has progressively advanced through multiple positions with greater responsibility. She has served as the EMEA HR Service Delivery Manager, leading a significant operational team, and worked as Principal in Third Party Governance, where her responsibilities included overseeing operations teams in dealings with inter-affiliates and external vendors while ensuring regional regulatory compliance.

Known for her expertise in people management, strategic planning, and operational oversight, Nikki is an advocate for equality, diversity, and inclusion. She champions these values as the executive sponsor of ‘HEART’, the internal employee resource group dedicated to raising awareness for disabilities and fostering a working environment where all colleagues feel valued and included. In 2023, she received a ‘Community & Inclusion’ award for her efforts in promoting Manchester’s cultural advancement and establishing the first global ‘Unwind Room’ catering to neurodiverse staff.

Zoe is director at Agent Academy, a North West based social business, that is focused on upskilling future talent, especially helping those from underrepresented groups, to secure employment in emerging job roles.

Zoe champions a people-powered approach to overcoming the skills challenges faced by employers, that’s why all of Agent Academy’s programmes are practical and industry-led.  Over 500 leaders and experts contribute to the design and delivery of curriculum and learning.

Agent Academy recently hosted a Climate Change Careers event which was attended by over 300 young people and showcased emerging ‘green jobs’ across all sectors. Zoe works with leaders to identify the retraining needs of future talent and as such has gained insight into the scale of opportunities that exist as decarbonisation continues to transform business practices.