Dave Pogson, Former Sales Director, Cadbury/ Kraft/ Mondelez
As Sales Director, I worked with Nicola at Cadbury/ Kraft/ Mondelez, and again briefly at Carlsberg, during times when the scale of change and transformation that was being undertaken in all these organisations was significant.
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At all times, Nicola’s diligence, integrity and intuition played a pivotal role in enabling business performance whilst delivering against our change agenda.
By way of example, and arguably most significantly for me, was the integration of the Cadbury and Kraft Sales teams in the UK which impacted close to 1,000 people, ways of working and culture whilst ensuring we kept focussed on day to day performance. Nicola partnered with myself and the Leadership Team to design and populate a new high talent organisation, build product & category knowledge, develop new processes and create a winning culture, all whilst coaching and supporting the Leadership Team throughout the change process.
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As such, I would highly recommend Nicola to help create positive change, whether to organisation design, people development & the talent profile, or to company culture and complex integration projects.
Paul Armstrong, Former VP Supply Chain Carlsberg UK
It was my great pleasure to work closely with Nicola to deliver a major organisational change in Carlsberg. Nicola is a energetic, tenacious and determined HR professional who will be an invaluable asset to any future employer and apart from capability in Change delivery has a great passion for people development and values centric leadership which has helped shape the culture here in Carlsberg UK.
Testimonials
Julian Momen, Former CEO Carlsberg UK
I’ve known Nicola since 2013 when she began working at Carlsberg UK where I was initially CFO and then directly working for me when I took up the CEO role in 2016. During the latter period, Nicola was instrumental in supporting me as we led a major transformation of the company.
Nicola contributed to my executive team first and foremost as the functional People lead, but also as a business leader with active commercial input. Nicola led her function with enthusiasm and energy, shaped the people strategy and delivered a tremendous amount of change. In particular, she led the cultural shift in the organisation which was key to underpinning our newly developed business strategy.
The cultural change programme was deeply connected to the business strategy and it successfully articulated and delivered on the behaviours and shifts that were necessary for the company to succeed. The programme enabled us to confront some challenging realities whilst empowering widespread action which was championed by a group of employee advocates. The organisation development approach was well thought out and well aligned. Nicola gave our employee advocates a very clear mandate and equipped them with the skills they needed to encourage change amongst their peers and the company.
Nicola also led the industrial relations and people change for a very significant business exit working with the operations teams, the Unions and our outsourced partner to ensure a successful outcome. She also was instrumental in helping us reposition building the trust and confidence of our people.
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​As a result our employee engagement and performance results improved significantly. This was against the backdrop of reductions in headcount, which I feel we achieved with a level of due sensitivity, respect and honesty.
Nicola’s major strength is that she understands how to engage people and she personally builds professional highly engaged teams of her own.
Nicola is extremely personable with a wonderful outlook on life, understanding the importance of the balance we all need between home and work. As I began my own journey as CEO, Nicola was a hugely trusted supporter providing me with much needed encouragement and advice, for which I owe her much thanks.
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Kate Tinsley, CEO MKM Building Supplies
Nicola helped with a change programme in the business I led. The programme involved closing and mothballing factories and restructuring the commercial teams. She led the internal forums and worked with employee reps and trade unions. She equipped leaders, oversaw the operational HR activity and ensured delivery whilst maintaining engagement. She developed the strategic plan with ease but also remained grounded and comfortable working with all levels of staff. She will be frank when it’s helpful, is pragmatic and knows how to get stuff done.
Nicola also led the shaping of our corporate values and behaviours for the group. These were developed with a cross functional group of colleagues and the outcomes were simple, effective and really brought to life the rich heritage of the business whilst also laying out what was necessary for future success. They are used today and have been widely adopted by team members and leaders alike.
I would highly recommend Nicola.
Joe Hudson, Chief Executive Officer, Ibstock plc
Nicola worked in my Executive Team as Group HR Director. She transformed the HR function during her tenure building a high performing team and embedding a HR strategy that added value to the organisation. She was instrumental in ensuring that we successfully navigated the challenges of Covid from a people perspective whilst also moving forward our levels of engagement as an organisation, building a talent strategy and improving important aspects of our employee value proposition.
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Nicola is a skilled leader who brings HR expertise combined with a commercial approach which means she is able to add value to any Executive team that she is a part of. I would highly recommend Nicola to any organisation.