About Inspirational Indies

12 July 2023 12:00-13:00

Every Indie has a unique journey and a beautiful story to tell.

Once again, we have another panel of amazing Inspirational Indies, who will share their journey and experiences. Join us and get top tips on how they grew their business. This time our panel has each structured their independent journey very differently, so there will be lots of interesting takeaways.

The panel discussion will be expertly guided by Charlotte Allfrey, HRi’s Operations Director.

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Meet the Inspirational Indies Panel

Charlie Goodman | Employee Benefits

Charlie is a Pensions and Financial Wellbeing Partner at the Employee Benefits Collective LLP, a Director of the Institute for Financial Wellbeing leading their workplace wellbeing group, Secretary of the CIPD Central London branch, and a mentor for the NextGen Pensions initiative. He qualified as a financial adviser, is an International Employee Benefits and Reward Specialist, and Certified Money Coach.

After graduating from the University of Manchester with a degree in American Studies, Charlie worked for the Cooperative Insurance Society and Bank running a call centre and working as a financial adviser, and then moved to the Financial Ombudsman to adjudicate investment complaints.

He returned to the service side as an Independent Financial Adviser for Barnes & Sherwood, before becoming an employee benefits and pension specialist for Grant Thornton, BDO, Broadstone, Brooks Macdonald and Mattioli Woods. In 2019 he set up Good Money Guidance and worked with Cervello Financial Planning, becoming a Partner at the Employee Benefits Collective in 2021.

Chris Scott | Acceler8

Chris co-founded Acceler8 in 2015, taking a leap of faith that the market needed a vibrant, playful consultancy that focused on people engagement.

His journey to that point had been in customer facing roles, later moving into learning and development, and working with some of the top hospitality businesses in the world. His career grew into the learning arena and that journey progressed to achieving Head of Learning & Development at Heathrow Express before exploring the agency world.

All those experiences sparked a thought in his mind that everything could be done so much better, with a focus on happy colleagues inspired to do their very best work – and in a way that leaves the planet in better condition than we found it.

Now at Acceler8, Chris has led the business for nearly 8 years and, together with the team, has grown the portfolio of clients to the level where he can confidently claim that in some way, shape or form, Acceler8’s work impacts everyone in the UK – and further afield. From household names and worldwide brands to the smaller businesses that Acceler8 love to support, he’s proud to inspire workplaces around the world where everyone can #BeHappyBeHuman.

Peter Wakefield, Loving Monday

Peter is an experienced professional with twenty years’ expertise in the measurement, education and linkage between employee engagement and business performance. He has built organisational development, learning and development, cultural change and service strategies within the private, public, and third sectors.

Peter’s background is in retail, initially as a student, progressing to senior operational management roles for an international retailer before moving into both, project based and generalist HR and Organisational Development roles at a senior level in various sectors. He uses the experience gained ‘standing in the shoes’ of both operations and OD to combine to deliver behavioural, cultural and performance change.

Peter is an associate lecturer at Birkbeck College, at the University of London, and teaches all intakes of both their ‘MSc HRD & Consultancy’ and ‘MSc HRM’ courses in ‘Employee engagement’ and its impact on HR strategy and business performance. He is a chartered member of the CIPD and has an ILM level 7 qualification in executive leadership coaching and mentoring.

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