Phil is CEO of the Institute of Leadership & Management; whose mission is to Inspire Great Leadership – Everywhere.
Following an early career in the construction industry, Phil has worked for several professional bodies and charities across a range of sectors as both CEO and Trustee.

Phil has a Masters in Corporate Direction and is currently a doctoral student at the Complexity & Management Centre at the University of Hertfordshire.

Phil’s interests include music, theatre and spending precious time with his family.

Richard Lambert was Chief Executive Officer of the National Landlords Association for eight years, leaving when the NLA merged with the Residential Landlords Association in March 2020. He began his career as a parliamentary civil servant in the House of Commons, where over 10 years he worked on Select Committees, various aspects of the legislative process and interparliamentary affairs.  Following a brief spell in commercial lobbying, he moved into trade associations, spending five years as the Policy Director covering residential issues at the British Property Federation, then becoming Chief Executive of the British Woodworking Federation in 2002.

In 2019, Richard received the Trade Association Forum’s Best Practice Award for Outstanding Contribution and the Association Excellence Silver Award for Best Leadership.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Association Leadership and the Royal Society of Arts and a former Chairman of the National Training Organisation, Housing Potential.

Julian has worked in membership associations for over 20 years. He joined the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association as Executive Director in 2013 and became Chief Executive in 2017.

Prior to this he worked at the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) for almost 16 years. He undertook a variety of roles such as the Managing Director of their commercial company and their Director of Operations. He led on business growth and strategic development across CIPFA’s commercial business as well as the delivery of their member services.

Julian worked on school policy at the Department for Education before joining CIPFA

John Newcomb has led the executive team at the Builders Merchants Federation since 2012. The BMF represents and protects the interests of builders’ merchants and their suppliers in the UK and Ireland. Under John’s leadership membership has grown by over 100%, with member companies employing over 115,000 people within thebuilding materials industry.

During his tenure John has overseen the introduction of a raft of business support initiatives, sector-specific discussion and networking forums, and education, training and career development opportunities, each designed to broaden the BMF’s relevanceand appeal. He has taken an energetic and proactive stance to ensure the voice of merchants and their suppliers is heard by policy makers both at national and local level.John holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Bradford Management Centre.

Prior to joining the BMF, he held senior Marketing, Commercial and Managing Director roles within the DIY and housewares industry,notably with H&R Johnson, Sandvik Saws & Tools UK, Addis Group Ltd and Imperial International Limited. John also maintained a 15-year involvement with BHETA, the British Home Enhancement Trade Association, the last two years as President.John is a former vice-chair and current member of the Construction Product Association’s executive committee and sits on the board of the Trade Association Forum.John was also nominated for Chief Executive of the Year at the Association Awards UK in 2015 and 2016 and the IoD Director of the Year Awards 2017. Having been elected as President of UFEMAT (the European Trade Association), John took upoffice in mid October 2018. John was granted the Freedom of the City of London in June 2016 and was admittedto the Livery of the Worshipful Company of Builders Merchants in October of the same year.

Caroline Stockmann has been Chief Executive of the Association of Corporate Treasurers since February 2017.
Prior to that Caroline held the position of Chief Financial Officer at The British Council, the UK’s largest charity, and before that at Save the Children International. She has 25 years’ experience in senior finance, commercial and strategic posts at a number of commercial organisations including Novartis Pharmaceuticals (Switzerland), Cadbury Schweppes, Granada plc and Unilever/ Bestfoods (Thailand, Netherlands and UK). Much of her working life has been spent overseas.

Caroline trained with KPMG and is a Fellow (FCA) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW). She has an ICAEW Diploma in Charity Accounting and has filled numerous roles as trustee over the years, including currently being a member of the Finance and Investment Committee of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, amongst other roles. Caroline is a linguist, musician, trained coach and passionate bell ringer, and is married with two children.

Walburga Hemetsberger is the Chief Executive Officer of SolarPower Europe based in Brussels, Belgium. She joined SolarPower Europe in February 2019 after nine years as Head of the EU Representation Office at VERBUND. Prior to this, she worked as Advisor of Financial and Capital Markets at The Association of German Public Banks and Association of Public Banks (VÖB / EAPB). Earlier in her career, Mrs Hemetsberger worked as a competition lawyer at Haarmann Hemmelrath, and has experience from the European Parliament and European Commission. Mrs Hemetsberger has also been a board member of Hydrogen Europe.

Meryl Halls was appointed Managing Director of the Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland in April 2018, having worked at the BA in a variety of roles for many years. Meryl has been central to the success of many BA initiatives of the last two decades, as well as being a key driver of high street consumer campaigning on behalf of booksellers, helping establish and develop the Books Are My Bag campaign. Meryl has been a key part of – and now leads – a team which has overseen initiatives which are at least partly responsible for the revitalisation of bookselling in the UK and Ireland. Meryl is, unsurprisingly, a keen reader and is currently judging the Desmond Elliott Book Award for debut fiction. She also sits on the Policy Board of the British Retail Consortium, the London Book Fair Advisory Board, and is Vice Chair of the Independent Retailers Confederation. She is married with two (sort of) grown up children and lives in London.