Our Judges

Ben Beadle

Chief Executive, National Residential Landlords Association

Ben Beadle
Chief Executive, National Residential Landlords Association

Ben is the Chief Executive of the NRLA, the trade association which represents almost 90,000 landlords across England and Wales.
A landlord for 15 years, Ben has had a lengthy career in housing. He has held senior roles at Touchstone, part of the Places for People Housing group managing over 20,000 PRS homes and also at the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, working on housing disputes, adjudication, membership as well as establishing new schemes in Northern Ireland & Scotland.
Dr Bernadette Adeyileka-Tracz

Founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO), Diabetes Africa

Dr Bernadette Adeyileka-Tracz
Founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO), Diabetes Africa

Dr Bernadette Adeyileka-Tracz (MPharm, PhD, PGCert) is a registered pharmacist with a PhD in molecular biology and bioinformatics, with 10 years of experience across multiple sectors and industries, including medical affairs management roles in AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Roche and Napp Pharmaceuticals. Bernadette is presently the Founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Diabetes Africa, an international, non-governmental membership organisation that helps healthcare professionals, entrepreneurs and decision-makers reach more people and make a greater impact fighting diabetes in Africa and around the world. With a community of more than 800 members and subscribers active in Africa and the rest of the world, Diabetes Africa is committed to supporting and connecting forward thinking innovators, and improving outcomes for people living with diabetes
Caroline Stockmann

Chief Executive, Association of Corporate Treasurers

Caroline Stockmann
Chief Executive, Association of Corporate Treasurers

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.
Caroline Wright

Director General, British Educational Suppliers Association

Caroline Wright
Director General, British Educational Suppliers Association

Caroline Wright is Director General of the British Educational Suppliers Association, the UK’s national industry association for educational products and services.. Caroline is also Director of EdTech Exchange, Europe’s largest EdTech start-up network organisation.

In her time at BESA the association has grown in impact and size and represents more than 80% of the UK educational resources market and more than 350 education suppliers.

Caroline’s career spanned the public and private sector in a range of leadership and communications roles. Caroline moved into Government working as Director of Communications across a range of Departments including the DfE, Ofsted, Partnerships for Schools, The Cabinet Office, and DIT.

Caroline was the recipient of the Education Investor’s prestigious ‘Outstanding Contribution to Education’ award in 2017, and is currently a member of the WorldDidac Council, the Education Investor Advisory Board, a school governor at Chingford CofE Primary School, and a judge of the Trade Association Excellence Awards.
Catherine Logan

Regional Vice President for EMEA , GBTA

Catherine Logan
Regional Vice President for EMEA , GBTA

Catherine Logan is GBTA’s Regional Vice President for EMEA where she is responsible for the development and delivery of GBTA activities in the region. Prior to joining GBTA as Marketing and Membership Director in 2012, Catherine worked in a number of senior marketing roles with Capita Plc and Bank of Ireland followed by 4 years establishing and running a successful events and marketing company in partnership with a colleague and friend.

She is based in Northern Ireland but enjoys the extensive travel that comes with her role.
Chris Skeith

Chief Executive Officer, Association of Event Organisers

Chris Skeith
Chief Executive Officer, Association of Event Organisers

Chris is the Chief Executive Officer of the AEO (Association of Event Organisers), the leading association for organisers of events in the UK and internationally.
Chris started his career in media auditing at the Audit Bureau of Circulations, where he later led on the development of their auditing products for the event sector.
In 2006 Chris moved to the Events Industry Alliance, overseeing the merger of AEC & BECA to form ESSA (Event Supplier & Services Association) and the launch of the highly successful ‘Use an ESSA Member’ campaign. In 2010, he also became Director of ESSA’s sister association, AEV (Association of Event Venues), driving venue engagement through numerous special interest groups.
Chris holds a seat on the Government’s Events Industry Board Committee and is Vice Chair & Treasurer of BVEP (Business Visits & Events’ Partnership), a partnership of all leading associations in the event industry, representing the sector to government and regulators. He is an UFI Board Member and chair of their associations.
Darren Caplan

Chief Executive Railway Industry Association

Darren Caplan
Chief Executive Railway Industry Association

Darren Caplan joined RIA as Chief Executive in January 2017. Since then he has led the RIA team, with a mission to promote rail industry growth, increase RIA’s visibility amongst political and stakeholder decision makers and influencers, and ensure RIA develops into the very best trade association it can be for its members. In 2019, RIA won the “Overall Best Association” category for its size at the Association Excellence Awards.

Prior to RIA, Darren was for six years Chief Executive of the Airport Operators Association (AOA), the trade association for UK airports. Before the AOA, Darren worked for 14 years in communications, politics and public affairs across a number of sectors, including infrastructure, planning and technology. He is a lifelong and long-suffering support of Crystal Palace FC.
Debbie Dore

CEO, Association for Project Management

Debbie Dore
CEO, Association for Project Management

Debbie joined APM in 2015 and held the roles of chief commercial officer and chief operating officer before becoming CEO in 2018. She is responsible for leading the organisation through a period of change, including establishing it as a chartered body and developing the reputation of project management as a profession of value.

Debbie’s career journey has seen her work for Thames Television, Oxford University Press and as a member of the board at Swets Information Services, delivering global transformation projects across sales, IT and customer service. Debbie has also served as a non-executive director for UKSG, a membership organisation connecting the knowledge community, and as a volunteer for Inspiring Future Careers.

Having had responsibility for teams in 25 countries, Debbie has a proven track record in leading people through change and development, and using technology to drive continuous improvement. She says the most important attributes in her role as CEO are being open to learning new things, listening to people’s views and having the confidence to do things differently.

Outside work, Debbie’s passions include travelling and exploring new places. She also enjoys property development and walking.
Dr Noorzaman Rashid

Chief Executive, Chartered Institute for Ergonomics and Human Factors

Dr Noorzaman Rashid
Chief Executive, Chartered Institute for Ergonomics and Human Factors

Noorzaman is Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute for Ergonomics and Human Factors, the professional body focussed on improving life, wellbeing and performance through integrated design, technology and science.

He has a successful track record of leading professional services firms, public sector agencies and working with membership bodies at board level. He is a former Master of the Livery Company for Management Consultants and Non Executive Director of the Foundation for Social Improvement, which has 8,000 organisational members
Dr Valerie Vaughan-Dick

Chief Operating Officer, Royal College of General Practitioners

Dr Valerie Vaughan-Dick
Chief Operating Officer, Royal College of General Practitioners

Dr. Vaughan-Dick (PhD) has worked at a senior level in the public, private and voluntary sectors. Valerie is presently the Chief Operating Officer of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP). The RCGP is the membership organisation for 53,000 GPs and works extensively to be the voice of General Practice and improve patient care in the UK and internationally. She leads the staff across the organisation in the UK and internationally and joined the RCGP in 2014 initially as Executive Director of Planning and Resources.
Valerie started her career with the National Audit Office where she qualified as an accountant. She worked on value for money and financial audits of the Departments of Health & Social Security, Overseas Services, Local Government and Housing. Valerie has been an Executive Finance and Resources Director in central and local government, working on financial and strategic management issues. She has been a Chair of a NHS Trust and is presently the Chair of the Woolwich Creative District Trust, a major regeneration project covering the Royal Arsenal area in London and Chair of Audit and Board Member of a Housing Association.

In 2008, she was awarded the HM Treasury Government and CPFA Finance Profession ‘Personality of the Year’ award for excellence in financial management.
Frances Baskerville

Secretary-General, CIRM (Comité International Radio-Maritime)

Frances Baskerville
Secretary-General, CIRM (Comité International Radio-Maritime)

Frances Baskerville is Secretary-General of CIRM (Comité International Radio-Maritime).
CIRM, established in 1928 is the principal international association for marine electronics companies with a truly global membership. Working in ‘Consultative Status to the International Maritime Organisation (the IMO) CIRM is regarded as the ‘go to’ organisation for information on maritime regulatory and technical issues affecting the electronics sector today.

Frances brings a uniquely diverse background to CIRM. She has worked in many different business sectors and, after joining the organisation in 2004, she was appointed Secretary General in 2013. Focusing on delivering value to the membership, the organisation has doubled in size over the last five years and under her guidance the Secretariat provides its members comprehensive technical and regulatory support.
Dr Gerd Götz

Director General, European Aluminium

Dr Gerd Götz
Director General, European Aluminium

Dr Gerd Götz has been Director General of European Aluminium since 2013, after more than 20 years of experience in the electronics industry where he has held different managing roles in public affairs, corporate communications and brand management in Hamburg, Brussels and Amsterdam. He was most recently Global Head of Public Affairs with Royal Philips. Gerd started his career in 1980 as a business editor of a business magazine in Berlin, from 1985 to 1989 as its deputy editor in chief. A German national, he studied Business Administration and Economics at Berlin’s Free University and Université Paris-Dauphine.
Gisela Abbam

Chair, British Science Association

Gisela Abbam
Chair, British Science Association

Gisela is a Management Consultant, the Chair of the British Science Association, a global Goodwill Ambassador and a multi-award winner. Gisela has worked in conjunction with the WHO, World Bank and the UN to improve health outcomes globally. She currently serves on two Boards and several Advisory Committees. She has also presented on career insights to thousands of students.

Gisela was recently named as one of the 100 Women to Watch for FTSE 350 Boards. Gisela is the winner of the 2019 Black British Business Person of the Year Awards. She was awarded Iconic Woman creating a better World for All by the Women Economic Forum. In 2019, Gisela was awarded Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce for her contribution to social change. Previously, she was the Director of Strategic Partnerships and a Company Officer for Abt Associates, a global research and evaluation company.

Gisela was also previously the inaugural Global Executive Director for Government Affairs & Policy for General Electric Healthcare. She developed the global function. She was responsible for the strategic direction of government affairs and policy for GE Healthcare, the $18 billion business unit of GE that provides transformational medical technologies to health customers in over 100 countries.

Gisela has written over 45 white papers on various public policy issues and regularly presents at International conferences.
John Newcomb

Chief Executive Officer, Builders Merchant Federation

John Newcomb
Chief Executive Officer, Builders Merchant Federation

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.
John Mark Williams

CEO, The Institute of Leadership & Management

John Mark Williams
CEO, The Institute of Leadership & Management

John was appointed CEO of the Institute in September 2020, continuing a career built around international business, talent development, and association leadership. He is privileged to have travelled widely for business, and has been a member of several Boards, as well as an FCO Diversity Champion, UN consultant, and adviser to the Cabinet Office.

His association leadership experience ranges from the oil & gas sector, to hospitality, through to accounting & finance. He has been a keynote speaker on strategy and international business for more than two decades, and comments regularly on leadership in a variety of online publications and podcasts.

John is deeply curious about the leadership implications of business agility, predictive analytics, punctuated equilibrium and other baffling business things. Outside of work he coaches reluctant marathon runners, and consistently fails to make any progress at roller-blading.
Jon Levett

Chief Executive, National Association of Funeral Directors

Jon Levett
Chief Executive, National Association of Funeral Directors
Julian Mund

Chief Executive, Pensions & Lifetime Savings Association

Julian Mund
Chief Executive, Pensions & Lifetime Savings Association

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
Ken Pullar

CEO, Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP)

Ken Pullar
CEO, Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP)

Ken is the Chief Executive Officer of the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP). The CIPP is the association for payroll and pension professionals in the UK and was established in 1980. With more than 10,000 individuals benefitting from the CIPP’s membership, education and training services, the Institute is dedicated to raising the profile of UK payroll in businesses across the UK.

The CIPP also has a seat at government consultation forums influencing legislation that affect payroll and pensions in the UK and in ensuring members are up to date and their views are heard. Prior to becoming CEO of the CIPP Ken has had 40 years experience within the Payroll & HR Services industry with roles as such as Global Payroll Outsourcing Director, BPO Operations Director and various Service Director roles.
Kevin Bampton

Chief Executive Officer, British Occupational Hygiene Society

Kevin Bampton
Chief Executive Officer, British Occupational Hygiene Society

Kevin Bampton is Chief Executive Officer of the British Occupational Hygiene Society. He is a former Professor of Law and senior academic manager, as well as having been a Foreign Office, British Council and United Nations Legal Adviser. He has worked with professional bodies and associations for over thirty years, developing ethics, quality and educational processes
Meryl Halls

Managing Director, Booksellers Association of the UK & Ireland

Meryl Halls
Managing Director, Booksellers Association of the UK & Ireland

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.
Nick Pahl

CEO, Society of Occupational Medicine (SOM)

Nick Pahl
CEO, Society of Occupational Medicine (SOM)

Nick is CEO of the Society of Occupational Medicine (SOM), the largest and oldest nationally recognised professional organization of individuals with an interest in health and work. Through its collective voice, SOM advances knowledge, and increases awareness to influence the future of occupational health and the health of people in or returning to work. SOM’s Patrons are Lord Blunkett, Dame Carol Black and Sir Norman Lamb.

Nick was previously CEO of the British Acupuncture Council, and held senior posts in the NHS, a national hospice charity and Marie Stopes International. He has completed a Windsor Leadership Trust and ACEVO next generation CEO training, has a diploma in management, a degree in Economics and an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is a Board member of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.
Riad Mannan

Event Portfolio Development Manager, Institution of Engineering and Technology

Riad Mannan
Event Portfolio Development Manager, Institution of Engineering and Technology

Riad has over 20 years’ experience in developing content and producing conferences in the commercial and non-commercial sectors, both in the UK and in the Middle East. He has developed new conferences from scratch as well as managed and grown portfolios and increasing ROI. He is currently event portfolio development manager at the Institution of Engineering and Technology managing a range of events including technical call for papers conferences, invited speaker events, training courses and an awards ceremony. Recently he has been involved with and managed the process to convert all physical events to virtual events for 2020/21.
Richard Lambert

Chief Executive, National Hair and Beauty Federation

Richard Lambert
Chief Executive, National Hair and Beauty Federation

Richard Lambert is Chief Executive of the National Hair and Beauty Federation. He was previously Chief Executive of the British Woodworking Federation and the National Landlords Association.

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.

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.
Susan Danger

CEO, American Chamber of Commerce to the EU

Susan Danger
CEO, American Chamber of Commerce to the EU

Susan Danger is CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU (AmCham EU), which speaks for American companies committed to Europe on trade, investment and competitiveness issues. She has full strategic and operational responsibility for the association and represents it externally. AmCham EU is a membership organization supporting over 150 US corporate companies, international business, and law and consultancy firms in the area of public affairs. Susan has dedicated her entire career to advancing transatlantic cooperation. She joined AmCham EU in 1995 as Communications Manager, becoming Communications & Operations Manager in 2000. Since 2002 she has been leading the organization as Managing Director and since 2016 as CEO. In 2003 she oversaw the re-branding of AmCham EU and its separation from AmCham Belgium. Susan was named by POLITICO as one of the top 20 women influencers in Brussels in 2016. Susan has also been elected as Chair of AmChams in Europe network for the period 2020-2022.
Veronica Iommi

Secretary General, IMMFA

Veronica Iommi
Secretary General, IMMFA

Veronica Iommi was appointed Secretary General of IMMFA in August 2019.

Veronica joined IMMFA from BNY Mellon where she was European Bank General Counsel and EMEA Head of Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs at BNY Mellon.
Prior to that, Veronica was at LCH SA in Paris where she was General Counsel and for many years at Credit Suisse, where she performed several roles, including Head of Legal and Compliance for their French and Monaco operations, EMEA Legislative Developments Counsel and Head of the Structured Products Group.

She also spent five years at Goldman Sachs as a lawyer in their Investment Banking Division and commenced her career at Clifford Chance where she qualified as a solicitor into their International Capital Markets Department.
Veronica has legal and regulatory expertise in investment banking, asset management, private banking, custody and clearing house activities.
Veronica has worked and lived across Europe and speaks several European languages, including French, Spanish and Italian. She is on the Roll of Solicitors for England and Wales and for the Republic of Ireland.
Walburga Hemetsberger

Chief Executive Officer, SolarPower Europe

Walburga Hemetsberger
Chief Executive Officer, SolarPower Europe

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.

Judging Information

The Association Excellence Awards will be judged independently by an esteemed panel panel of CEO’s from a range of trade and professional associations.
The scoring will all be conducted online, without any reference to other scorers and based solely on the submission of the entrant. This will ensure the scores are unbiased and judges are not swayed by the opinions of other panel members.
Each entry will be scored by at least 4 judges in total. The organisers will collate the individual scores and use the average marks given to initially decide the finalists and ultimately to determine the award winners.Where the average scores are so close that it is too difficult to determine a winner, then other judges will be asked to evaluate these entries as well in order to make a final decision
The information provided to judges will be used solely for the purposes of assessing the entries. Potentially sensitive information will not be made public.
Judges will absent themselves from any discussions where they have a vested interest
The judges’ decision is final, no correspondence will be entered into and no reasons given for decisions.
The shortlisted entrants will be announced in April 2021.
If you need help with your entry or require any clarification, please contact Sian Jones on 020 8788 3710 or via email caroline.capon@globalconferencenetwork.co.uk

Our Judges

Ben Beadle

Dr Bernadette Adeyileka-Tracz

Caroline Stockmann

Caroline Wright

Catherine Logan

Chris Skeith

Darren Caplan

Debbie Dore

Dr Noorzaman Rashid

Dr Valerie Vaughan-Dick

Frances Baskerville

Dr Gerd Götz

Gisela Abbam

John Newcomb

John Mark Williams

Jon Levett

Julian Mund

Ken Pullar

Kevin Bampton

Meryl Halls

Nick Pahl

Riad Mannan

Richard Lambert

Susan Danger

Veronica Iommi

Walburga Hemetsberger

Judging Information

EXTENDED DEADLINE: 26 FEB 2021

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