2019 Human Resources Awards Categories Judging Committee

COMMITTEE CHAIR:

Dr. Wolfgang Brnjak, Vice President - HR Guidance and Methods
Deutsche Telekom Services Europe AG, Cologne, Germany

Dr. Wolfgang Brnjak began his professional career in1995 at Deutsche Telekom AG in Bonn. Since then, he has worked in various executive functions, including quality and process management, organization, job evaluation or compensation, benefits, and pension services. In 2009, he wrote his avocational thesis in the field of economics and social science at the University of Dortmund.

Since 2019, Dr. Brnjak has been managing group-wide HR projects for the department of HR Guidance and Methods at Deutsche Telekom Service Europe AG, with the goal of digitalization and efficiency improvement. In his previous professional career he gained excellent knowledge and skills in the areas of HR product development and management, HR and Org IT system development, KPI management, reporting structures, interdisciplinary, national and international projects and process management, costing methodology, process cost calculation, benchmarking, strategic transformation management, and time management.

Dr. Brnjak is married and has three children. In his spare time, he volunteers as Chair of the DTSE Corporate Spokespersons Committee.

COMMITTEE

Dr. Christina Augustine, Head Human Resources
Petra Technologies, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Dr. Christina Augustine is a Global HR leader with 18 years of experience in leading Global HR in diverse industries and capacities. Currently, she is Head of Human Resources at Petra Technologies. Previously, she was AVP, HEAD of HR for Ness Technologies, Canada. She has a PhD in Applied Psychology with expertise in leading Digital HR & OD domains. She is an HRPA member in Toronto,Canada and a Diversity Champion, who leads Diversity & Inclusion portfolios in all capacities and an Employee Assistance Program specialist. She is an experienced Therapist & Mentor specializing in counseling & psychotherapy. Chris has published several scientific papers and is an HR evangelist and international keynote speaker through TV shows, social forums, print, and other media. Her TV shows “Enna Seivadhu?” & “Kelviyum Doctorum” are a good family treat. Youth reach, community, and social work are her other areas of interest.

Heather Barton, Human Resources Consultant
Peak Professionals, Greenwich, London, United Kingdom
Heather Barton, MA (Oxon), FCIPD, has worked at HR Director level in the Further Education, Probation and Housing sectors, and at the American Institute for Foreign Study. She is a specialist in employee relations, pensions, organisational restructuring, recruitment, learning and development, and compensation and benefits. She currently works as an HR Consultant for Peak Professionals.

 

Annekatrin Buhl, Employer Branding Consultant
Annekatrin Buhl is an independent employer branding consultant for SMEs. She helps employers find qualified employees and retain them for the long term, thus ensuring their economic success. She has ten years of professional experience in employer branding and communication, most recently at Trendence, the market research institute for employer branding.

Brandon Davis, Regional Account Director, EMEA
Accurate Background, London, United Kingdom
With over 20 years in the business services industry, Brandon has responsibility for customer success, account development and new client relationships across the EMEA region. Brandon's background uniquely positions him as a strategic leader within the background screening industry having previously worked across multiple global and international screening companies before joining Accurate as Regional Account Director, EMEA. Brandon is a client driven individual who provides effective and tailored risk mitigation solutions to match the specific business need. He works strategically with multiple client stakeholders in global business development, marketing and program management.

Angela Derks, CEO
|Australasian Sustainable Wellness Academy, Southport, Queensland, Australia
Angela Derks is the Founder and CEO of the Australasian Sustainable Wellness Academy (ASWA) and the course developer for the Australian Accredited Diploma of Wellness Leadership qualification. With over 25 years’ experience in strengthening people and organisations through building strategic leadership and wellness capabilities, Angela has lead award-winning initiatives in her previous leadership roles with Six Senses Spas, Soneva Resorts, Qantas First Lounges and Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat. Angela works with various organisations in the public and private sector, not-for-profit, industry associations and community service organisations, delivering specific intelligence at board level within the international leadership and wellbeing arena.

Yavuz Duyar, HR Coordinator
Opet Petrolculuk A.S., Istanbul, Turkey
Yavuz Duyar is HR Coordinator at Opet, a leading Oil and Gas distribution company in Turkey. After graduating as an Industrial Engineer from Galatasaray University of Istanbul, he started his professional career as HR Assistant at Opet. With more than 8 years of experience in many areas of HR, especially in Performance and Bonus Management, Digitalization of HR Processes, Payroll Management, SAP HR, and HR reporting, he aims to ensure high employee satisfaction within the company. He is a solution-oriented and analytical HR Professional with an engineering background

Gabriele Fanta, Managing Director, People Management
Sixt SE, Pullach im Isartal, Bavaria, Germany
Gabriele leads the People Management division of Sixt SE, an international mobility Company. Prior to this, she held several top management positions in the Food, Energy/Utility and Automotive sectors, both in HR and in Marketing/Communications functions.

Jo-Ann Garbutt, HR & Organization Development Executive
GCS-HR/OD Consulting, Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands, The Netherlands
With over 20 years’ international experience in HR, Jo-Ann understands both the organizational development aspects of HR and the business partner responsibilities that come with supporting a global organization. She has implemented change management initiatives at a national and international level, working with stakeholders and employees from different nationalities and cultures. She has also developed training courses, programs, and leadership seminars that support the wider business objectives of growth, service excellence, and retaining a highly skilled workforce. Her global perspective, coupled with hands-on experience, enables her to bring a unique and valuable view of how HR can continue to support employee and business needs in the fast-changing world of after-sales services. Jo-Ann holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Organization Development.

Barry Hartunian, HR/Business Advisor
Global Tech, Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Joann Hizon, Vice President – Human Resources
SM Investments Corp, Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines
Has over 20 years leadership experience in HR, Administration, Training, Operations, Facilities and General Services. Experience culled from the telecommunications, BPO, semiconductors, IT, pharmaceutical and mining industries. Resource speaker on career counseling, succession planning, workforce planning, workplace diversity, and organizational transformation. Articles and/or interviews have appeared In Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, Cosmopolitan magazines, the Philippine Daily Star, Manila Bulletin and Business World newspapers, and on Studio 23 TV and Bloomberg.Under her watch, SM Investments has won various Top Employer awards, and recently won the Forbes Global 2000 World’s Best Employers twice, first in 2017 then in 2018, landing at #158 out of 2,000 companies worldwide.

Rajiv Noronha, Vice President and HR Head (Analytics Unit)
Tata Consultancy Services, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Rajiv Noronha heads HR for the Analytics and Insights Unit at Tata Consultancy Services. He has played many functional and HR leadership roles in a career spanning 25 years. His focus has been design and implementation of large scale, enterprise-wide HR systems and processes, along with scaling up talent for businesses. He has been recognized for his work with multiple HR Leadership awards over the past 10 years.

Görkem Özkan, Human Resources Manager
Yapi Merkezi Company, Istanbul, Turkey
Görkem Özkan has over 14 years experience in Human Resources Management. She has worked in the energy and construction sectors and held management positions in ENR 500 companies. Görkem has been studying for a Ph.D. in HR Management Career Counseling at Ankara Universty. She is ICF Member Coach and also has a NLP Master Degree. In addition to these studies she has focused on Personnel Development. She has published several articles and books on this topic. She received several awards in 2014 & 2015 including for HR Department of the Year, Executive Of The Year, Woman Of The Year, and Woman In Industry.

Allison Plattsmier, Executive Director
Jordan Thomas Foundation, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
With over nine years of experience in the nonprofit sector, Dr. Allison Quintanilla Plattsmier, CFRE, CNP, SHRM-CP, specializes in nonprofit governance, donor psychology, strategic planning, board development, and grant writing.

Andrew Powles, Interim HR Director
Fairfax HR, Northampton, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom
Andrew is a commercially focused interim HR Director who has operated in senior roles at private, public, charity, and membership body organizations.

 

Hisham Rashed, Experienced HR Director
Freelance HR Consultant, New Milton, Hampshire, United Kingdom
Hisham has over 40 years experience working for multinational and national corporations within the FMCG, Real Estate Development, and Manufacturing segments across the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. Examples of Hisham’s engagement experience include: joining the giant real estate developer Nakheel in Dubai (developer of Palm Islands & The World) as Head of HR for the Commercial Division (in 2008, the company had a revenue of $20 billion); restructuring a Manufacturing, Real Estate and Investment group of 1,000 employees as the group head of HR; and 27 years with British American Tobacco based in the UK, Southern and Eastern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.

Prof. Dr. Mohamed Amr Sadik, CEO
QUODRAT, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt
A seasoned and accomplished HR executive with more than 30 years in key HR positions with local, regional and international diverse organizations, in the Arab Region, and have led successful formulation and integration of HR programs, strategies, policies, and procedures. Winner of HR Awards from different countries. One of the top 20 HR most international influential thinkers in 2014 selected by Ashridge Business School, Open University and HR Magazine in UK.

Wafa Shehadeh, Senior Learning Delivery Specialist
Al Jazeera Media Network, Doha, Qatar
Wafa Shehadeh is a Senior HR Specialist with over nine years of experience in different fields of HR, extensively in Performance Management, Learning & Development, and Employee Relations. Wafa actively contributed to the development of a comprehensive, automated, and Award-winning Performance Management System, in addition to improving the quality of HR & Admin services through establishing Quality Management Systems. In 2018, Wafa received a Silver Stevie® Award for “HR Professional of the Year” award from the Stevie® Awards for Great Employers.

Asuncion Soriano, CEO
Atrevia, Madrid, Spain
Asuncion is an expert in strategic advisory for organizations and stakeholder’s relations, public opinion campaigns, and managing crisis communications, change management, people engagement and internal communications for multinational companies and public institutions. She is a frequent speaker at graduate programs as well as forums in Spain and Latin American. She has served as jury of several awards such as Eurobest, Global Mercury, European Sabre Awards and EL SOL. Actively involved in projects and social platforms, she takes part in the Women in Leadership Committee of AmChamSpain and the Womenalia Council of Experts. Asuncion is the Co-Director of the Observatory of Internal Communication and Corporate Identity with IE Business School and Human Capital Review and is co-author of the book “Communicate to Transform,” by LID-IE Publishing, published in 2014.

Asli Tas Kayabas, Awards Consultant, Clinical Psychologist, Speaker
Kuzey Academy, Istanbul, Turkey
Asli studied psychology at Bogazici University and has a Master’s Degree in clinical psychology. She studied Marriage, Relationships and Couples Therapy in the United States. Besides her psychology expertise, she has held leadership positions during her almost 20 year HR and training management career. ATD, Brandon Hall, The Stevies, and The Learning Awards have recognized her for her contributions in the fields of training and HR.  In 2012, Asli founded her own company, Kuzey Development Academy, which provides services in corporate soft-skills training, leadership development programs, and in awards consultancy. She is the first awards consultant specializing in HR expertise in Turkey. Asli mixes her knowhow in psychology and HR and she is unique in her field as an award consultant.

Günay Üsküdar, Head of Business Excellence and Strategy
Robert Bosch Turkey, Bursa, Turkey
I am in charge of Business Excellence at Bosch in Turkey, responsible for Strategic Management, Business Excellence, Continuous Improvement, and Knowledge Management. Before taking my current position, I worked in HR, holding different roles at Bosch in Turkey, Germany and Spain. In 2012, I became EFQM Award Assessor, and since then I’ve participated in award assessments for both national and international companies (7 so far). I am a licensed EFQM Model Trainer for Journey to Excellence, Leaders for Excellence, and Assessor Development. Other qualifications include ICF Certified Coach, Facilitator for Leadership Feedback, Strategy Workshops, and Trainer for Change Management. My hobbies are traveling, cooking, and being a bookwork.