Ethical, transparent and respected, the awards are judged by esteemed industry experts who follow a robust two-step judging process that includes pre-scoring to establish a shortlist and judge discussion to determine winners and, in some cases, silver awards.
None of our award judges can take part in the competition, and any conflicts of interest must be declared.
The UK Company Culture Awards have been accredited ‘Outstanding’ by the Independent Awards Standards Council – Awards Trust Mark.
To apply to become a judge, fill out the form at the bottom of this page.
Isobel Wilson-Cleary | Communications and engagement strategist | University of Birmingham
Isobel is a communications strategist, specialising in research and policy communications, stakeholder engagement and partnerships. Isobel has spent the past 15 years leading, advising and mentoring teams to create impactful communications campaigns and interventions to change behaviours and inform policy decision-making on issues such as early childhood education, inequalities and global health. Isobel is a Board Member for We Don't Settle, a youth-focused arts and heritage organisation, and sits on the University of Leeds' Horizons Institute Advisory Board.
Jen Vineer | People & Culture Manager | 3sidedcube
For the past seven years, Jen has been the force behind everything that makes 3 Sided Cube an incredible place to work. As our People & Culture Manager, she’s not just about policies and processes. She’s the one who ensures our team thrives, whether that’s through championing wellbeing, leading personal development initiatives, or making sure every Cube feels heard, supported and included. With a knack for balancing strategy with genuine care, she’s been instrumental in shaping a workplace where talent isn’t just hired but nurtured. From onboarding the brightest minds to ensuring they grow, excel, and stay engaged, Jen’s influence can be felt across every corner of the agency.
Tom Kegode | Future of Work & Culture Strategist | Spark Shift | Linked In | SparkShift
Tom Kegode is obsessed with helping leaders and teams spark shifts that create future-ready cultures. With 15+ years of experience in People Innovation, he’s passionate about removing barriers and building workplaces that inspire peak performance.
Laura Hothersall | Director | Truth
Laura Hothersall has extensive experience in fostering outstanding workplace cultures. As MD at Clicky Media, Laura was instrumental in shaping employee engagement and driving organisational change from the early days of agency growth to the established agency that Clicky is today. Laura now runs her business wearetruth.org - helping businesses achieve Bcorp certification, Laura has worked with multiple sectors to help them with their DEI, recruitment, employee engagement strategies to get them 'Bcorp ready'. With a career spanning 27 years, Laura has worked with leading organisations to implement innovative people strategies, enhance employee experience, and embed company values into everyday business operations. Their passion for workplace culture, leadership development, and employee wellbeing makes them a valuable judge for the UK Company Culture Awards. Laura believes that a strong company culture is the foundation of sustainable business success and is excited to celebrate organisations that are making a real impact.
Matteo Violi | Head of Global Talent and Learning | Christian Aid
Paul Wilshaw | Founder and CEO | Designed for Humans
Over the last decade, Paul has carved out a niche as a beacon of innovation and strategic leadership in the digital realm. The creation of award-winning digital products and steering start-ups towards uncharted territories with a blend of creativity and technology. A relentless drive to foster change is at the heart of Paul’s success. This has manifested in the formation of high-calibre creative and technology departments, nurturing teams to thrive, and empowering performances that not only meet but exceed business goals. Paul is a vocal champion for harnessing technology to unravel complex business challenges, and he thrives on collaboration with both internal and external partners to craft solutions that are consistent, accessible, and ground-breaking. To Paul, diversity and inclusion are more than buzzwords; they are essential pillars that drive organisational progress Paul is dedicated to championing initiatives that foster an inclusive environment and break down barriers, embedding a forward-thinking culture at every level.
Bedford Thomas | Head of People | Two Circles
Collette Easton | Executive Coach | Zokri | Linked In
20 years agency experience: early employed, co-founder and founder. I have started, grown and developed digital agency businesses both organically and operated within Venture Capital. Commercially experienced in pricing, revenue alignment & management; sales and marketing strategic development, forecasting, goals and objectives and crucially help drive people strategy to fit growth and development plans. The strength and performance within a business, is directly related to engaged, happy people who truly understand their purpose.
Davina Lines | Managing Director | Ecommerce Club
Davina Lines is Managing Director of Mixing Digital and the Ecommerce Club. She brings a wealth of knowledge and a big black book of digital contacts to ensure Mixing Digital’s event management services are of the highest standard. Davina co-founded Netimperative in 1999 and became Managing Director in 2002, stewarding the brand into new product launches and creating one of the most successful events programmes in the digital marketing industry. In the mid 90s Davina cut her digital teeth on New Media Age (now Econsultancy), forming part of the founding team and was responsible for the commercial development of the magazine and its early events from launch in May 1995 to 1999. In recent years Davina launched an ecommerce peer-to-peer community, the Ecommerce Club, which runs regular events in London and Manchester on topics relevant to the retail community.
Clare Sweeney | Consultant | Keepace.Consults
Rejoice Ojiaku | Award Winning Diversity & Inclusion Advocate |
Rejoice has worked within digital marketing (SEO) for 4+ years. After finishing her master’s degree in marketing at The University of Manchester, she started her journey as a Junior SEO Executive and is now an SEO Manager as well as the Co-Founder & Content Lead for B-DigitalUK. She specialises in Content SEO and she has spoken at BrightonSEO, Whitespark Local Search Summit as well as participated in webinars for FounderVine, Majestic, Noisy Little Monkey etc. Additionally, she is also an Award-Winning Diversity & Inclusion Advocate as she is passionate about Diversity & Inclusion within the workplace to ensure the perspective and struggles of Black people are heard.
Chantel Hayward | Founder and Director | Fox & Fable
Chantel is a seasoned HR professional and executive coach, with over 17 years of expertise in supporting organisations to thrive. Her experience spans SMEs and global businesses across the private, public and not for profit sectors. As the founder and director of Fox & Fable, Chantel specialises in partnering with creative agencies across the marketing and advertising industry to craft exceptional employee experiences, foster engaged and high performing teams and prioritise wellbeing as a foundation for success. A Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, an ILM Level 7 Executive Coach and Mentor and a certified Mental Health First Aider, Chantel is dedicated to empowering leaders and organisations to unlock potential, nurture balance and build workplaces whereby people and performance flourish together.
Andy Green | Founder | AndyGreenCreativity
Andy Green FCIPR FRSA is cofounder of the Dublin Conversations, the Modern Cockney Festival, and wrote 21years ago, the very first book on ‘Creativity in Public Relations’. He is a consultant in identifying purpose, brand storytelling, creativity, and managing Fake Purpose to enable his clients to fulfil their greater potential and make the most of opportunities. He is also a part-time university lecturer. Andy has written six books, translated into eight languages and believing inspiration can come from the unlikeliest of sources, even runs creativity classes on the London Tube.
Gary is a father of four and a husband of one, and runs a successful business in his spare time. He’s an expert in workplace performance, with extensive experience leading and directing HR, OD and L&D functions across all sectors. His clients like working with him as he is authentic, honest, knowledgeable, communicative and people focused, with a broad and deep range of skills and experience – and a glance at his prolific social media output will verify this. Gary is a leading expert in the design and delivery of online / virtual training programmes, as well as an inspiring and entertaining keynote speaker and trainer on a range of leadership and HR issues. He was been recognised in many industry lists and been the recipient of numerous industry awards. His book, HR for Hybrid Working, was published in June 2022 by Kogan Page. He’s sure to mention this more than once.
Erin Portsmouth | Associate Director of Strategy Planning and Development (Oldham) | NHS Greater Manchester
Erin is a Chartered public relations practitioner who worked for ten years in private sector marketing and communications consultancies, and for the past fifteen years has worked in the National Health Service. She is currently Associate Director of Strategy, Planning and Development for the Oldham team within NHS Greater Manchester, where she oversees a strategic portfolio that also includes communications, engagement, public affairs, equality and diversity, organisational development and governance. She has a Masters degree in public relations, is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and served on the CIPR North West Group Committee as a volunteer for ten years, also holding a three year term as Chair. She was appointed to the Board of Trustees of homelessness charity Emmaus Salford in 2017 undertaking their Company Secretary role, and is a volunteer Board Director and Trustee of Oldham Community Leisure.
Janet Houlis | Change, EDI & HR Management Consultant | VALO Consultancy
Janet Houlis is an accomplished business leader who combines commercial aptitude with a people-centric approach to deliver change, improve services, and achieve unparalleled customer excellence within organisations. A Board member, Advisor and HR Professional with a breath of experience working Nationally & Internationally within Operations, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging (EDI&B), Change & Transformation. Janet has a proven track record in directing change interventions, steering strategic planning and execution across multi-disciplined international communities, supporting both large corporates and SMEs within highly regulated environments. She has championed diversity and inclusion throughout her career, supporting clients in taking meaningful steps on their EDI, Belonging and anti-racism journeys, ensuring employees remain at the heart of their business. Janet is a trained People Professional, Coach and Mentor. A member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (MCIPD), and a Women on Boards Member.
Steve Kuncewicz | Head Of Creative, Digital & Marketing | Glaisyers ETL | X Profile
Steve is a Partner and Head of Creative, Digital and Marketing at Glaisyers ETL in Manchester. He specialises in intellectual property, media social media and privacy law and is listed as a "recommended lawyer" in the Legal 500, and was a oo-founder pf the Bulletproof Agency Network. He is a regular media spokesperson, and has given interviews to the local and national press through BBC Breakfast, Sky News, ITV, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live and LBC London. Steve is also the Manchester Publicity Association’s Honorary Solicitor.
Tiago is an experienced Manager with +25 years of experience in the areas of marketing, sales and retail, having worked in companies such as adidas, Jeronimo Martins, Sonae and FNAC. He has worked for adidas as Portugal Marketing Director and as Director of Brand Activation for the regions of Africa and the Middle East (MENA) where he received many media, activation and retail awards. He also as been part of several jury panels in marketing awards events on the region. A true team player, he has extensive national and international experience in various business areas so he feels at home anywhere on the globe, and in any kind of project. Always pioneering in the use of new technologies to the business world, he took on gamification as his latest challenge in 2017, currently leading Gamification startups in both Portugal and the UK. He achieved is Bachelors in Management in Portugal, followed by an MBA with Marketing focus in the UK. More recently he concluded a Post-Graduation Diploma in Retail Management and another in Arts Markets and Collections. He is also a long time Member of the CIM (MCIM) and (believe it or not!) a Chartered Accountant.
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I’m so chuffed Sam won Culture Ambassador of the Year at the Culture Awards, it’s such wonderful recognition for all her hard work. She’s been ahead of the game in terms of rolling out an informative, inclusive and innovative program in our business that’s highly regarded by our peers in the sector. The feedback she gets both externally and internally is always excellent and she works hard to help drive DEI initiatives forward in work and in personal time. We’re lucky to have her and will enjoy seeing her fly the Culture Ambassador flag for the next year and beyond.Michelle Vint Skyrise
We’re incredibly honoured to have been awarded the Best Workplace Health & Wellbeing Awareness Initiative for the second consecutive year. This recognition underscores our unwavering dedication to creating a workplace environment where each team member can thrive both personally and professionally.Jen Wlodyka Distinctly
Being recognised for our commitment to nurturing an authentically supportive remote company culture has been a wonderful moment of reflection for us as a team, and for us as founders. Applying for the Company Culture Awards provided a unique opportunity to reflect on our practice as a small business, and be recognised for our commitment to growing a happy, healthy, and fulfilled international team.Abb-d Taiyo Driftime®
We recognize the importance of building a workplace that puts its employees first, positively impacts the communities it works with and advocates for meaningful change. That’s why we couldn’t be more proud to have been shortlisted for ESG Program of the Year at the UK Company Culture Awards. Ogury
It’s amazing to think we’re back at the culture awards and we are so excited to be shortlisted in new categories. The culture awards are so important to our team at Skyrise as we really love and believe in the culture we’ve created. It’s what makes us different to other companies so to be shortlisted is a huge team achievement.Sam Sharwin Skyrise
It is an absolute honour to be shortlisted for the ‘Best Cultural Transformation Initiative’ Award at the 2024 UK Company Culture Awards. This recognition reflects our team’s commitment to cultivating a best-in-class workplace.Mark Brown WRS
