Meet the Judges

Details of the Judging Panel for the BSI Resettlement Awards 2017 can be found below.

 

For details of the 2016 Judges' Panel click here.

Graham Brown, Managing Director of Forces Recruitment Services Ltd

Graham joined the Army in 1987 as a musician, completing a one-year course at the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall and serving as a medic in the first Gulf War. He left the Army in 1993 to pursue a career in sales and spent eight years in media sales working initially for the education specialist, Hobsons Publishing selling on print and electronic graduate and undergraduate titles. From there, he was headhunted to be Sales Manager of The Officer and RAF In-Flight magazines and was responsible for the concept and development of Quest magazine. Following the completion of an MA in Film Composition, he left Quest as Publishing Development Director to set up Forces Recruitment Services, the first commercial consultancy to assist ex-military candidates across all ranks and services in 2001. FRS has gone from strength to strength since 2001 helping thousands of ex-military candidates from all service backgrounds into work. FRS is the market leader in ex-military recruitment and the place of choice for employers and job seekers alike. Graham is immensely proud of what FRS continues to build.

Brigadier (Retired) Ian Caws
OBE CEng MICE,
Director of Operations for Cobseo

Ian served in the Royal Engineers for 30 years before a second career as Bursar of the Dragon School Oxford.  He joined Cobseo as Director of Operations earlier this year, so starting an unplanned third career.  Ian is responsible for ensuring the effective and efficient operation of Cobseo and providing support to the Cobseo Executive in pursuance of Cobseo objectives, projects and initiatives.  His main responsibilities are to execute the decisions of the Cobseo Executive, whilst managing the day-to-day running of Cobseo to meet the Confederation’s purposes as the overarching organisation for the Service Charities.  He represents Cobseo in various environments, attending a number of MOD meetings and working groups; working with the Cobseo Chairman and Executive Committee to promote Cobseo through the Cluster process; developing the relationships between Service Charities, Government Departments and many other organisations.

Rob Dawkins, winner of the Service Leaver of the Year Award 2016
Rob left the Royal Artillery in 2010 after 24 years’ service. Employed as a signaller he gained civilian accreditation of his military telecommunications. Ever mindful that it was important to have options Rob also liaised closely with General Dynamics UK about roles available and he also kept himself current and competent regarding his assessing work. With 3 months to go before he was due to leave the Services Rob applied for a role as a Personal Development Advisor which would utilise his assessing qualification and also that of his 24 years military experience.

Colonel Andy Deans MBE, the Ministry of Defence Lead on Resettlement
Andy commissioned in the Army in 1990 and his career has been focused on training, education and leadership development. He has had jobs in delivery, design and policy throughout the Army and Defence. He has deployed on operations in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Afghanistan. During his career he has completed two Masters in Educational Technology and Defence Studies. He started his current job as Assistant Head of Through Life Development in the Ministry of Defence in September 2015 and a major responsibility is ensuring the revised Career Transition Partnership (CTP) delivers a quality service to Defence personnel. This service provides bespoke transition planning and support to each of the 17,000 personnel that progress from military to civilian life each year.

Mike Edwards,
Regional Tutor Delivery Manager, BSI

Prior to joining BSI, Mike spent over 20 years in the Royal Navy in a variety of information security roles. He has worked for the Royal Navy and the MoD on information assurance and business continuity management projects. Mike has been part of and led the MoD technical support teams auditing both classified and non-classified systems, ensuring compliance to ISO/IEC 27001 and HMG Security Policy Framework.
Mike joined BSI as a Tutor and is now a Regional Tutor Delivery Manager, managing a team of 10 specialist tutors. Mike has expertise in information security, business continuity and quality management systems. He has extensive security experience and has been a regular speaker at international conferences on information security in the defence sector. Mike has worked closely with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) providing an information security awareness programme, as well as writing a paper on the role of social networking and operational security in the armed forces.
Mike has a vocational degree in leadership and management and is a certified information security manager with ISACA as well as a qualified Ethical Computer Hacker and Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator.

Sarah Findlay,
Training & Development Coordinator, Help for Heroes

Sarah joined Help for Heroes early 2016 as Training and Development Coordinator. Working at the only Recovery Centre in the North of England, Help for Heroes supports Wounded, Injured and Sick individuals throughout their recovery journey, whether returning to work or leaving the Armed Forces. Prior to joining H4H Sarah spent over 8 years working in Learning and Development for a private healthcare provider. Specialising in design and delivery of E-Learning and LMS, Vocational Training and Funding, Sarah is a qualified Facilitator and has a keen interest in both Adult Learning and Professional Development. Her focus at H4H sees Serving Personnel, Veterans and their Family members accessing a number of Career and Personal Development Pathways, by attending courses and completing qualifications that are provided, along with a large range of additional opportunities available at Help for Heroes.

Ren Kapur MBE,
Founder and CEO X-Forces Ltd

Ren has started and run her own businesses throughout her life and is passionate about enabling individuals and communities to support themselves through enterprise, an area that is equally important whether work for yourself or an organisation.
Her focus, throughout her career has been to support sales and marketing strategies that promote business growth and client acquisition. She has combined her years of experience from various organisations to concentrate on entrepreneurial endeavours and support new enterprise, bringing together Corporate, Government and Charity; stakeholders at both a national and local level.
She has channelled contacts and working relationships to X-Forces, of which she is CEO and Founder, supporting new enterprise in the military community.Since 2013, X-Forces have supported over 1000 businesses to be launched by veterans, service leavers, reservists, cadets and family members.
Ren was awarded an MBE for service to the Entrepreneurship in 2016 in the Queen’s 90th Birthday Honours list.

Heledd Kendrick,
Founder of Recruit for Spouses

A highly focused, ambitious, and visionary military wife, Heledd is passionate about driving awareness of the challenges faced by those married to the military. In 2009, she was inspired to launch Recruit for Spouses, an award-winning social enterprise, providing support for the spouses of serving members of the Armed Forces in their search for employment.

Malcolm Robinson, Editor of Pathfinder International Magazine
Mal Robinson is the current Editor of Pathfinder International. Prior to this, Mal served 9 years in the Royal Air Force in Logistics and Business Management. Mal has served in operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan. On leaving the RAF in 2011, Mal has worked in Afghanistan in Logistics, launched a Media publishing company, held the position of Sports Editor for Trinity Mirror’s ncj Media, worked as Security and Communications Director in Sierra Leone, as part of the UK government’s relief to the Ebola crisis, earning an Ebola medal in the process. His last role to arriving at Pathfinder saw him as Commercial Manager for the University of Sunderland, overseeing their conference and events department. Mal has been involved in 5 book projects to date in an array of roles from author, self publisher and project editor.

Elizabeth Stevens, Head of Employment Services and Marketing, The Officers' Association
Liz leads the Employment Department at the Officers' Association (OA) and is responsible for developing and implementing the organisation’s employment strategy out to 2023. This includes developing its regional presence across the UK and introducing new services for both job seekers and employers as well as realigning existing services into three distinct areas: OA Appointments, OA Connect and OA Insight. She also has responsibility for marketing across the OA. She joined the OA in November 2013 having had a career in the Royal Navy as a Logistics Officer which included time at sea in HMS Brilliant and HMS Endurance; subsequently setting up her own online business before working as a change management consultant in the charity sector.

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