Ben Willmott, Head of Public Policy

Ben leads our public policy team, which works to inform and shape public debate, government policy and legislation to champion better work and working lives. His personal areas of interest include industrial strategy, skills policy, labour market regulation and enforcement and employee relations and wellbeing. 

Ben led the design and development of our regional People Skills pilots, which explored the value of HR support for small firms and how it can be delivered effectively within a local skills system. His published research includes reports on the Apprenticeship Levy, line management capability, zero hours contracts and the gig economy. He is also a member of the Government-sponsored Flexible Working Taskforce and has given evidence to a range of select committee inquiries on our behalf. Before joining the CIPD, Ben was news editor and employment law editor at Personnel Today magazine. He has an LLM in employment law from Kingston University.

Jon Boys, Labour Market Economist

Jon is an experienced labour market analyst with expertise in pay and conditions, education and skills and productivity. He focuses on uncovering insights in labour market data, both publicly available and generated through in-house surveying. 

Jon regularly contributes commentary and analysis of economic issues on the world of work to online, print and broadcast media. Recent work includes an international ranking of work quality, analysis of firm-level gender pay gap reporting data and an ongoing programme of work looking at the changing age profile of the UK workforce. 

Before joining the CIPD, Jon worked for Be the Business, a government-backed company aimed at increasing firm-level productivity in the UK, and the Careers and Enterprise Company, another government-backed start-up aimed at transforming careers provision in schools. He has also held prominent research roles at an employers association and trade union researching pay, conditions, and workforce composition.

Marek Zemanik, Senior Public Policy Adviser, Scotland and Northern Ireland

Marek leads our public policy work in Scotland and Northern Ireland, focusing primarily on fair work, skills and productivity. 

He writes our annual job quality report, Working Lives Scotland, and has written several policy and research reports around skills and the labour market in Scotland and Northern Ireland. He provides evidence to Parliamentary and Assembly committees, responds to government and executive consultations and inquiries and engages with ministers and civil servants.

Before joining the CIPD, Marek spent nearly a decade working at the Scottish Parliament as a political adviser responsible for policymaking across devolved areas of public policy. He has written several election manifestos, dozens of policy papers and coordinated a series of independent policy commissions.

James Cockett, Labour Market Economist

James is a quantitative analyst with experience in a variety of aspects of the world of work, including low pay, equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), flexible working, social mobility, wellbeing and education and skills. James uses both publicly available data, and our own surveys to gain insights and he has a keen interest in data visualisation. 

Before joining the CIPD, James was an economist in the policy team of the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) where he completed labour market research and evaluation of employment programmes designed to support people into work. He has also led the design and analysis of numerous workforce surveys and has presented to several government departments and key stakeholders. James has also worked as a consultant, completing evaluations on the subject of social policy for public sector clients.

Rebecca Peters, Research Adviser

Rebecca joined our research team in 2019, specialising in the area of health and wellbeing at work as both a practitioner and a researcher. Before joining the CIPD, Rebecca worked part-time at Kingston University in the Business School research department, where she worked on several research-driven projects. Additionally, Rebecca worked part-time at a health and wellbeing consultancy where she facilitated various wellbeing workshops, both externally and in-house. 

Rebecca has a Master’s degree in occupational psychology from Kingston University, where she completed research on prison officers’ resilience and coping strategies. The output of this research consisted of a behavioural framework which highlighted positive and negative strategies that prison officers used in their daily working life.  

Susannah Haan, Senior Corporate Governance Adviser

Susannah is the CIPD’s Senior Corporate Governance Adviser. Previously, she worked for companies, investors and regulators in London, Moscow and Brussels, to influence public policy and create long-term change in corporate and investor reporting.

Her roles have included: board member at PWN Global, business angel at Rising Tide Europe, Secretary General at EuropeanIssuers, Adviser to the Financial Reporting Council on the introduction of the Stewardship Code for institutional investors, Associate Director of Public Policy at Fidelity International, Senior Legal Adviser at Clifford Chance and Lawyer at Clifford Chance.

Susannah is also a Trustee of the CBI Retirement Fund and Advisory Board member to PWI Brussels.

Lutfur Ali, Senior Public Policy Adviser, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Change

Lutfur has dedicated more than 30 years to championing social justice, equality, diversity, inclusion (EDI) and change in the public, private and third sector. He strongly believes in the importance of effective EDI leadership in driving sustainable improvements and delivering organisational vision, mission and goals. 

Before joining the CIPD, Lutfur led consultancy practice and held several high-profile roles in the public, private and not-for-profit sector, including the Tribal Group PLC, the Department of Health and the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. As assistant chief executive at Tower Hamlets Council he led a transformation programme to reshape the workforce, secure partnerships, generate income and improve overall service delivery. Lutfur has served on a number of judicial public inquiries and government advisory bodies, including the Zahid Mubarak Inquiry, the Prime Minister’s Prevent Task Force and the International Ministerial Working Group on Illegal Working. Lutfur is also a non-executive director for the Business Continuity and Resilience Institute. 

Claire McCartney, Senior Policy Adviser, Resourcing and Inclusion

Claire is our senior resourcing and inclusion policy adviser. She leads our policy work on flexible and new ways of working and resourcing and talent management. Claire also works in the area of equality, diversity and inclusion and leads policy work on carers, working parents and compassionate bereavement support. She also works with colleagues on menopause and menstrual health workplace policy support.

Previously, Claire ran her own research and consultancy organisation and was acting head of research and principal researcher at Roffey Park. Claire has worked on several international projects, is the author of a range of reports, has responded to numerous Government consultations and has given evidence at a range of parliamentary groups and committees.   

Dr Jill Miller, Senior Diversity and Inclusion Adviser

Jill’s work focuses on gender, age and neurodiversity. She has recently led projects on race inclusion, managing drug and alcohol misuse at work and supporting employees through fertility treatment, pregnancy loss and still birth. Earlier in her career, Jill specialised in small business growth through good people management and employee wellbeing.

Jill’s role is a combination of rigorous research and active engagement with policy makers, academics and HR professionals to inform projects and shape thinking on inclusion and diversity issues. She frequently presents on people management issues, leads discussions and workshops and is invited to write for trade press as well as offer comment to national journalists.

Before joining the CIPD, Jill worked in an entrepreneurial small business, before lecturing at Reading University on HR topics. She has a BSc in psychology, MSc in international business and a PhD in management, examining the effect of the informal organisation on performance.

Charles Cotton, Senior Performance and Reward Adviser

Charles is a senior adviser and directs our reward research agenda. He recently led a project focusing on how HR teams can help tackle in-work poverty, how workplaces can be more transparent about reward, and how employers can support their staff during the cost-of-living crisis. 

Charles is also responsible for our public policy work around pay and benefits and has given evidence to several government select committees, including topics such as executive remuneration and ethnicity pay reporting, as well responding to consultations on pensions, the national minimum wage, and corporate governance.

Before joining the CIPD, Charles worked for the Industrial Relations Services Department and the Local Government Management Board. He has a degree in economics from Aberystwyth University and a Master's in HR from the London School of Economics. He is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD.

Rachel Suff, Senior Employee Relations Adviser

Rachel joined us as a senior policy adviser in 2014 to help shape the public policy debate and champion better work and working lives. Rachel is a policy and research professional with over 25 years’ experience in the employment and HR arena. An important part of her role is to ensure that the views of the profession inform our policy thinking on health and wellbeing and employment relations.

Rachel leads a range of policy and research studies about health and wellbeing at work, and represents the CIPD on key advisory groups, such as NHS England's National Health and Wellbeing Expert Advisory Group and the Council for Work and Health.

Rachel is a qualified HR practitioner and researcher with a Master’s in human resource management from Portsmouth University and a post-graduate diploma in social research methods from Sussex University. Before joining the CIPD, Rachel worked as a senior policy adviser at Acas. 

Lizzie Crowley, Senior Policy Adviser, Skills

Lizzie is our employment and skills policy and research professional. She is experienced in developing high-quality research to inform organisational practice, policy and shape the public debate.

Before joining the CIPD in 2016, she led youth labour market research and policy development for The Work Foundation and developed research for public and private sectors. She has published several influential reports on skill policy and youth unemployment and appears regularly on national and regional TV and radio.

Lizzie is a sociology graduate with a Master's degree in social science research methods, both from the University of Glasgow.

Hayfa Mohdzaini, Senior Research Adviser

Hayfa joined us in 2020. Hayfa has degrees in computer science and human resources from University of York and University of Warwick respectively.

She started her career in the private sector working in IT and then HR and has been writing for the HR community since 2012. Previously she worked for another membership organisation (UCEA) where she expanded the range of pay and workforce benchmarking data available to the higher education HR community. 

She is interested in how the people profession can contribute to good work through technology and has written several publications on our behalf, as well as judging our people management awards, speaking at conferences and exhibitions and providing commentary to the media on the subjects of people and technology.

Jonny Gifford, Senior Adviser for Organisational Behaviour

Jonny’s work centres on generating robust and relevant research insight and strengthening links between research and practice. He’s been conducting applied research in the field of employment and people management for the best part of 20 years, with previous roles at Westminster Business School, the Institute for Employment Studies and Roffey Park Institute. 

His interests include job quality or good work, workplace conflict and behavioural science insights into core HR areas such as recruitment, reward, performance management, ethical behaviour and wellbeing. He directs our annual applied research conference, leads our work on evidence-based practice and is a seasoned public speaker.

He is an Academic Member of the CIPD, a Fellow of the Center for Evidence-Based Management and is currently working on his PhD on work autonomy and management control.

Jake Young, Research Adviser

Jake joined us in 2018, having completed a Master’s degree in social science research methods at the University of Nottingham. He also holds an undergraduate degree in criminology and sociology.

Jake leads on the Good Work Index, our annual benchmark of job quality in the UK. Jake has also contributed to many Evidence Reviews, providing a critical and evidence-based view on many different organisational areas, including employee engagement, digital work and mental wellbeing, and what works in diversity management.