Future Leaders Workshop

Andy Bird is an independent leadership consultant who provides support, challenge and guidance for people looking to flourish and succeed as leaders. He works with his clients in a spirit of close partnership, helping them think through the diverse challenges they face in their business activities and relationships. More fundamentally, he supports people, both individually and in teams, as they craft their own distinctive leadership approach based on their core values, passions and talents.

Andy has always loved searching for insights and sharing ideas, helping people to learn and to make the most of their potential. He combines an open, engaging manner with over 30 years of commercial, consultancy and leadership experience. This blend enables him to support people with both what they need to do in their roles, as well as who they aspire to be as leaders.

Andy currently runs executive coaching and action learning programmes for companies such as HSBC, M&S, Shell and Siemens. For many years, he has also worked with The Marketing Society to deliver the renowned International Marketing Leaders Programme. He is qualified with an MSc in Coaching & Behaviour Change from Henley Business School and is endorsed by the Association for Professional Executive Coaching and Supervision (APECS). His new book, The Inspired Leader, will be published by Bloomsbury in November 2017 and explores how leaders can discover, experience and maintain their personal inspiration.

In terms of his background, Andy graduated from The Queen’s College, Oxford in 1986 with a First in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and a Blue in Football. He began his career working for Unilever in a variety of strategic marketing roles in the UK, India and South East Asia. His last position as Vice-President for the Marketing Academy involved him setting up and leading the group responsible for driving the development of marketing capabilities across Unilever’s global organisation.

In 2000, Andy left to become a Co-Founder and Joint-MD of Brand Learning, a capability consultancy which now has a team of 170 people and offices in London, New York and Singapore. As the business has grown, it has become well known for its distinctive client work and highly engaged culture. In recent years, Andy has focused on driving the development of Brand Learning's leadership practice, up to the point of the company's acquisition by Accenture in August 2017.

After graduating from Manchester University in Hispanic Studies, Harriet de Swiet gained over 14 years marketing experience across internationally leading FMCG and service companies.

Harriet started her marketing career at Unilever, working on a range of international brands and then joined British Airways. As Strategic Development Manager she specialised in proposition development, insight and brand engagement and relished the challenges involved in delivering a brand promise across multiple cultures, through technology and thousands of employees.

Before joining Brand Learning, Harriet was at Bupa firstly as Head of Marketing and then Head of Brand. She gained extensive experience there in brand positioning and strategic development, service brand delivery and brand communications.

Harriet has been at Brand Learning for 10 years, and in that time has developed and delivered capability change programmes for global and regional clients across Pharmaceutical, Media, Hospitality and FMCG sectors. She is passionate about driving behaviour change and enabling individuals and organisations to develop and grow. Her commitment to the profession is reflected in her additional position of Vice Chair of the Marketing Society in South East Asia.

Harriet has lived in Spain, North and South America. Outside work, her passion is for long distance open water swimming, with opera and cooking as close contenders. She is married to Charles, a Deputy Headteacher and they have two children.

Tricia Weener is Global Head of Marketing for HSBC Commercial Banking as well as Asia Head of Marketing for Commercial Banking and Global Banking and Markets. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Marketing Society, as well as Chair of the Marketing Society in Asia. In addition Tricia is Chair of the BritCham Marketing and Communications Committee in HK and was recently awarded Business Leader in the ‘Women Leading Change in Asia’ Awards. Her commercial and creative marketing skills have been honed over her plus 20-year career working in senior leadership roles in B2B and B2C across numerous industry sectors including; retail, FS, luxury goods, drinks, FMCG, travel and sport.

Tricia is a strategic marketing leader with a passion for people and helping them fulfil their potential. She is truly customer centric relying on customer and business insights to help define propositions and build brands, always striving to bring innovation and ideas to transform customer and user experiences. Tricia is a strong advocate for diversity supporting LGBT and women in the work-place, as well as being a Sustainability Leader for the HSBC group. She is currently based in Hong Kong, with experience across geographies including Asia, the US and EMEA.