Which brings us to our third
most influential practitioner. As
group HR director at Clydesdale
and Yorkshire Bank (CYBG) Kate
Guthrie has certainly had to pull
on such capabilities in managing
the successful acquisition of
Virgin Money in October 2018 –
a takeover that has made CYBG/
Virgin Money the sixth-largest
bank in the UK.
Guthrie and her team are now
hard at work leading on the
organisation design and peoplerelated
challenges associated
with the integration of two such
large companies, including a
transformational approach to
leadership and performance
management and a team-based
incentive scheme linked to
delivery of the group strategy.
“Kate has been involved in one
of the biggest, most complex and
most important deals and
organisational changes in the UK
financial services scene in the
past few years,” comments
Anna Penfold, another
panellist and consultant at
Russell Reynolds Associates.
“As HR leader at Clydesdale
and Yorkshire Bank she has
helped decouple the bank from
National Australia Bank; has set
the organisation, culture and
employee base on a more stable
footing; and then taken the
organisation through the
acquisition of Virgin Money.
“And she’s driven all of this
with aplomb, improving
engagement, providing stronger
purpose and clarity for the
organisation, and managing to
do so while working closely with
regulators,” she adds, highlighting
too her influence outside her day
job as senior independent
director of Action for Children,
and inaugural chair of the Bank
of Scotland Foundation.
The human touch
Yet within all of this hard-edged
commerciality, HR’s role in
Strategic HR HR Most Influential
HR Most Influential
Thinkers 2019
1. Amy Edmondson, Novartis
professor of leadership and
management, Harvard
Business School
2. Mee-Yan Cheung-Judge,
founder, Quality and Equality
3. Tomas Chamorro-
Premuzic, professor of
business psychology, University
College London and
Columbia University
4. Adam Grant, Saul
P. Steinberg professor of
management and professor
of psychology, Wharton
School, University
of Pennsylvania
5. Matthew Taylor, chief
executive, RSA
6. Herminia Ibarra,
Charles Handy professor of
organisational behaviour,
London Business School
7. Simon Sinek, speaker
and consultant
8. Caroline Criado-Perez,
author and campaigner
9. Perry Timms, founder and
chief energy officer, PTHR
10. Nilofer Merchant,
author and speaker
11. Vlatka Hlupic,
professor of leadership and
organisational transformation,
Hult Ashridge
12. Gervase Bushe,
professor of leadership and
organization development,
Beedie School of Business,
Simon Fraser University
13. Peter Cappelli,
George W Taylor professor of
management and director
of the Center for Human
Resources, Wharton University
of Pennsylvania
14. Bruce Daisley, author
and VP EMEA, Twitter
15. Rob McCargow, director of
artificial intelligence, PwC UK
16. Peter Cheese,
chief executive, CIPD
17. Rachel Botsman, author
18. Wendy Hirsh, independent
researcher and principal
associate, Institute for
Employment Studies
19. David D’Souza,
membership director, CIPD
20. Josh Bersin, principal and
founder, Bersin by Deloitte
21. Megan Reitz, professor
of leadership and dialogue,
Ashridge Executive Education
22. Stephen Bevan, head of HR
research development, Institute
for Employment Studies
23. Patrick Lencioni, founder
and president, The Table Group
24. Chris Roebuck,
organisational success advisor
and visiting professor of
transformational leadership, Cass
Business School
25. Linda Holbeche, adjunct
professor, Imperial
College London
26. Patrick Wright, Thomas C
Vandiver bicentennial chair and
professor, University of
South Carolina
27. John Amaechi,
organisational psychologist
and consultant, Amaechi
Performance Systems
28.= James Traeger,
director, Mayvin
= Rob Warwick, reader in
management and organisational
learning, University of Chichester
29. Simon Fanshawe,
co-founder, Stonewall
30. Susan Vinnicombe,
professor of women and
leadership, Cranfield School
of Management
20 HR October 2019 hrmagazine.co.uk
/hrmagazine.co.uk