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Not just a group of people

Chaired by a leader in organisational change, our independent judging panel consists of seven change management professionals who bring deep experience in both change management and academia. Having devoted enormous amounts of energy and dedication to the profession themselves, they provide expert scrutiny to ensure Change Awards winners deserve the accolade. The anonymised process that we have designed ensures that all relevant attributes and hallmarks of excellence are objectively considered when shortlisting and finally selecting winners across our categories.

Richard Smith | ChangeAwards.co

Connect with Richard

Head Judge -
Richard Smith

Non-exec director with international experience in Organizational Change, Senior Team Effectiveness and Leadership

Richard has spent his career working on organizational change issues across a range of industries. In-company (“proper jobs”, he says!) he worked in muti-site retailing, f.m.c.g., IT and financial services, focusing on organizational development including performance management, talent management, leadership and senior team development, and on change initiatives, including cultural transformations. In 1994 he established his own consulting firm and has since worked in over 40 countries across six continents with a range of organizations across various industries.

For over 13 years Richard has been chief examiner for Change Management for APMG international and on a number of occasions judged Change Management Awards for a professional journal. He led the authoring team for the original Change Management Institute professional body of Knowledge (published 2013) and was lead author and editor for The Effective Change Manager’s Handbook (Kogan Page, 2014). He has subsequently been a key contributor to other publications for APMG International.

Richard Smith - on the 2024 Change Management Awards

“I watched the development of the first Change Management Awards cycle culminating in the 2023 ceremony, and was excited to see these awards promoted and offered in the Change Management space. They recognise brilliantly the critical significance of the Change Management discipline to sustained organizational performance in today’s markets. As a result I was delighted and honoured to be invited to head the judging team for the 2024 Change Management Awards, and very much look forward to reviewing and recognizing – and to learning from – some of the best Change Management initiatives in the world this year.”

Judging Panel

Founder at Continuous
Change Community

Melanie Franklin

Chief Experimenter, MBA
Lecturer and founder at
Blue Spaze

Thomas Poedenphant

Senior Lecturer at Regents
University

Dr Vicky Haji-Ghassemi

Senior Manager & Modern
Workplace Lead at
WM Reply

David Callaghan

Business and Change
Transformational Leader
CCMP, BSc (Hons)

Damian Jordan

Business Transformation
Senior Director at a global
UK plc

Ihab Ahmed

Global Strategic
and Transformational
Change Leader
2 X Award Winner
at UK Change Awards 2023

Mark Lean

Head of Business Change
2 X Award Winner
at UK Change Awards 2023

Beth Rylatt

Founder of Change Advisory
Board Member I Advisor
Career Coach | Lecturer
Speaker I Podcaster

Ani Filipova

Technical Programme Manager
Innovation Strategy Partnerships
Future Health & Wellbeing
Tech Transfer
Board Member
Exec MBA Candidate

Ashley Gray

Leading the development of
the Project and Change
Profession and building
workforce skills in healthcare

Jo Stanford

Head of Delivery for UK,
Republic of Ireland
& the Channel Islands
for CMC Partnership Global
part of the Prosci family

Emma de-la-Haye

Meet and connect with our 2023 Winners

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