The panel of judges is now in place for the Recruiter Awards for Excellence 2005, supported by Thomas International.

The judges are:

Alison Cowen, HR recruitment manager at Britvic

Alison started career as an HR assistant at one of the company’s production sites. She moved from this role to a position with GEC Marconi Research where responsibilities included graduate recruitment. After two years Alison returned to Britvic Soft Drinks and has spent the past 12 years working in a number of roles, both HR and commercial, including sales operations, site facilities and consumer care. Current responsibilities include setting recruitment strategy and policy to support the business objectives. In January 2004 she introduced central recruitment team into the business. This initiative has resulted in significant reductions in time and cost to hire, and improvements to process consistency.

Paul Smith, publishing director, People Management magazine

Alison Hodgson, HR resourcing and projects director at Sodexho and chair of the Association of Graduate Recruiters

Alison started her career at Marks and Spencer on the graduate management development programme and worked as an assistant personnel manager at M&S for five years. During this time she achieved her CIPD qualification. Alison then moved to SalamonSmithBarney as assistant vice president in graduate and MBA recruitment for Europe. After a year in the City, Alison became head of international graduate programme for WorldCom where her responsibilities covered the recruitment and development of graduates for EMEA and Asia Pacific. Alison is now the UK & Ireland resourcing manager for Sodexho. Alison joined the AGR board in 2001 and was appointed AGR finance director in 2002. In 2003 she became AGR chair, succeeding Sonia Astill.

Roger Juniper, managing director of recruitment marketing specialist 360

Recruitment marketing is the common thread that has ran through Roger's career spanning newspapers, trade press, advertising agencies, search and selection and both IT and legal recruitment. From publishing his own free sheet to running his own ad agency, Roger has been closely involved with the recruitment business, working both as practitioner and supplier. In the 80s Roger was a partner in the recruitment agency Juniper Woolf, which he subsequently merged with Austin Knight - at that time the UK’s largest recruitment ad agency. After a period running the Australian business of Austin Knight, Roger returned to the UK in 1998 to form the recruitment marketing group - Career Café, of which 360? is the recruitment advertising agency. 360? counts among its clients The Royal Bank of Scotland, Argos, UBS, Estee Lauder and Nuffield Hospitals. Roger’s marketing credentials are supported by periods running ad agencies handling such high profile brands as Honda Cars, Mazda and Converse Shoes. He is a member of the recruitment committee of The Newspaper Society and has been a judge of several industry awards.

Vance Kearney, vice president for HR at Oracle Europe

Vance Kearney joined Oracle in November 1991 as director of human resources and is now the vice president for human resources, Oracle Europe. Vance has overall responsibility for all aspects of human resources and staff policies, including salaries, pay and benefits, employment terms and conditions, management and personal development, recruitment and resourcing strategies and business organisation. Vance is the spokesman on all employment-related matters and has a special interest in HR systems and technology as it relates to human resources and the management of people. Prior to this, Vance was with Data General Corporation UK as its director of human resources.

Vance has an honours degree in business studies.

Adrian Thomas, senior technical partner, resourcing and development, at the Royal Bank of Scotland

Adrian joined the resourcing & development team within the Royal Bank of Scotland Group as a technical partner (that means he is supposed to be a subject matter expert in resourcing) based in London. Prior to this, he was with GlaxoSmithKline, where he was responsible for forming and then heading up the global manufacturing & supply recruitment team. A true HR professional, Adrian has held senior positions within compensation & benefits, employee relations and generalist HR before returning to resourcing (having previously been the director of a large Midlands based HR & recruitment consultancy). Adrian has a passion for resourcing and a belief in the value that it brings to the organisation - when done properly. His other passions are his family and (when his two young daughters permit him the time), rugby (as you would expect from an expatriate Welshman) together with the odd game of golf.

They will be judging the awards in January, with the shortlist to be announced in a subsequent edition of Recruiter.

The awards ceremony will be held on Wednesday 13 April 2005 at the Grosvenor House Hotel on London’s Park Lane in central London.

For further information, email [email protected] or call 020 7880 6249.