Speaker Line-Up: Age Pioneers Summit 18th June 2025

Lyndsey Simpson - Founder & CEO, 55/Redefined

Lyndsey will kick off the Age Pioneers summit with what’s new in the 50+ landscape and at 55/Redefined. Walk away with fresh insights about the importance of age intelligence in today’s rapidly evolving workforce.

Lyndsey's Bio

Recognising a gap in the market for a brand that answers the call of the ‘bet-your-ass-I-can’ over-50s, Lyndsey set up 55/Redefined to fly the flag for those who may be getting older but have no intention of slowing down. Their consumer lifestyle site Life/Redefined now has an audience of over 125,000 over-50s globally.

Commercially, Work/Redefined & Jobs/Redefined enable businesses to Attract, Grow & Engage over 50s talent and consumers and is solving Age Strategy globally for the world’s largest firms.

A serial entrepreneur and a regular commentator in the media, Lyndsey has been recognised in the ‘UK’s Top 35 Businesswomen’ by Management Today and The Sunday Times and is one of the ‘UK’s 50 Most Inspirational Female Entrepreneurs.’ In 2024 she was shortlisted for the Veuve Clicquot Bold Future Award.

Carl Honoré - Award-Winning Writer, Broadcaster & TED Speaker

Keynote: The Age Advantage: Harnessing the New Longevity

Conventional wisdom tells us that an ageing workforce is a bad thing. Conventional wisdom is wrong. Older workers are productive, creative and socially adroit. They also have a strong yen to help others. No wonder mixed-age teams perform better on every metric. Drawing on the latest research and case studies from around the world, Carl shows how your organisation can thrive by embracing older staff and multigenerational working.

Carl's Bio

Carl Honoré is an award-winning writer, broadcaster and two-time TED speaker. Published in 36 languages, his books have landed on bestseller lists around the world and his online keynotes have more than 10 million views.

Carl's latest book, Bolder, explores how to make the most of the new longevity and was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week and a Reader’s Digest (UK) Book of the Month. His second TED Talk is called Why We Should Embrace Aging as an Adventure.

Carl was recently named as an Advocate for Aging by the American Society for Ageing and Next Avenue. Carl is a father of two and lives in London.

Adam Hawkins - Head of Search & Staffing for EMEA & LATAM, LinkedIn

Adam's Bio

With over two decades of recruitment industry experience, Adam is a trusted advisor to leading recruitment firms across the globe. His team partners daily with the recruitment sector to arm them with unique solutions and insight trends from LinkedIn’s more than 1 billion global members, to help them find the best talent for their clients.  

Prior to LinkedIn, Adam spent 18 years at The Adecco Group in numerous executive leadership and board member roles. He has worked and lived abroad for 10 years where he gained unique exposure to many global staffing markets and managed a multitude of differing businesses. 

Sally-Anne Dudley - HR Director for IWE, Ireland and Nordics, Veolia

Veolia Case Study: Embedding Age Inclusion

In this exclusive case study, we’ll explore how Veolia are successfully integrating age inclusion into their organisation. Learn from this Sunday Times Best Companies to Work for company, hosted by HR Director, Sally-Anne Dudley, and Head of Employee Experience, Shilpa Parmar.

Sally-Anne's Bio

Sally-Anne is the HR Director for the Industrial Water and Energy business in the UK, Ireland and Nordics at Veolia. She has gained vast experience during her career having worked for renowned companies across diverse industries including BAE Systems, Hilton, Pfizer Adams and National Grid.

Her approach to HR is characterised by her willingness to embrace challenges and explore uncharted territories. She views each new opportunity as a chance to redefine possibilities, constantly pushing the boundaries of traditional HR practices to meet the evolving needs of modern businesses. Her forward-thinking mindset and adaptability have been instrumental in driving organisational growth and achieving business objectives throughout her career.

Shilpa Parmar - Head of Employee Experience, Veolia

Veolia Case Study: Embedding Age Inclusion

In this exclusive case study, we’ll explore how Veolia are successfully integrating age inclusion into their organisation. Learn from this Sunday Times Best Companies to Work for company, hosted by HR Director, Sally-Anne Dudley, and Head of Employee Experience, Shilpa Parmar.

Shilpa's Bio

As Head of Employee Experience, Shilpa is committed to creating inclusive workplaces that celebrate and harness the power of age diversity. She has extensive expertise spanning the entire employee lifecycle, from talent acquisition and emerging talent to wellness programs and leading high-performing teams.

Shilpa has successfully implemented various EX initiatives that foster employee engagement and is particularly passionate about promoting multigenerational and intergenerational collaboration to drive innovation that shapes employee experience and promotes sustainable business growth.

Rob Ozanne - Head of Product Development, Just Group

Panel Discussion: The Risks of An Absent Age Strategy

The average cost of an age discrimination case in the UK is £103,000, not to mention the reputational risk and management burden. Employees often don't realise the reality of the gift of a longer life and have not planned their finances or career paths accordingly. Join this educational panel where speakers will outline the risks facing organisations without any age strategy.

Rob's Bio

Rob is the Head of Product Development for Just Group’s guidance and advice services. The products he manages help over 55s plan and manage their finances as they step into the next phase of their career or retirement.

He’ll be sharing insights from thousands of planners about the current state of retirement and retirement planning behaviour.

Rob’s worked in investments and retirement for 14 years and is dedicated to improving personal finance in the UK. Previous firms include Fidelity International, now:pensions and WTW.

Paul Modley - Managing Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, AMS

Panel Discussion: The Risks of An Absent Age Strategy

Paul's Bio

For the last 32 years Paul has worked in the talent acquisition industry, initially on the agency side before moving into executive search.

He joined AMS in February 2014, initially leading on some of large client account teams including Rolls-Royce, Santander and Credit Suisse. Five years ago he assumed responsibility for AMS’s internal hiring function as well as establishing the firm’s first DEIB (Diversity Equity Inclusion Belonging) function. At the beginning of 2022 he established the DEIB COE in the Innovation function – with responsibility for internal DEIB strategy as well as ensuring that DEIB centric solutions are delivered to core outsourcing clients.

Keily Vanstone - Head of Marketing, Brand and Comms , Canada Life

Panel Discussion: The Risks of An Absent Age Strategy

Keily's Bio

Keily leads Canada Life’s marketing function delivering the brand and marketing strategy for the UK. She also leads on the Life100+ initiative which focusses on the longevity megatrend and the implications for financial services, businesses and UK consumers as we all negotiate the impact of living longer.

Over the last twenty years, Keily has held various marketing leadership roles at Aviva, AXA, and Friends Provident in the life and pensions sector.

Kirstie Kelly - Global HR Business Partner, Diageo

How Diageo Is Responding To The Unique Needs Of 50+ Talent

93% of the over-50s workforce believe there should be more support for transitioning into mid-life / retirement. In this innovation showcase, hear firsthand how Diageo has approached 50+ talent engagement in a new way through listening, data and coaching - and reaped the rewards of 55/Redefined’s new age-intelligence, mid-life coaching and careers transition platform.

Kirstie's Bio

Kirstie is one of the Global HR Business Partners for the Diageo Supply Chain team, partnering with teams across the globe in Africa, Latin America, UK and Ireland.

Her role at Diageo is to act as a strategic partner to her business areas, aligning people strategies with business goals to drive performance, support talent development, and foster a high-performing, inclusive culture.

Chris Palmer - Learning Performance Lead, Diageo

How Diageo Is Responding To The Unique Needs Of 50+ Talent

Chris' Bio

Chris is the Global Learning Lead for Diageo Supply Chain & Procurement (SC&P) & Learning Technology. In his role Chris partners across the whole of Diageo’s SC&P functions to ensure that functions they have the skills for today tomorrow and the future to drive business growth. He is also responsible for the Learning Tech Ecosystem at Diageo ensuring that employees can grow and develop their careers at Diageo.

Kirstie and Chris have spent the past year partnering with 55/Redefined to explore trends within the over-50s population at Diageo, using data and predictive analytics to understand what drives and motivates this group. Their work has aimed to uncover opportunities to better engage and retain over-50s employees. This collaboration has already led to a trial of the Me/Redefined life coaching platform, and they are actively considering additional initiatives - both big and small - that could be introduced across the business. While Diageo is still in the early stages of this journey, Kirstie and Chris will share their insights and reflections.

Interviews with Redefiners

We interview some of life’s redefiners who have found new starts in midlife. We end the day on a high, safe in the knowledge that success, happiness, and possibility have no age limit. These conversations will leave you energised about the potential of employees at every age.