Tracey Thompson
I spent 18 years working in London in financial services, then had 13 years of self-employment to enable me to work from home and bring up my children. It was a good balance for me at the time and I'm very proud of the ongoing achievements of my 2 amazing sons.
As a family, we're active with sports, schooling, social and community support activities. I juggle to fit in theatre, travel, gardening and cooking exotic dishes.
I hugely enjoy the work I do today - it enables me to be in contact with professionals all around the world and it is certainly refreshing my knowledge of geography! I relish the diversity of stories I hear daily, and wonder how so many companies just haven't got their HR functions "ship shape" after so many years of investment! I have no shortage of projects for the team and we've got plenty of ideas for how we can do things even better and faster. Our team is very social, and we actually enjoy spending time with each other outside of work - I think it helps that we all share similar values and convictions, and we're really quick to laugh at ourselves!
HR has an unrivalled view across the organisation and regularly deals with serious and complex issues that have an impact at all levels. Decisions about people are fundamental to the success and wellbeing of an organisation but, despite these qualities, it is usually the accountant, lawyer, salesman, or operations person who lands the top job.