Lucy Adams is one of Europe’s best-known HR executives. She led HR and internal communications at the BBC and now offers a number of challenges, new models and fresh insights to support business leaders. Since leaving the BBC, Lucy has been working with major organizations to help them re-think their approach to leading change, employee engagement, HR, and internal communications.
Her five-year tenure at the BBC started in 2009 when she was called into the organization on the reputation she had built as Group HR Director at Serco Group plc and Eversheds. For 15 years, she had led and delivered change in complex organizations, and the BBC made her responsible for delivering significant changes, including reducing management staff by over 30% and delivering plans which ensured the smooth opening of BBC North and the new multimedia newsroom in Broadcasting House.
Lucy was also charged with managing the entry and exit of each Director General of the period and became the corporation’s mouthpiece on numerous issues, representing the BBC on the Today programme, Panorama, and Newsnight. With responsibilities including reforming executive pay and managing the subsequent media and political fallout, Lucy’s profile placed her in a highly charged position, professionally and politically.
Now the Managing Director of Firehouse, a communications, change and engagement agency focussed on getting people to feel good about their business through different and more creative approaches, Lucy has created the concept of Disruptive HR, combining strategic and operational HR expertise with a fresh but practical approach. Lucy aims to put the “human” back in Human Resources.
After having held senior level HR roles in a variety of sectors, she grew frustrated with the lack of innovation and fresh thinking in the HR profession and wanted to find new ways of tackling old problems.
The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association is a not-for-profit trade association representing health and fitness facilities, gyms, spas, sports clubs, and suppliers worldwide. IHRSA and its members are dedicated to making the world healthier through regular exercise and activity promotion. IHRSA's events provide a vast array of speakers on business and corporate culture, instructional sessions on all aspects of succeeding in the health club industry, social events to mix and mingle with peers, and the most spectacular trade shows in the industry.