Martin Kirke

Martin Kirke
PS Contributor

I’ve always believed that the practical and simple solutions are the best way for HR to add value. There’s an awful lot of pretentious nonsense out there and I will be challenging it!

Martin has a wide range of successful international HR, business and change experience in the private and public sector. He recently decided to move to a portfolio of roles including business advisory work for companies in the digital and AI tech for the HR marketplace. Martin is also a qualified coach and a non-executive director.
 
Until November 2018 Martin was group HR director at the Post Office reporting to the chief executive and a member of the executive  board. He was also the board champion for LGBT and diversity and inclusion lead. The Post Office has 11,600 branches and a workforce of 50,000. He played a major role in the transformation of the Post Office to a growing and profitable business after 16 years of losses. At the same time customer satisfaction and employee engagement increased. The team's achievements were recognised by the Prime Minister.

Martin has previously held HR director and change director roles at Dow Chemical, Ericsson, Serco Transport and BP including international roles based in Sweden and the USA. At BP he was HR global operations director for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific. He also spent five years outside HR, as a business director with full P&L responsibility and a successful record of growth and has worked as a consultant on change programmes including the Cabinet Office/No10. He was the lead in HR for the 2012 Olympics at Transport for London.

Martin is a non- executive director at an NHS Trust where he is also chair of the diversity and inclusion committee. He is a mentor with the Prince’s Trust and an International Coaching Federation qualified executive coach. He is also a professional mentor for the Guild of HR Professionals.
 
Martin is the diversity and inclusion adviser for Macmillan Cancer Support. He is a conference speaker and writer on many aspects of HR, work, careers and change. Martin is a member of the CIPD Policy Forum which advises government on the world of work.
He is a Fellow of the RSA and CIPD and has a first degree in behavioural science and a master’s degree in HR management from Cardiff University.