The Pearse Walsh Award 2018

For Innovation in the Transfer of Learning to Employees

Judging Panel Confirmed

9th February 2018

Harvest is pleased to announce that Eamonn Eaton, Head of Group Learning & Engagement at Bank of Ireland and Kevin Empey, Managing Director at WorkMatters Consulting, will join Frank Rock, Director at Harvest, on the judging panel for the Pearse Walsh Award 2018.

The judges contribute a wealth of experience to the evaluation process and we are very grateful for their time and expertise.

The shortlisted finalists will be announced on Wednesday, 28th February. The Pearse Walsh Award winner will be announced at the IITD National Training Awards 2018 gala dinner in the Kilashee House Hotel on Friday, 20th April.

Eamonn Eaton is a senior member of the Bank of Ireland (BOI) group’s human resources team with responsibility for developing, leading and implementing best-in-class learning, development and engagement strategies that drive the organisation’s business performance and create value for the enterprise and its workforce.

Bank of Ireland with cut-e, were the winners of the Pearse Walsh Award last year, for their Talent Rising Programme. Talent Rising is an innovative cross-organisational development programme, designed to enable social and economic progress in Ireland while nurturing our early career high potentials.

Eamonn and his team were also the overall winners of the Learning & Development Organisation of the Year 2017 at the IITD National Training Awards.

Kevin Empey is the founder of WorkMatters, a leadership and organisation development consulting firm focused on supporting and enabling business and HR leaders to deliver their people strategies and to prepare for the future of work.

Kevin is a leader in the areas of people strategy and leadership development. For more than 20 years, Kevin was a Partner and then Director of Willis Towers Watson where he led the firm’s HR consultancy business in Ireland from 2002 to 2015. He then worked as a talent and organisation development consultancy director where he also led the development of the ‘Future of Work’ practice in Ireland.

With a background originally in IT and business development, Kevin went on to develop organisational, HR and reward strategies and solutions across a wide range of organisations and industry sectors.

Kevin is a qualified executive coach with a masters qualification in leadership and management practice. He is also a member of the associate faculty for the Irish Management Institute where he teaches on a number of HR strategy, organisation development and leadership development programmes. He is a chartered fellow of the CIPD and was appointed to the top level appointments committee (TLAC), which advises ministers and government departments on the selection of senior civil service appointments.

A leading labour activation and employment activist, Kevin is also a member of the Labour Market Council and was the founder of Worklink, an award-winning, not-for-profit organisation set up to mentor and support unemployed jobseekers back into full-time employment.

Frank Rock is a Director and Senior Partner at Harvest. He has more than twenty-five years’ professional experience including over fifteen years working in Friends First where he was a HR Business Manager with responsibility for change management for the Friends First Group.

He is a Board Adviser to Sarah Bird Foundation, an Irish and International charity that brings trauma healing to areas devastated by natural disasters and conflict.

Frank’s expertise is in the areas of coaching, mentoring, leadership, talent development, sales effectiveness and employee development. He is passionate about improving personal and organisational performance by helping people at all levels to understand why they are on the payroll and how their contribution affects the bigger picture. You can learn more about Frank here.

The 2018 winner will be in good company as Harvest has supported the achievements of the distinguished winners below:

2017 Bank of Ireland and cut-e

2016 Blizzard Entertainment

2015 Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard

2014 Calor Gas

2013 ICBE with Lake Region Medical

2012 Learning Zone

2011 The Musgrave Group

2010 Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard

2009 Topaz

2008 Ulster Bank

2007 Ernst & Young