Reward Strategy
Strategic Reward Skills Masterclass
This will be our sixth annual Strategic Reward Skills Masterclass and each year we evolve the content and format to ensure continued relevance and value for those attending.
The Masterclass is aimed both at prime succession candidates to current Heads of Reward in major listed companies, and also at newly-promoted (or aspiring Corporate HR Directors, who are seeking to develop a more strategically focused set of reward skills. Attendees particularly value our simulated Remuneration Committee session, focused on the interface role with the RemCo and Main Board.
The content of the Masterclass is founded on those areas most frequently reported by RemCo Chairs as essential to effective performance as the Group HR Director or Head of Reward in major companies.
Our proprietary content encompasses:
- The ability to develop a ‘grounded’ reward strategy – aligned with business strategy.
- The ability to review / assess and contribute to RemCo effectiveness.
- The ability to review / assess the effectiveness of longer-term incentive arrangements – and develop clear alignment to sustainable, long-term performance.
- The ability to design / conduct a risk audit of reward.
Prior to attendance, delegates will be asked to review their organisation’s strategic business
objectives, including as outlined in the Annual Report, and to assess the alignment between
these objectives and their organisation’s:
- approach to talent strategy;
- reward values and principles; and
- major group-wide reward plans
It is important that anyone nominated to attend the programme will have the opportunity to discuss their organisation’s strategic business objectives (and performance model) with relevant members of senior management. Under the guidance of the nominating PARC member, each attendee should be set clear actionable objectives linked to the Programme deliverables, which they can share in a pre-Masterclass discussion with a member of the PARC team. Each nominating PARC member and nominee will have a discussion with a member of the PARC team at least three weeks before the Masterclass.
Speakers

Karen Clark
Director, PARC and Strategic Dimensions
Karen Clark is a Director of PARC and SD. She facilitates PARC’s Reward Masterclass and supports the design and delivery of our bespoke learning programmes. This aligns with her interest in the development of HR talent and capability, encompassing performance, reward, and wellbeing. She has a qualification in executive coaching at EMCC Senior Practitioner level from Tavistock Consulting.
Karen runs day to day operations for PARC and is responsible for our member and partner relations. She Chairs our Peer2Peer exchanges and oversees development of our Programme and offering.

Drew Matthews
Former: Group Reward Director, BAE Systems plc
Drew Matthews is the former Group Reward Director at BAE Systems, a FTSE 30 aerospace and defence company. Drew has extensive corporate and consultancy experience gained from multinational companies across a variety of industries. He was previously at BT and Tesco where he had accountability for reward, HR policies, global mobility, employee relations, HR mergers and acquisitions, and health, safety and wellbeing. Prior to becoming an HR Director, Drew worked as an independent remuneration committee adviser for a number of consultancy firms including PwC and Deloitte.

Phil Wills
Independent Consultant and Associate Director, PARC
Phil Wills advises and assists PARC in the development of its programme of events. His previous corporate roles included Global Head of Reward for Reed Elsevier (RELX), for ICI, and for Diageo. Since 2010 he has established an independent consultancy business to provide strategic reward support, focused on the delivery of business strategy and organisational performance. His other major focus is as coach to newly appointed (or aspiring) Corporate HR Directors on all areas of reward strategy and delivery (including incentive plan design and corporate governance effectiveness).