Meet the SHRF Core Team

Phil Porter, SHRF Chairman

Phil brings a wealth of practical experience to the chairmanship of the Strategic HR Forum. He is a leading International Human Resources Executive with extensive experience in both generalist and specialist positions based in Europe. His most recent position was VP International HR Orange SA, one of the world’s premier telco service providers. Phil has also held HR Director Positions in multi-national corporations General Electric, Compaq, Digital, Sperry and Fruehauf.

In addition, he has fulfilled specialist positions in Management & Organisational Development and in Compensation, Benefits and Expatriate Relocation. He has managed initiatives in Succession and Development Planning, Performance Management and Competency Development and has been responsible for Strategy Formulation, Change Management and Human Resource Management effectiveness.

At General Electric and Digital, he directed major restructuring programs. At Orange, he developed Coaching for International CEOs which supported an integrated team development program.

Phil has spent most of his career in Europe at large scale, high technology and telecommunications businesses. He has also worked extensively in North American, Asia/Pacific and African regions and has completed assignments in the public sector and with start-up companies, most notably in interactive television broadcasting.

As an independent consultant with his own Swiss-based business, he is delivering:

• Interim HR leadership to revitalise and refocus HR departments
• Executive coaching and development
• Organisational diagnosis and re-engineering
• Consultancy to address HR effectiveness and cost based resourcing

A graduate of Business Administration, he has professional and postgraduate qualifications in Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations.

Michel Syrett, Research Director

Michel has undertaken extensive academic research into international strategic HR management in London, Paris and Hong Kong. He was a co-founder and director of the Price Waterhouse Cranfield Project into International Strategic HRM (now CRANET) in 1989-90.

As visiting fellow of Cranfield School of Management, the University of Hong Kong and the Roffey Park Institute, he has published research on strategic HR management, innovation, strategic communications and innovation management.

Michel is the author of two Business Intelligence reports Redefining Strategic HR: How to IntegrateHR with Corporate Strategy, published in 2004, and most recently World-Class HR: the new measurement agenda. He also contributed to Business Intelligence’s HR Shared Services report.
He is also the author or co-author of 15 books and reports on HR related topics, most recently Innovation at the Top: Where Directors get their Ideas from (Roffey Park 1998), Successful Innovation (Economist Books 2003) and CoolSearch (Capstone 2004).

A business journalist for over 20 years, he has had articles published in The Times, The Sunday Times, Financial Times, Asian Business, Human Resources and People Management.