Meet the judges: Louise Atkinson 

Louise Atkinson, Chief People Officer - Babcock International Group

Louise is Babcock International Group’s Chief People Officer and leads the Global People Strategy across a workforce of 25,000 globally. As an operator and business leader, she is passionate about creating a workplace where employees feel valued, engaged, and motivated
to contribute their best work to deliver Babcock’s important operational outputs.

Before this role Louise was Managing Director of the Through-Life Equipment Support business within the Land Sector of Babcock. This business delivers strategic asset management for a broad
range of specialist vehicle fleets in the Defence (the British Army and UK MOD) and Resilience (London Fire Brigade) market both in the UK and globally. In this role, Louise was responsible for delivering true transformational change in both operational and commercial performance, and building strong customer relationships through engagement, trust and openness.

Louise has also worked in a diverse range of sectors. After graduating with a degree in Psychology she started her career in Financial Services, and then traversed the varied sectors of Construction, Hospitality, Training and Civil Nuclear. Over this time, she has carried out a range
of roles focused in Supply Chain and Operations. Louise joined Babcock in 2013 in a Supply Chain role and went on to run the Civil Training business, before moving into Defence in 2020 to run the Defence Support Group contract. In 2021 Louise was appointed the first female MD in Babcock. Louise is an elected councillor of the Confederation of British Industry, representing industry in the shaping of government policy, sitting on both the London Council and the Public
Sector Partners Council.

She lives with her partner, Paul, and two children Amelia (12) and Rudy (8) in Hampshire, and enjoys running for fitness, and music and art for the soul.