Brightmine content team

Clare Allerton, Senior production editor allerton_c.jpg

Clare has more than 15 years' editorial experience, with the past 10 spent at Brightmine. She has worked on a variety of products and resources, both print and online. She leads the editing of pay and HR practice content and has been involved in the production of marketing assets.

Prior to Brightmine, she was an online editor for LexisNexis' PSL resource. Previously, she worked at The Legal 500 in the directory production team.

Clare has a BA in English Literature from the University of Southampton and has taken courses in employment law from BPP Law School. She has a particular interest in mental health and disability in the workplace and has been a qualified Mental Health First Aider since 2022.

Sheila Attwood, Senior content manager,attwood_s.jpg
data and HR insights

Sheila leads the team that is responsible for the data and market insights content on Brightmine, including the employer practice surveys, webinars and podcasts, and reward content.

Sheila holds a BA in geography. She has almost 30 years' experience of working in a research and editorial capacity in a publishing environment, with a focus on the labour market, reward, industrial relations and HR practice.

Sheila is an expert on company pay awards and is regularly called upon to appear in the broadcast and print media to comment on the level of increase in pay rates.

Connect with Sheila on LinkedIn.

Ronelle (Elle) Barreto, International legal editor baretto_r.png

Elle focuses on editing the International country guides, collaborating with local lawyers to provide updates and insights into the legislation for different jurisdictions.

Elle is a former practicing employment law attorney with over 20 years' experience in the public, corporate and political sectors in both South Africa and the UK. Before joining Brightmine, she served as a litigation attorney, senior manager for KPMG's employment law advisory practice, parliamentary researcher (labour and public enterprises) and HR manager. In addition to a legal career, Elle has more than five years' experience in academic research focusing on trends in the legal framework around precarious forms of work.

Elle holds a PhD in Business and Law (UK), Masters in Research in Business Management (UK), Masters in Employment Law (South Africa), Bachelor of Laws (LLB) (South Africa), and BA in Law and Industrial Psychology (South Africa).

Amy Bosley, HR data insights analyst bosley_a.png

Amy works on survey design and data collection methods, as well as producing reports to communicate research insights on a range of HR topics. She has worked as a research professional since 2018, with a particular focus on HR practice and employment and skills. Her research interests include devolution of HR to line managers and employee wellbeing.

Before working in research, Amy worked as an HR practitioner across the private, public and third sectors. She holds a master's degree in human resource management, with her master's research focusing on the role of line managers in managing workplace diversity as well as the impact of zero-hours contracts on employers and employees.

Christopher Bryant, Production editor bryant_c.png

Christopher has over 20 years' experience in the editorial field. He is the Production department's UK lead for podcasts, webinars and editorial newsletters.

Prior to joining Brightmine he spent six years as the editor of the online publication Polari Magazine, to which he also contributed regularly. He has worked for the literature divisions of Random House and Bloomsbury, the children's department of BBC magazines, and on general academic subjects at the Open University.

Christopher is a qualified mindfulness teacher and runs regular in-house session for the business. He also runs the SharePoint site for the PROUD ERG. He spent a year on a secondment as the Brightmine Employee engagement champion and developed a range of tailored resources for managers and individual contributors. He has a BA in English and Related Literature and an MA in Contemporary Literature, both from the University of York.

Connect with Christopher on LinkedIn.

Victoria Burrow, Head of content burrow_v.png

Victoria leads the Brightmine UK content team, focusing on the development of content to meet the ever-changing challenges of the Brightmine audience.

With over 20 years of commercial and legal publishing experience, Victoria's previous positions include heading up the content acquisition and licensing & partnerships teams at ISI Emerging Markets, as well as content and editorial leadership roles at LexisNexis Legal and Professional. Victoria holds an LLB (Hons) Law degree from Kings College, London.

Rocio Carracedo Lopez, Internationallopez_c.png
legal editor

Ro has 10 years' experience as a researcher, writer and editor in multi-jurisdictional employment law. In her role as an International legal editor at Brightmine she manages, edits and publishes a large portfolio of international guides and leads the rolling out of new initiatives to enhance the guides.

Prior to joining Brightmine, Ro held a number of roles writing content on HR and employment law including country comparative reports, eBooks, whitepapers, top tips, case analysis, news reports and FAQs. Ro has a law degree (LLB) from the University of Exeter. As part of her degree, she studied at the University of Deusto, Bilbao. She also has an MA (LLM) in European legal studies from the University of Bristol.

Ro speaks fluent Spanish and conversational French.

Fiona Cuming, Senior legal editor cuming_f.jpg

Fiona joined Brightmine in 2015. She works on a variety of compliance resources, including the employment law guide and employment law cases.

Fiona has degrees in politics and sociology. She worked in the media before retraining as a lawyer.

Fiona specialised in employment law when she worked in private practice for over 20 years. She has advised employers, trade unions and employees on the full range of employment law issues, and is an experienced litigator in the tribunals and higher courts. She is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association.

Zuraida Curtis, Senior legal editor curtis_z.jpg

Zuraida has over 20 years' experience in employment law practice. She has significant experience advising employers, trade unions and employees on a wide range of employment law issues. As a senior legal editor in the Brightmine editorial team, she focuses mainly on the employment law guides but also works on various other resource types, all of which cover a wide expanse of employment law topics. She demonstrates a keen passion for the field of diversity, equity and inclusion law.   

Zuraida has degrees in both Commerce and Law. Prior to joining Brightmine, she was a litigator representing employers at employment tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal. She has also drafted and delivered training programmes for employers, with a particular focus on discrimination law.

Paula Flores, HR data insights analyst flores_p.png

With more than 15 years' experience as a researcher, Paula is an HR data insights analyst at Brightmine. Focusing on all elements of the research cycle, Paula enjoys communicating and presenting data and actionable insights. Working on various topics, Paula currently covers HR trends and strategy, salary levels and increases, and employee benefits.

Paula holds an MA in Applied Social and Market Research from Westminster University and a Law LLM from the University of Lisbon. With a background in qualitative and quantitative research, prior to joining Brightmine Paula worked at a strategic market research company developing insights and competitive analysis for the FMCG industries and has also worked for a major consumer association.

Connect with Paula on LinkedIn.

Bar Huberman, Content manager, huberman_b.jpg
HR strategy and practice

Bar is a former solicitor with more than 18 years' experience focused on serving the needs of businesses and HR professionals. She leads the HR strategy and practice team, which focuses on developing content that meets the priorities of HR professionals in strategic roles. Bar's team works with leading experts in their field to shape practical content that helps organisations become an employer of choice, as well as guidance to train line managers in people skills.

Prior to joining Brightmine, Bar was a solicitor at a leading firm in Brighton, and she has an LLB in Law and French. Bar is also chair of the board of trustees of the charity Embracing Arts.

Connect with Bar on LinkedIn.

Laura Kimpton, HR strategy and kimpton_l.jpg
practice editor

Laura joined Brightmine in 2013 as the editorial team's assistant editor and is now an HR strategy and practice editor having worked on HR and employment law content for the past 10 years. She focuses on Brightmine strategic content offering and mainly works on the Leading practice, Training and How to guides.

Laura holds a BA in Culture, Media and Communication from the University of Surrey and an employment law diploma from DLA Piper. Prior to joining Brightmine, Laura worked in the production department at Haymarket Media Group across various magazines.

Connect with Laura on LinkedIn.

Matt Kofi, Production editor kofi_m.png

Matt has more than 15 years' experience in online editing and web designing, with nearly 10 of those spent working for Brightmine. As a production editor based in the US, his efforts have involved working on UK and US editorial newsletters, podcasts and webinars, and he helps marketing with design requests.

Prior to joining Brightmine, he was involved in multiple projects as a business/web analyst. He holds an MA in Web Design and Brand Marketing from Full Sail University and a BA in Business Management from Keuka College.

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn.

Hannah Mason, HR data insights analyst mason_h.png

Hannah joined Brightmine as a HR data insights analyst following four years working in research and analytics in the Civil Service. She works on the development and delivery of surveys covering a variety of HR topics. These surveys provide data for both the Benchmarking - HR metrics tool, as well as survey analysis reports.

Before joining Brightmine, she worked at the Office for National Statistics as a senior social researcher working on the development of a variety of surveys, data analysis and publications, focusing on topical issues facing society including the COVID-19 pandemic. Hannah holds a BSc in Psychology.

Laura Merrylees, Senior legal editor merrylees_l.jpg

Having qualified as a solicitor in private practice, Laura spent fourteen years working in-house for a large telecommunications organisation, specialising in employment law. Laura advised on a broad range of employment law matters, both contentious and advisory. During her time in practice, Laura worked closely with HR professionals and senior management and delivered training to HR teams.

Susie Munro, Senior legal editor munro_s.jpg

Susie has over 20 years' experience as a solicitor, writer and legal editor. She is responsible for the Brightmine How to guides and FAQs and also works on the Employment law cases.

Susie joined the Brightmine editorial team in 2009 having previously worked for Age Concern England, where she advised on and wrote about age discrimination and mandatory retirement.

After obtaining an LLB in law from Sussex University, then completing the Legal Practice Course at Bournemouth University, Susie qualified as a solicitor in 2004. She specialised in employment law, working in private practice for a firm in Birmingham.

Connect with Susie on LinkedIn.

Zeba Sayed, Senior legal editorzeba_sayed.jpg

Zeba is a former practicing employment solicitor with more than 17 years' experience in employment law.

Zeba joined Brightmine in 2017 and is a senior legal editor in the employment law and compliance team. In this role, she is responsible for content across Policies and procedures, Letters and forms and Contract clauses. She is also responsible for ensuring that allocated chapters of the employment law guide are kept updated. She has a special interest in the implications of AI in the employment field.

Zeba holds a degree in Law and completed her LPC at the College of Law in Chester. Prior to joining Brightmine, Zeba was an associate solicitor at Lyons Davidson Solicitors in the London office. She advised both individuals and employers on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious employment law matters and delivered training to clients nationally. Zeba has also worked in conjunction with Acas London to deliver training on their behalf. She is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association.

Connect with Zeba on LinkedIn.  

Robert Shore, HR markets insight editor shore_r.png

Robert has over 20 years' experience of publishing and journalism. At Brightmine he creates and commissions content for webinars and podcasts and for the Commentary and insights tool.

He has a Graduate Diploma in Law from the University of Law. He was formerly an International employment law editor at Brightmine, and prior to that worked as an arts journalist. His book on IP and visual creativity, Beg, Steal and Borrow, was published in 2017.

Connect with Robert on LinkedIn.

Stephen Simpson, Acting content manager -simpson_s.jpg
employment law and compliance

Stephen is an acting content manager, employment law and compliance, who has worked on the Brightmine employment law and leading practice resources for over 20 years. After growing up in Northern Ireland in the 1980s, he trained as a solicitor in England in the 1990s but soon moved into legal publishing. He was among the first recruits to Brightmine in the year before it was launched as XpertHR in 2002.

 

Stephen has worked on a wide range of employment law and leading practice resources, including overseeing the creation and expansion of the HR templates resource types (Policies and procedures, Letters and forms, and Contract clauses). He has written up over 1,000 reports on employment law cases and created practical guidance on a range of HR issues for the Commentary & insights tool. He also had a stint working on Personnel Today.

Connect with Stephen on LinkedIn.

Emily Sissons, Global production manager sissons_e.jpg

Emily works across all tools and products. She is involved in upskilling the editorial team on new software, quality control for the website and product improvement initiatives. She has more than 20 years' experience in business-to-business editorial and a particular interest in equality, diversity and inclusion.

Emily has completed various leadership and EDI training courses including psychological safety, managing virtually and unconscious bias.

Prior to joining Brightmine, Emily worked as an editor at a market research company and a B2B publisher.

Chris Stockdale, Global head of production stockdale_c.jpg

Chris is head of the global production team at Brightmine. In addition to leading the team, Chris works closely with other functions to help drive innovation and process improvement, and ensure delivery of key projects.

Chris has 20 years of experience working in the publishing industry. Prior to joining Brightmine in 2011, he worked in a variety of roles in both B2B and B2C workspaces across print and digital platforms. He has a BSc in Information Systems from the University of Sunderland and has a keen interest in emerging technologies.

Jeya Thiruchelvam, Content manager,thiruchelvam_j.jpg
Employment law and compliance

Jeya leads the team that creates the employment law content on the site, including the Employment law guides, Policies and procedures, How to guides and Case studies.

Jeya holds an LLB in Law and Politics. She has worked in the field of employment law for almost 20 years and is particularly passionate about the law and best practice around diversity, equality and inclusion.

Prior to joining Brightmine, Jeya worked as an employment lawyer in private practice, advising both employers and employees. She also gave regular training sessions to employers and wrote for local and regional press on employment law developments. Prior to specialising in employment law, Jeya worked on the Bloody Sunday Inquiry and the North Wales Child Abuse Inquiry.

Connect with Jeya on LinkedIn.