Our Senior Leadership Team

Peter Cheese: Chief Executive

Peter is the CIPD’s chief executive. He writes and speaks widely on the development of HR, the future of work, and the key issues of leadership, culture and organisation, people and skills.

Peter is a Fellow of the CIPD, a Fellow of AHRI (the Australian HR Institute) and the Academy of Social Sciences. He’s also a Companion of the Institute of Leadership and Management, the Chartered Management Institute, and the British Academy of Management. He is a visiting Professor at the University of Lancaster and sits on the Advisory Board for the University of Bath Management School. He holds honorary doctorates from Bath University, Kingston University and Birmingham City University.

Prior to joining the CIPD in July 2012, he was Chairman of the Institute of Leadership and Management and a member of the Council of City&Guilds. Up until 2009 he had a long career at Accenture holding various leadership positions and culminating in a seven year spell as Global Managing Director, leading the firm’s human capital and organisation consulting practice.

Angela Attah: Director of Legal and Governance

Angela is the Director of Legal and Governance and joined the CIPD in September 2019.  As part of her role, she is Company Secretary for the CIPD and its subsidiaries. This includes supporting the CIPD Board in ensuring proper oversight of the organisation’s activities and compliance with its legal and regulatory obligations. In addition to corporate governance, her teams are responsible for legal and contracting; risk management; procurement; and the Code of Professional Conduct and work in support of ethics for CIPD members.

Angela is legally qualified and a fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute.  She has over 20 years’ company secretarial/senior governance experience across several sectors and organisations, including the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and, more recently, the Financial Conduct Authority. Angela also holds several voluntary governance roles.

David Cox: Director of Digital and Technology

David is the Director of Digital and Technology. He responsible for developing and executing the CIPD’s digital strategy and supporting technology, and for ensuring that the CIPD delivers truly customer and learner centric learning, qualifications and content with a first class digital experience.

Prior to David joining the CIPD in May 2020, David held a number of roles in global education and publishing organisations with a focus on large scale digital transformation and business change programmes.

David D'Souza: Director of Membership

David is the Director of Membership. He is responsible for the growing our membership and ensuring we connect effectively with the profession to understand how to continually improve our support to our members. Prior to joining the CIPD in 2014, David worked as an independent consultant, having held previous roles across a range of financial services and retail organisations.  

Described as “one of the UK’s most influential HR and workplace commentators”, David is a respected and in demand speaker and writer on progressive HR and business practice. David has expertise in a wide range of areas, including organisational development and culture, learning and development, corporate ethics, employee engagement and the future of work.

Jenny Gowans: Director of Research, Policy and Content

Jenny is Director of Research, Policy and Content.  She is responsible for ensuring the CIPD’s voice is heard by providing policy makers, people professionals and organisations with the evidence and information they need to create better work and working lives.

Jenny joined the CIPD in October 2018 from a 20+ year career in publishing that included work with other member associations.

Tony Osude: Commercial and Marketing Director

Tony leads the Commercial and Marketing Directorate. He is responsible for driving crucial parts of our strategy and growth ambitions in key areas including our international operations, sales and marketing functions and extending the CIPD’s trusted brand internationally.

Tony brings 20 years’ experience of working with businesses in the UK and internationally to develop talent and capability through research, consulting, learning and development, qualifications, membership and employer accreditation programmes. His previous role was with University College London’s consultancy division, where he led business development, marketing and programme delivery. Prior to this, Tony’s career spanned BPP (one of the UKs largest providers of professional education), the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, where he successfully developed markets internationally and built global partnerships with employers, learning providers and regulators.

Victoria Winkler: Director of Professional Development

Victoria is Director of Professional Development, with overall responsibility for the CIPD’s professional standards and membership framework. She leads both the design and development of our professional standards and CPD, assessment and qualifications strategy and is responsible for ensuring that our professional designations and qualifications are of the highest standard and quality. 

Victoria joined the CIPD in 2003, initially leading CIPD research in the field of learning, development and talent management. Prior to joining the CIPD, Victoria held a number of roles across the charity and publishing sectors, with a focus on learning and professional skills development.