About
The pace of legal, cultural and regulatory changes can make leading a successful smaller or medium-sized business feel like a rollercoaster.

To help HR leaders better navigate these challenges, ensuring a smoother ride all round, our expert panel of senior HR leaders are here to help, offering tailored tips on how to futureproof your business by expertly managing today’s risks.

Brought to you in partnership with HR software provider IRIS, HR magazine’s next Lunchtime Debate addresses the top three risks that most worry SME leaders, and the best-practice strategies for tackling them.

Our panel will answer questions about:
• Tackling the latest cybersecurity threats,
• Best practice strategies for keeping hiring costs low, and
• How to face upcoming regulatory and employment law changes.
When
Thursday, April 23, 2026 · 12:30 p.m. London (GMT +1:00)
Presenters
1774265472-a1cf8658ccb79caa
Claudia De Silva
Organisational consultant
Bringing more than 20 years of experience in HR to our panel, Claudia De Silva is a workplace consultant and transformational coach. She’s worked across multiple sectors, and has served a top 100 professional services firm as HR and operations director. She’s also founded her own HR consultancy, and co-founded a deli coffee shop that she turned from a loss- to a profit-making business within three years.

As a consultant, De Silva actively partners with organisations to help them enable their own improvement, creating the conditions to address deep rooted issues for lasting, self-sustaining change. She holds a Master’s in system-psychodynamic organisational consultancy, a postgraduate Diploma in Law and is an ACCPH-accredited senior coach.
1774948008-8e31b9e68ce6e71c
Jill Bottomley
managing director of People Curve
Having owned a successful SME business for 18 years, Jill Bottomley brings valuable insight to our panel. As an HR leader who has more than 35 years’ experience across a FTSE 100 business as well as SMEs, Bottomley now owns of People Curve consultancy, providing outsourced HR, and supporting SME leaders to move beyond compliance towards a more strategic, commercially aligned approach to people management, driving stronger engagement, performance and sustainable growth.

A Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, Bottomley is a recognised advocate for SMEs, contributing to and influencing national policy discussions. She’s also actively involved in education governance.
1773945152-64cec9b73b8db660
Daniel Grace
director of international HR consulting, IRIS Software Group
As director of HR consulting, Daniel Grace leads international HR consulting teams across multiple regions. Bringing deep expertise in payroll operations, employment compliance and workforce management across multiple jurisdictions to our panel, Grace currently drives AI-powered automation initiatives to help organisations streamline HR processes and mitigate compliance risks, making him ideally placed to discuss how businesses can prepare for the sweeping changes to unfair dismissal law.
1773941001-94294a343ca39352
Charissa King
editor of HR magazine
Reserve Your Spot
Full name*
Email Address*
Country*
County / State*
Company*
Job Title*
Telephone*
Company size*
Sector*
Privacy Policy and Contact Preferences
Please read our Privacy Policy below. This will explain how we process, use and safeguard your data. In addition to this service, this magazine, other parts of the Mark Allen Group and partner organisations would like to contact you about events, products & services that we think will be of interest to you. If you would like to update your marketing preferences, please go here: https://contactpreferences.markallengroup.com.
Privacy Policy
✓ I understand*
We use BigMarker as our webinar platform. By clicking Register, you acknowledge that the information you provide will be transferred to BigMarker processing in accordance with their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Powered by BigMarker