Arbitrators/Independent Appeal Chairpersons
Brief Arbitrator/Independent Appeal Chair Biographies
The following is a list of the Labour Relations Agency’s panel of independent mediators/arbitrators. All except one (Brian Garrett, see below) may be appointed to decide cases under the Agency’s Unfair Dismissal Scheme. All may be appointed to hear non-Scheme mediation, arbitration or independent appeal cases.
Carol Ackah
Dr Ackah is currently a lecturer and consultant in Human Resource Management. She is a non-executive Director on the board of Northern Health and Social Care Trust and a member of the Local Government Staff Commission.From 1990 to 2004 she was a lecturer at the University of Ulster. Previous to this she was a Regional Manpower Manager with the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, a position she took up following a two-yearappointment as the Chief Executive of Age Concern (NI).She has alsoworked as a manager in the NHS. Dr Ackah has been an Industrial Tribunals Panel Member since 1999 and is a member of the Complaints/Investigatory Committee of the British Psychological Society.
Ronnie Allen
Mr Allen worked in various personnel positions for a large manufacturing company. His last position was that of personnel manager (NI). Following retirement he has been on the list of arbitrators and independent experts for the LRA. He has also been a panel member of Industrial Tribunals for 15 years.
Paul Corrigan
Mr Corrigan is a Senior Manager with Royal Mail. He has worked for them in both Scotland and NI since 1986 after graduating from Queens University Belfast. He is married with three children and serves on the Management Committee for his local pre-school playgroup.
Liam Deane
Mr Deane worked in Local Government for 30 years, the last 16 as Personnel Officer with the Western Education and Library Board. He has a wide practical experience of recruitment, training and development, staff appraisal, job evaluation, performance management and IR. He has been an Arbitrator/Mediator since 1989 and Independent Expert on Equal Value since 1985 and was Chairman of Ulster Bank’s Negotiating Committee (N.I.) 1999-2002. He has experience in Public and Private Sectors of a diverse range of contract types, including whole sector reviews for the Staff Commission for Education and Library Boards, Staff Commission for Local Government and in individual organisations. Mr Deane worked with the LRC in the Republic of Ireland in the establishment of Tourism Ireland and Failte Ireland. He has extensive experience chairing Disciplinary/Grievance and Job Evaluation Appeal Panels and acting as Sole Arbitrator in the both the Public and Private Sectors.
Brian Garrett (Non-UDAS Arbitrator)
Mr Garrett is a qualified solicitor (formerly senior partner in a leading firm of Belfast based Solicitors) and currently a deputy county court judge for Northern Ireland and a Life Sentence Review Commissioner. He is a Fellow (by examination) of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, having been admitted as a Fellow in 1978 and as a former visiting fellow at the Centre for International Affairs at Harvard University. He has conducted a considerable number of arbitrations in relation to both the public sector and the private sector. In the public sector, he has conducted arbitrations in relation to transport, education, labour relations and agriculture (including various appointments by the Labour Relations Agency). He has also acted as arbitrator in relation to professional issues affecting both the legal and accountancy professions and as chairman of the Disciplinary Committe of the Chartered Accounting in Ireland professional body. Mr Garrett is a member of various commercial and charitable boards and is Chairman of the Northern Ireland Teachers’ Salaries and Terms of Employment Joint Negotiating Committee. Mr Garrett was the Northern Ireland member of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Advisory Committee on arbitration (Chairman, Lord Saville) whose report and recommendations led to the passing of the Arbitration Act 1996. He is also a qualified Alternative Dispute Resolution mediator and former Chariman of the International Bar Association Labour Law Committee.
William (Bill) Gillespie
Mr. Gillespie was Managing Director, and later Chairman, of a Building Company. He was Chairman of the Construction Industry Training Board 1993/2002, and Chairman of the Southern Health & Social Services Board 1994/2003. He is currently Chairman of the Northern Ireland Fire Rescue Service. He was a panel member of Industrial Tribunals for 15 years. He is an Accountant by profession, and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building.
Michelle Groves
Mrs Groves worked as a personnel and legal assistant for six years before moving into the social and childcare statutory and voluntary services fulfilling a variety of roles from a direct family and childcare practitioner to HRD/HR Manager. From 1999 she has been a self-employed employment relations consultant workingacross all sectors, being the owner/director of a training and consultancy business.
She works extensively in dispute resolution through the delivery of mentoring/coaching services, mediation, arbitration and independent appeal and investigations. She has particular expertise in training and consultancy services in responding to bullying and harassment in the workplace, delivering an approved Dignity at Work Adviser's programme as well as Managing Equality and Diversity Programmes.
Mrs Groves provides Executive Mentoring and Coaching to Chief Executives, Directors and Senior Managers to enable effective leadership and management. She has particular expertise in the development of Emotional Intelligence within Leaders and also provides Supervision to trainee and practicing Coaches and Mentors.
Ms Groves is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) as well as a Fellow with both the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) and the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). She is a member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) and the Institute of Business Consulting (IBC). All practices delivered by Ms Groves are to the best practice standards and codes of ethics of all the above membership/regulatory bodies.
Clifford Jefferson
Dr Jefferson is a part-time senior lecturer in the School of Management and Economics, QUB and an Economic Consultant. He worked full-time at QUB from 1965 to 2003 and has also lectured or undertaken research in Dublin, Malta, the USA and for the Open University. He was appointed an LRA Arbitrator in 1979 and also arbitrates in the local government and banking sectors. He was a former Chairman of the Northern Ireland Wages Councils.
Alistair Joynes
Mr Joynes has spent the last thirty five years working within the Human Resources field, as both a manager of the function and as a senior consultant. He has wide experience covering all aspects of employee relations, having worked with organisations of all sizes and within all areas of both the public and private sectors.
Over recent years he has conducted numerous investigations into bullying, harassment, intimidation and other disciplinary issues. He has worked as a mediator and arbitrator in a number of public and private sector organisations. He has also carried out equal pay investigations and has had significant experience in the application of job evaluation techniques.
Olive Lundy
Dr Lundy, B.Ed, MBA, MCIPD, has worked for 34 years in the field of human resource management. Her doctoral thesis was on the subject of strategic human resource management. She had responsibility for managing a range of aspects of the human resource function for six years in private industry. From 1978 – 2001 she lectured in the subject areas of Organisation Studies (for 2 years) and Human Resource Management (for 21 Years) at the University of Ulster and, as it was formerly, the Ulster Polytechnic and was a senior lecturer in human resource management for 17 years. Over the period she also engaged in research and consultancy. From 1988-1994 she was a member of a panel of consultants maintained by the Government to assist organisations implement the requirements of the Fair Employment Legislation. She has been an arbitration chairperson for the Labour Relations Agency since 1990 and an Independent Expert in Equal Value on its panel of experts since 1984. She has also been, since 1987, a chairperson for job evaluation appeals in a range of public organisations. From 1997-2003 she was a chairperson of the joint appeals board in a local government council.
Dr Lundy has held a number of public appointments including the Local Government Staff Commission (1985-1989), the Northern Ireland Wages Councils (1989-1994), and the Fair Employment Tribunal (1995-2006). Dr Lundy, since 2001, has been self-employed in a range of work in the sphere of human resource management. Her range of services to organisations in this capacity include alternative dispute resolution, investigation of employment and related issues, equal value investigation, chairing joint appeals in areas such as disciplinary, grievance and job evaluation and advice on human resource policies and procedures including strategic human resource management.
John Lyttle
In his early career John Lyttle spent some fifteen years in a number of industrial posts ranging from shop-floor trainee to senior management. This was followed by thirty years in the field of Management Training in the Further Education sector from which he retired from Belfast Institute as Head of the School of Management. HR has been a major feature of his entire professional life. He has been a Labour Relations Agency panel arbitrator for thirty years and is an Independent Expert in equal pay for work of equal value. He was a Labour Relations Agency Board Member from 1992-98. He is a Panel Member of Industrial Tribunals and also acts as independent chairman of appeals for a number of organisations in the private and public sectors.
Deborah Malcolm
Miss Malcolm became a solicitor in 1982 working in a Private Practice in Belfast in 1987. She moved to the Central Services Agency and subsequently began to specialise in employment law. In 1997 she was appointed as Deputy Coroner for Greater Belfast until May 2007. She was seconded for 4 and a half years as Coroner for Greater Belfast whilst reorganizational changes took place in the Coronial system. Since 2006 Miss Malcolm has been working part-time with the CSA dealing with contractual issues. She obtained LLM in European Law and Policy in 2001 and a Certificate in Health Service Management in 2002. She has undertaken a number of cases under the Statutory Arbitration Scheme for Unfair Dismissal and has chaired Appeal Panels as well as undertaking private work.
Harry McConnell
Mr McConnell has worked in the personnel/equality field since 1984. He worked as Equality Manager with Northern Ireland Electricity 1991-1995, Director of Human Resources at Queen’s University 1995-1997, and Chairman of the Northern Ireland Disability Council from 1996-1999. Since then he has been a self-employed independent consultant in personnel and equality-related issues. He was a Board Member of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland from 1999 to 2004 and in 2005 was appointed a member of the NI Judicial Appointments Commission.
Gordon McMullan
Dr McMullan’s work background commenced with production administration in the aircraft manufacturing industry, followed by budgetary and cost control in the distribution of oil industry products. From there, he progressed to senior leadership responsibilities in a professional plus volunteer staffed service-type organisation. He chairs a cross-community project bringing IT-based education and job opportunities to unemployed young adults and has been Chairman of Governing Bodies at secondary and primary school levels. A Chartered Company Secretary and Administrator, he also has a degree in Economics and a ‘ Masters’ in Peace Studies. Specialist knowledge includes development of white-collar unionisation and collective negotiations in local government, civil service, banking and clerical employment Dr. McMullan has functioned on the LRA Arbitrators’ Panel since 1997.
Edward (Teddy) Martin
Mr Martin was the Senior Official with the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation in Northern Ireland from 1981 to 1998, having previously been a Senior Industrial Relations Officer with the Labour Relations Agency, following his move from the Department of Manpower Services in 1976. Mr Martin is currently a voluntary Board Member with the Craigavon Local Strategy Partnership. Since 1991 Mr Martin has been an Industrial Tribunal panel member, Disability Appeal Tribunal panel member, and an independent appeals panel member under schemes administrated by the Labour Relations Agency. Mr Martin is currently a self-employed employment relations consultant. Experience as Investigating Officer, Arbiter, advisor and representative in employment relations matters in private and public sectors.
John Simpson
John Simpson's background is in economics and he was a senior lecturer and Assistant Dean at Queen's University Belfast until 1989. He has held several positions in public life, including those of Chairman of the Eastern Health and Social Services Board, the Probation Board, Teachers' Negotiating Committee, NIACAB and other voluntary or community organisations. More recently he was commissioner for judicial appointments. He is well-known in Northern Ireland as a writer on business and economics.
John Young
Dr Young has spent his entire career working in the Human Resources area. He was a Senior Lecturer in the Queen’s University of Belfast Business School from 1969 to 1987, with responsibility for teaching, research and consultancy in the areas of Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour. In 1987, he joined a multi-national management consultancy firm as Managing Consultant/Director in charge of the Human Resources Division. From 1990 until 2002, Dr. Young was the N.I. Regional Director of an international management consultancy specialising exclusively in the employment relations field. Since that time, he has worked as an independent consultant, specialising in the areas of recruitment and selection, management assessment and development, equality/discrimination/fair employment, and has acted as expert witness in the areas of workplace stress, bullying and harassment. Recently, he has had considerable experience of the use of workplace mediation as an alternative dispute resolution methodology, and is an Associate Practitioner with Mediation Northern Ireland.
Dr. Young has been a Labour Relations Agency arbitration panel chair, for almost twenty-five years, and is also a member of the Agency’s list of independent arbitrators, qualified to hear cases under the Unfair Dismissal Arbitration Scheme. He is also a Panel Member of Industrial Tribunals and is an Independent Expert in relation to the “Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value” legislation. He has acted as an “in-house” arbitrator/mediator in employment disputes for various organisations.