Kate Simpson

Kate Simpson

Group Director, HR

Kate joined Global Switch in 2022 as Group Director, HR, bringing over 20 years’ experience across multiple sectors.

Career

Prior to joining Global Switch, Kate held a variety of roles within the retail, pharmaceutical, financial services and staffing sectors, operating at all levels to drive significant change programmes including mergers and acquisitions, business transformations and turnarounds, rapid growth and reorganizations.

Kate started her career in HR at ASDA Walmart, followed by various HR roles within the fashion industry for Principles, Warehouse, Oasis and Gap. Kate then moved to work at Direct Line Insurance Group during the time they were divesting from the Royal Bank of Scotland, and led large scale organisational restructure and consultation change for around 3,000 employees. After this Kate joined Omega Pharma to build the HR strategy, and supported the growth that enabled it to be subsequently acquired by Perrigo PLC, where Kate was the commercial lead for HR as well as leading the organisational development strategy for 1,000+ UK employees. Subsequently Kate moved to Staffing 360 Solutions where, as Senior Vice President of HR, she led the internal programmes and development strategy and held the role of International Equity and Inclusion Officer.

Kate has gained a number of HR and psychometric qualifications, and is a qualified Executive Coach.

Responsibilities at Global Switch

At Global Switch Kate is responsible for driving the delivery and enablement of a progressive people strategy for all Global Switch locations. She works closely with the Executive Committee, senior leadership team, and site Managing Directors.