HR Magazine - HRMI 2018: Mee-Yan Cheung-Judge tops list of influential thinkers

Last night HR magazine unveiled its Most Influential rankings at Claridge's hotel

The HR Most Influential rankings, in partnership with LifeSight, recognise the HR practitioners and thinkers pushing people strategy forward. HR Most Influential is now in its 13th year.

Mee Yan Cheung-Judge, an academic OD practitioner and founder of Quality and Equality, took the coveted place of HR's Most Influential thinker.

Cheung-Judge was commended for her "resilience and generosity of spirit".

Commenting on her award she said: "I have a very ambivalent relationship towards awards for the individual. Because all of our achievements rest on the shoulders of giants we stand on. I'll never forget the professor who first helped me with my university application."

She added: "It is humbling to be an OD practitioner, and it's important that we continue to honour the trade. We need to celebrate HR because where would the world be without it? Go forth, the opportunities are there, the challenges are there. I absolutely adore HR people."

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the RSA, was announced as the second most influential thinker. Commenting on the recommendations made in his Modern Working Practices report in 2017, Taylor said: "If there is anything that I did that in any way helps you to win the argument in your organisation that valuing people is the path to becoming successful, then I am delighted to have helped you. Thank you."

Rob Briner, professor of organisational pyschology at Queen Mary University of London, came in at third place for his continued, tireless work on evidence-based HR.

"We all want to make a difference in HR, but we can't make a difference unless we really understand the problem," he said. "We're on the cusp of saying goodbye to the hundreds of fads in HR. I'm delighted. Evidence-based HR isn't going away, and neither am I."

The top 30 thinkers are as follows:

1	Mee-Yan Cheung-Judge	Founder	Quality and Equality
2	Matthew Taylor	Chief executive	RSA
3	Rob Briner	Professor of organisational psychology School of Management	Queen Mary University of London
4	Herminia Ibarra	Charles Handy professor of organisational behaviour	London Business School
5	Perry Timms	Founder & chief energy officer	PTHR
6	Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic	Professor of business psychology	University College London and Columbia University
7	Adam Grant	Professor of management Wharton School of Business	University of Pennsylvania
8	Simon Sinek	Speaker and consultant
9	Vlatka Hlupic	Professor of business and management	Westminster Business School
10	Wendy Hirsh	Independent researcher & principal associate	Institute for Employment Studies
11	Stephen Bevan	Director employer research and consultancy	Institute for Employment Studies
12	Amy Edmondson	Novartis professor of leadership and management	Harvard Business School
13	Gervase Bushe	Professor of leadership and organization development Beedie School of Business	Simon Fraser University
14	Patrick Wright	Thomas C Vandiver Bicentennial Chair Darla Moore School of Business	University of South Carolina
15	Amy Cuddy	Associate professor	Harvard Business School
16	Josh Bersin	Principal and founder	Bersin by Deloitte
17	Peter Cheese	Chief executive	CIPD
18	Steve Boese	Co-chair of the HR Technology Conference and technology editor at LRP
19	Helena Morrissey	Author and founder	30% Club
20	Megan Reitz	Professor of leadership and dialogue	Ashridge Hult
21	Patrick Lencioni	Founder and president	The Table Group
22	Susan Vinnicombe	Professor of women and leadership	Cranfield School of Management
23	Wayne Clarke	Founding partner	The Global Growth Institute
24	Meghan Biro	Strategist analyst, author and speaker
25	Chris Roebuck	Organisational success advisor	Cass Business School
26	Linda Holbeche	Adjunct professor	The Holbeche Partnership
27	Jeffrey Pfeffer	Thomas D Dee Ii Professor of organizational behavior	Stanford Business School
28	Liz Mellon	Executive director	Authentic Leadership and Duke Corporate Education
29	Peter Cappelli	George W Taylor professor of management	Wharton School
30	Matthew Syed	Journalist, writer and broadcaster