Carmen Watson

Having spent the majority of her career in recruitment, rising through the ranks to become Chairwomen of Pertemps in 2012 Carmen believes passionately that the UK’s service-based economy must be supported by a strong foundation of good talent management practices.

Carmen is responsible for promoting and delivering best practice in the field of recruitment and retention of talent on behalf of their clients, servicing both the public and private sector across the UK. Her passion is to revolutionise and professionalise the way that organisations attract, engage and retain top talent, and to help the best people in the industry to reach their fullest potential. With a clear vision Carmen continues to be a pioneer in the UK’s workforce solutions industry.

Carmen is recognised as an industry leader, named for 3 consecutive years in the Staffing Industry Analysts Global Leader Staffing List [2017-2019]; Institute of Directors Midlands Director of the Year [2018] and presented with a Lifetime Achievers Award in the same year by Recruitment and Employment Confederation.

Committed to creating equal opportunities and helping people to make the most of them Carmen encourages continuous learning and development and is a Commissioner for HRH Princess Royal Training Awards which operates to the highest standards and honours employers who have created outstanding training and skills development programmes which result in exceptional commercial benefits.

Since 2017 Carmen has sat on the Executive Board of Race for Opportunity, part of Business in the Community, proactively involved in supporting employers to break down barriers that prevent progression in their workforce and show how an inclusive organisation better serves customers, clients and communities.