Helen Wyatt
BA Business Studies, 1983
CORPORATE VICE PRESIDENT HR & COMMUNICATIONS, FIRMENICH
“I was lucky to study at Greenwich – Thames Poly as it was then: business studies and international marketing were popular and sought-after subjects with fantastic teaching staff. What was brilliant was the juxtaposition of practice and theory – the grounding from a strong academic cadre combined with a year in industry.”
Helen Wyatt is Corporate Vice President HR & Communications for Firmenich, a global company which creates fragrances and flavours for the food and cosmetics industries including the L’Oreal and Estée Lauder brands.
Based in Geneva, Helen leads the HR function which attracts and develops talent across a base of 7,000 employees in 64 countries. This is just the last in a string of top HR jobs for international companies like Unilever and Hewlett-Packard. The current post is the first to include communications: “The external face is interesting for me, as I am not just responsible for internal communications around employee engagement but also for external messaging including the website and PR.”
Firmenich’s website is brimming with beautiful videos of natural ingredients and partnerships with suppliers across the world. “The sustainability of ingredients and the communities that produce them is central to this business. It’s one of my passions, along with diversity – especially ensuring that women have equal opportunities – and developing talent.”
Helen has also been a University of Greenwich Court member since 2009 and has sat on its Remuneration and Audit committees. “I love the idea of coming full circle, of bringing my expertise back to the organisation where it all began.
“Greenwich can make even more of a difference to people’s life chances than many universities because it recruits students from all backgrounds, including those who are the first from their family to enter higher education.”
“I was lucky to study at Greenwich – Thames Poly as it was then: business studies and international marketing were popular and sought-after subjects with fantastic teaching staff. What was brilliant was the juxtaposition of practice and theory – the grounding from a strong academic cadre combined with a year in industry.”
“Many of my contemporaries went on to great careers. The networking and camaraderie is strong too and we still meet up each Christmas.”
Helen Wyatt
BA Business Studies, 1983
CORPORATE VICE PRESIDENT HR & COMMUNICATIONS, FIRMENICH
“I was lucky to study at Greenwich – Thames Poly as it was then: business studies and international marketing were popular and sought-after subjects with fantastic teaching staff. What was brilliant was the juxtaposition of practice and theory – the grounding from a strong academic cadre combined with a year in industry.”
Helen Wyatt is Corporate Vice President HR & Communications for Firmenich, a global company which creates fragrances and flavours for the food and cosmetics industries including the L’Oreal and Estée Lauder brands.
Based in Geneva, Helen leads the HR function which attracts and develops talent across a base of 7,000 employees in 64 countries. This is just the last in a string of top HR jobs for international companies like Unilever and Hewlett-Packard. The current post is the first to include communications: “The external face is interesting for me, as I am not just responsible for internal communications around employee engagement but also for external messaging including the website and PR.”
Firmenich’s website is brimming with beautiful videos of natural ingredients and partnerships with suppliers across the world. “The sustainability of ingredients and the communities that produce them is central to this business. It’s one of my passions, along with diversity – especially ensuring that women have equal opportunities – and developing talent.”
Helen has also been a University of Greenwich Court member since 2009 and has sat on its Remuneration and Audit committees. “I love the idea of coming full circle, of bringing my expertise back to the organisation where it all began.
“Greenwich can make even more of a difference to people’s life chances than many universities because it recruits students from all backgrounds, including those who are the first from their family to enter higher education.”
“I was lucky to study at Greenwich – Thames Poly as it was then: business studies and international marketing were popular and sought-after subjects with fantastic teaching staff. What was brilliant was the juxtaposition of practice and theory – the grounding from a strong academic cadre combined with a year in industry.”
“Many of my contemporaries went on to great careers. The networking and camaraderie is strong too and we still meet up each Christmas.”
