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Interview
Defining HR
Interview: HR Strategy
2m

David Fairhurst, Chief People Officer at McDonald’s UK & Northern Europe, discusses the importance of defining HR and how it needs to fight for its place in the company strategy.

“For me what’s really important is understanding the ongoing needs of identifying and keeping talent in your organization, how talent contributes to the success of your organization and to do it in a way that I would describe as non-static.  You see many HR functions talk about identifying talent in terms of succession. A very neat way of looking at who fills whose job over what period of time.”

David Fairhurst
Chief People Officer, McDonalds

David has enjoyed a rich and varied career in Human Resources. After joining Lucas Industries as a Graduate Trainee, David became the youngest Group Manager at H J Heinz, European Director of Recruitment and Leadership Planning for SmithKline Beecham, and Corporate HR Director for Tesco. In May 2005 David joined McDonald’s Restaurants as Vice President of People – the first time McDonald’s had appointed a HR professional at this level in the UK.