20th Anniversary Award for Outstanding Contribution to Global Mobility & Research

Winner: Sue Shortland PhD

“Our 20^th Anniversary Award for Outstanding Contribution to Global Mobility & Research goes to someone who I have had the pleasure to work with for 20 years. She contributed to the very first edition of Relocate magazine, said Fiona Murchie, Founder and Managing Editor of Relocate and Think Global People at the Awards Gala Dinner on 6^th June held at the historic Two Temple Place venue in London.

Dr Sue Shortland has distinguished academic creden tials. Her degree at the University of Cambridge was in Geography. She has always taken an interest in geography and the wider social economic framework and is widely travelled.

Before academia, her previous roles include being a manager in international HRM consultancy at KPMG, heading up the CBI’s Employee Relocation Council, and working in various editorial and research capacities for industrial relations and HRM journals.

Sue Shortland, PhD earned her doctorate in gender diversity in expatriation at the University of Westminster where she lectures in International HRM.

She holds the title of Professor Emerita, London Metropolitan University.

Sue is an active researcher and has published in a wide range of peer-reviewed academic journals.

In her academic role she is a teacher and educator who conveys great knowledge and engages critically with her students and the subjects.

This Award acknowledges the contribution Sue Shortland has made to bridging the gap between theory and practice in global mobility. She is a lifelong advocate for employers and everyone on international assignments and champions evidence-based decision making.

Sue has committed her career to putting facts and peer-reviewed research within people professionals’ reach.

Profiled for our 40 Outstanding Global Women in 2023 she said, “It would be wonderful if HR people read academic peer reviewed journals. Every single research paper you write is not just about theory. There are always implications for practice.”

“If, as an academic like me, you can find an avenue for academic research that is more practitioner-oriented – like Relocate Global – you can start tailoring the research and findings to an HR readership. Busy HR people can read academic research when they are turned into a more practitioner-friendly format and it’s available online or in magazines like Think Global People.

“I’m always trying to get HR and GM professionals to think beyond what they’ve always done and to see things with a much wider perspective, which I think is what Think Global People magazine, is really good at.”

Relocate Global is proud to have worked with Sue Shortland as a writer and contributor to panel discussions, webinars and podcasts for so many years. She has written a series of Factsheets as part of our Global Mobility Tool Kit for HR and Global Mobility Professionals, and more recently the series of Mini Factsheets, designed to support those new to global mobility or working in international management roles.

Over the years she has helped shape the Relocate Award categories, responding to changes across mobility and the demands of working in multinational organisations and managing international teams. In recent years she has taken on the role of Head Judge with a rigorous attention to detail and insight.

She has provided a guiding hand in shaping our HR and DEI content especially with the overlaps between DEI and environmental, social and governance (ESG) agendas becoming clear.

Read Dr Sue Shortland’s 40 Outstanding Global Women profile here.

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