Leon Smith, twinkl, & Rob Woodhead, Simply Better Events, judge the National Happiness Awards 2019

We’ve kept them locked away since last November when they went eggnog crazy at National Happiness Awards 2018 wrap party. But its time to release them once more. Ladies and gentlemen meet the first of this year’s judges.

Leon Smith

Leon is Twinkl’s Chief Customer Officer and one of our National Happiness Awards judges.

Leon taught KS1 and Lower KS2 for over five years before joining Twinkl in 2015. She has always been a huge champion of Twinkl’s mission; ‘to help those who teach’. As Chief Customer Officer she wants everyone who uses Twinkl to have the best experience possible. Leon oversees the customer support and customer experience teams, which provide 24/7 support to educators across the world.

This year she is driving a focus on wellbeing, leading her team to explore what more Twinkl can do to support schools and educators in this area. In her own words, Leon and her team ‘make people happy’, which is one of the reasons she is so pleased to be judging the National Happiness Awards. 

Leon lives in Sheffield and loves to spend time with her children in the great outdoors, taking advantage of the city’s parks and its close proximity to the Peak District.

She is passionate about supporting the happiness and wellbeing of educators and school communities world-wide and believes that an effective learning environment is a happy one. 

What Leon is looking for in entries to the National Happiness Awards

Leon is hoping to find entries that focus on people from across communities and include strong examples of where people have done things for the right reasons and put others first.

She is also looking for entries where people have tried new things and dared to be different in order to bring happiness to those around them.

As a ‘frequent crier’, anything funny, inspiring or joyous enough to turn on the water works will be a hit with Leon too.

Rob Woodhead

Rob is managing director of Simply Better Events, a full-service events agency. Their purpose is to inspire people to think, feel and do things differently, and they do this by creating remarkable event experiences.

Simply Better recognises the important role that live events have in creating positive employee engagement, which in turn leads to a happier, more productive workplace. They are therefore delighted to be sponsoring the National Happiness Awards for a third year.

What Rob is looking for in entries to the Happiness Awards 2019

‘Afters’ are key for me. It’s not just about programmes or processes that have been put in place, but more about the tangible impact that these initiatives have had…so measurement is key!