Meet judge, Beth-Marie Norbury 

Beth-Marie Norbury, Woman of the Year 2020

Beth-Marie Norbury was named Women in Defence Woman of the Year 2020 and collected the Inspiration Award in the same year.  She has worked in Human Resources across a variety of sectors (consumer goods, technology, manufacturing, and the arts) for over 24 years and is passionate about increasing the gender balance in the defence sector.

BM sits on the Women in Defence Strategic Advisory Board and leads work package 1 (research and reporting) for the Women in Defence Charter – helping to inspire signatories to identify and set ambitious targets to improve their gender diversity. Since their inception in 2021, she has enabled and helped to write all the Charter’s annual reports on female representation in the sector and how Charter signatories are delivering against their commitments.   

BM is now a People Director at Marks & Spencer. She previously worked in defence for 5 years at Babcock International Group as HR Director for Mission Systems and then Group HR Director (Leadership and Culture Change). Her global roles focused on HR partnering, driving performance, talent development, employee engagement, culture change, and driving Equality, Diversity & Inclusion - enabling people to unlock their potential.  

Before this BM worked for global organisations such as BT Group, Unilever and Dyson, and in consultancy, and held senior leadership roles in HR business partnering and leadership and focused her work on helping organisations to win through their approach to people. She has a BSc Honours degree in Psychology, a personal passion for the arts, spends her Saturday mornings at Parkrun, and is a busy, full-time working mum to 2 daughters.