Workplace Wellness Assembly
Senior leaders, in
frank exchange on the compounding pressures facing their workplaces
Founded in the North, the Assembly brings board members, C-suite and senior decision-makers together from across the UK, to hear from wellness experts and one another, and to compare what is and isn't working inside their organisations. The goal: to take away implementable ideas and techniques that improve both their workforce and their own wellbeing.
Abstract Group was founded on a simple conviction: the environment you build around people determines what they are capable of. The Assembly is built for that exchange to happen at the level these pressures are actually felt, and where the right conversations can enact real change.
A room with experience
From the inaugural Assembly
The inaugural Assembly, on the 2nd of June 2026, brought together:
Sally Macdonald
Senior Independent Director, JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust, Fidelity Asian Values and Allianz Global Investors UK
Jonathan Grice
Partner and Head of Cloud, KPMG
Jasmine Gill
Digital Talent Manager, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
Sean Murphy
Chief Personal Training Officer, Ultimate Performance
Why the Assembly exists
Senior leaders are navigating technological change, economic volatility, workforce strain and the personal weight of leadership at once. Yet most leadership development and wellness provision is designed for the workforce, not for the people accountable for shaping it. C-suite leaders are frequently the architects of wellbeing programmes they themselves cannot access, because stepping forward would undermine the confidence they are expected to project, or because the provision simply does not exist at their level.
The Assembly was created to address that gap: a peer-level conversation where the most senior people in a room can speak honestly about what they are carrying, and explore together what genuinely effective organisational resilience looks like when it is built from the top down.
What the Assembly is
The Workplace Wellness Assembly is a curated peer conversation for C-suite leaders and senior decision-makers, located in the North.
Every gathering brings together genuine wellness and resilience experts alongside senior leaders, so the room learns from both sides of the equation: those who live the pressure, and those who specialise in addressing it. The format may vary from one Assembly to the next, but the commitment does not. Curation, candour and peer-level exchange remain constant.
The evidence
The evidence is unambiguous. Senior leaders are carrying a compounding set of pressures, and the case for addressing them is measurable.
The annual cost
The annual cost of poor mental health to UK employers, across absence, presenteeism and turnover.
Considering leaving
C-suite leaders who would seriously consider leaving their role for one that better supports their wellbeing.
Keeping pace
CEOs whose primary concern is whether they are transforming fast enough to keep pace with technological change.
Engagement
The UK employee engagement rate, 33rd of 38 European countries.
The return
Returned for every £1 invested in workplace mental health.
Sources: Deloitte UK, 2024; Businessolver, 2024; PwC 29th Global CEO Survey, 2026; Gallup State of the Global Workplace, 2025.
Assembly Insights
Findings and reflections from our inaugural assembly, with the figures and themes that shaped the conversation. Read it to see what the room surfaced, and where the programme goes next.
What comes next
The programme continues through the second half of 2026 and into 2027, building on the foundation established in Leeds. Each Assembly takes a distinct leadership and wellbeing theme, with expert voices brought in to lead the conversation.
Future themes reflect the most urgent questions raised on the night:
- -Psychological safety at executive level
- -The relationship between physical performance and leadership capacity
- -AI, decision-making and cognitive load on senior teams
- -The design of organisations that sustain rather than deplete the people inside them
Each gathering is intimate and curated. Places are by application or invitation.
A note from Abstract Group
Founded in 2017 on the belief that the quality of the human environment determines the quality of everything else.
That belief runs through every client engagement, every hiring decision and every investment in the people who make up the business.
The Workplace Wellness Assembly is a direct expression of it: a genuine investment in the kind of peer conversation that senior leaders in the North need, and that does not yet exist anywhere else at this level.
Interested in speaking?
We welcome interest from speakers with practical experience, a clear point of view and something genuinely useful to contribute. That may include leaders and specialists working across people, culture, health, organisational development, technology, workplace strategy and performance. We are particularly interested in perspectives grounded in lived leadership experience and credible practice.
If you have a topic, case study or perspective that would strengthen a future Assembly, we would be glad to hear from you.
What you receive as a speaker
Edited footage and photography of your contribution
Professional filming and photography throughout the evening. Your edited footage and images, at no cost, delivered swiftly after the event.
The WWA Insight Pack
After the event, every panellist receives a data report compiled from the live poll responses across the evening. Real answers from the room, in aggregate, as a snapshot of how C-suite leaders are actually thinking about these issues right now.
Direct access to curated peers
The relationships made in that room are the outcome. No commercial conversation is required for that to happen.
Association with something that matters
The WWA has big plans to drive change across organisations throughout the UK. Being there at the beginning of a movement like this one means something.
Inclusion within the event White Paper
Each Assembly is written up as a considered White Paper, drawing together the evening's themes, the data from the room and the perspectives shared on the night. As a panellist, your contribution and profile feature within it, and it is shared with senior leaders across our network.
Complete the form below and we will review your details for future Workplace Wellness Assembly events.
Interested in joining?
Future Assemblies are designed for C-suite leaders, senior decision-makers and specialists whose perspective will add to the room.
If you would like to hear about future gatherings, register your interest below. We use this list to understand demand, shape the programme and invite relevant leaders to future Assemblies.
Complete the form below to register your interest in future Assemblies.
A considered approach
Every Assembly is curated with care. We use the details you share to review speaker interest, understand demand and contact you about relevant future Assemblies. Your information will be handled carefully and in line with our privacy approach, and will not be shared with third parties in connection with this registration.
Read our privacy policy