The 2026 RG Excellence Awards Rising Talent winner shares how a focus on people has shaped his approach to project management, colleague wellbeing and career development.
Martin Snewin, project manager at Currys, is “still struggling to believe” that he took home the Rising Talent Award at October’s inaugural RG Excellence Awards.
His route to the award has taken him beyond the numbers-led work he initially gravitated towards as a mathematics graduate. From bringing home-delivery leaders together to tackle product damage to running colleague wellbeing sessions, Snewin describes a career increasingly shaped by understanding people.
Snewin joined Currys’ first supply chain graduate scheme after graduating from the University of Nottingham with a mathematics degree in 2020. Initially, he leaned into his analytical background, becoming known as a data expert and staying within his comfort zone.
As the leadership team drew him into more transformational work, that began to change. A conversation with programme manager, Lewis Chapman, about what it would take to progress prompted them to develop a framework for benchmarking skills, competencies and experience that the wider team could also use.
It became the basis for a personal development plan that Snewin keeps printed on his desk and revisits every week, particularly when tackling something new.
He credits Chapman with helping unlock his ambition, describing him as “more of a coach than a manager”. His first line manager, senior project manager David Hopkins, provided both a grounding in project management and personal support during a difficult period, while head of delivery, supply chain & service operations Danny Wood hired him onto the graduate scheme and later into a project manager role.
Those experiences inform an approach to leadership built around trust rather than hierarchy.
“It’s learning how to lead without authority,” Snewin says.
He makes time for one-to-one conversations across project teams, seeking to understand what matters to colleagues before asking for their support. Knowing why a task matters to an individual, as well as how it fits the wider business objectives, helps build respect and influence.
Consistency matters too. Keeping a recognisable style, even in how meetings are run, allows colleagues to concentrate on the work rather than deciphering changing expectations. It also makes a genuine change of urgency easier to recognise.
Snewin’s interest in colleague wellbeing grew out of experiences in his own life and those of loved ones. After attending mental health first aider training at Currys, he felt there was also room for support focused on the everyday difficulties people face, alongside responding to crises.
He self-funded a place on the Art of Being Brilliant course after discovering author Dr Andy Cope and his Art of Brilliance business. Cope subsequently gave him permission to adapt the material for colleagues at Currys.
With Chapman’s backing, Snewin began offering keynotes, training sessions and discussions, often as part of team meetings. An open invitation in his email signature lets colleagues request a session for their own teams.
Rather than presenting a single formula for wellbeing, he encourages people to try techniques and work out what suits them.
“It’s all about kind of allowing people to understand themselves and understanding what makes them tick,” he says.
The sessions have since become a regular feature of senior leadership team meetings, according to Snewin, with director Rebecca Lewis-Borman encouraging peers to explore what he could offer their business areas.
The work has also meant overcoming the initial apprehension of discussing personal subjects at work. Hearing that a colleague intends to try something different is, he says, a reward in itself.
Alongside wellbeing, Snewin points to the damage reduction immersion days he helped create in 2024 as a particular source of pride.
Working with process improvement specialists, he hosted sessions for 30 home delivery leaders, translating complex processes into practical actions aligned with the business strategy.
The challenge was not simply to explain a process, but to encourage people to question ways of working they might have followed for years. Snewin recalls seeing the “penny drop moment” as leaders reconsidered established habits and discussed alternatives.
He describes the days as a key enabler of £1.5m in damage savings during that financial year, and a contribution to a wider outcome, rather than a saving attributed to the sessions alone.
Outside Currys, Snewin volunteers with the University of Nottingham’s alumni community, giving talks, joining panels and discussing careers with current and prospective students and their parents.
It is a way to give back to the university, but also an opportunity to build confidence away from the familiar routines of his role. Turning up without knowing what questions people will ask has helped him become more comfortable simply being himself.
He sees a similar value in looking beyond his immediate business area: understanding retail colleagues’ experiences, for example, can bring a different perspective to supply chain projects.
“Stepping outside your day to day role just helps you round out your kind of interests and your abilities,” he says.
Asked what he would tell others at the start of their careers, Snewin challenges an assumption he once held himself: that progression would follow automatically after a few years in a role.
“Impact and network matter way, way more than experience does,” he shares.
His advice is to identify what you want to be known for, define the future you want in detail and build a development plan that supports it. That is particularly important for anyone considering a move into a different area, rather than simply developing within their current role.
He also urges people to be open with their managers about those ambitions. Their networks and ability to shape opportunities could prove useful, even when the goal is a career pivot.
“Your management can help you in so many more ways than you think they can,” he stresses.
Snewin concludes that it is less about waiting to be told he is ready for the next step and more about deciding what that step should look like. Then seeking out the experiences and conversations that could help him get there.
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