Category: Latest Blog

Jane founded Evenbreak in 2011, a specialist job board run by disabled people for disabled people, helping inclusive employers to attract disabled candidates across the employment market. Jane’s work has been crucial in helping employers to connect with disabled people who are actively seeking careers opportunities. Jane herself has a spinal condition and speaks from experience, setting up Evenbreak to address all of the concerns and frustrations she had experienced when talking to employers. Jane works tirelessly to open up the job market for disabled people and delivers the business case for attracting a diverse pool of talent. Described as an ‘inspiration’, Jane has begun to change the way disability is viewed in the workplace and has created many employment opportunities for Evenbreak candidates. Jane has spent her entire working life championing equal opportunities and fighting for the rights of those in disadvantaged situations, and for that reason she thoroughly deserves to be featured on the diversity champion shortlist.

Rev. Fred Annin founded Actionplus Foundation (UK) in 1997 to campaign against HIV stigma and prejudice, which operates both in the church and in the community. His quest was to intervene in the growing number of people living with HIV, most of whom are from the African Community. He personally lead the campaign by targeting the black African churches to interact with their Pastors and educate them about HIV, and the benefits of early testing. In 2007 Rev. Fred opened the branch of Actionplus Foundation in Ghana and successfully led his charity to reduce the rate of HIV infection in the country from 3.6% in 2007 to 1.3% in 2013. Actionplus became the first HIV organisation in the UK to open a HIV testing centre in a church, and additionally opened 4 testing centres across London. This is a major breakthrough towards HIV intervention in the UK and Africa. For the past 18 years, Fred’s extraordinary achievements have been accomplished without resources to funding, relying on donations and his personal sacrifice to the cause.

After a magnificent launch in 2013, which started a national conversation about why there are no openly gay footballers, the Rainbow Laces campaign is back and bigger than ever before. The GFSN partnered with Stonewall UK and Paddy Power to create awareness of homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia in football. The campaign saw hundreds of professional and grassroots footballers and fans wear rainbow laces and fly rainbow flags at games across the UK. The 2014 campaign expanded rapidly with even more Metro newspaper ads and news coverage, Premier League support, a spokesperson in the form of Thomas Hitzlsperger and a TV/cinema ad featuring Arsenal players. During September 2014, players at over 70 professional clubs nationwide wore rainbow laces whilst playing to show their support for LGBT players. Politicians, celebrities and major corporate brands also got creatively involved to help ‘Change the Game’. Quite simply, no other campaign has ever brought so much attention to this issue like the Rainbow Laces campaign has.

For over 40 years The Open University has been open to people, places, methods and ideas, providing flexible higher education across the UK and internationally. The OU promote educational opportunity and social justice by providing high-quality education to all. As an organisation with social justice at the heart of their mission, they are committed to developing an inclusive university and contributing to an inclusive society. An incredible amount of evidence showcases their outstanding devotion which is expressed in the principles of their equality scheme. Their diversity workshops are exceptional and the OU is pioneering the way diversity and inclusion is viewed. From extraordinary initiatives, through to forums and engagement training, they have outshone other providers as a truly diverse educational institute, actively incorporating all aspects of diversity. The OU recognises the value of diversity and the strength that it brings, and they challenge underrepresentation in outcomes through positive action programmes.

Funke is a practising solicitor now leading the UK & Ireland legal team of Roche, the world’s largest biotech company. She is currently the most senior black lawyer working in the UK pharmaceutical industry. Funke had to overcome significant obstacles in pursuing and progressing her legal career to this stage and her passion for becoming a business lawyer drove her to cold-call the corporate department heads at the top 100 UK law firms with a “sales pitch” confirming what she could offer. Funke has embraced diversity in both her widely varied in-house activity and in her equally challenging voluntary work, making it her personal mission to promote diversity within the legal profession. Funke mentors a number of female solicitors and is a professional Ambassador for Aspiring Solicitors, an organisation that supports and promotes diversity within the legal profession. She is also an active member of the Black Solicitors’ Network, the Association of Women Solicitors and the Women Lawyers’ Division of the Law Society.

Rohini deserves to be commended for her long-standing and passionate advocacy for the Scottish Asian Community, championing their rights to equality of treatment, dignity and respect. Rohini has been leading an award-winning Equal Opportunities Programme for Trust Housing Association since 1999, and has also worked with partner organisations on innovative projects which have both successfully tackled diversity issues in social housing, and also had a wider impact on organisations serving the public, legislators and the community. Rohini has devised, managed and raised external funding for a series of ground-breaking equal opportunities projects which have had a material impact on the lives of people from black and minority ethnic groups in particular. Rohini has also has made a significant impact through outstanding projects such as older peoples services, Happy to Translate and memories project. Rohini has been instrumental in establishing Trust Housing as a leader in the promotion of diversity and inclusion.

Black British Academics is the first online national network developed for people of African descent in the academic community, which many endorse as an incredible resource. The dynamic organisation is leading institutional change around race equality with a collective of intellectuals, scholars, and practitioners who are determined to make equality for all a reality, through cultural democracy. Their innovative resources include networks, forums and consultations. Black British Academics has had a major impact on how institutions view race equality. In the past HEI’s equated diversity as something they aspire to, and therefore speaking about their ‘commitment’ to diversity was seen as adequate. But through the perspectives and experiences of staff and students, Black British Academics has highlighted the fact that ‘delivering’ race equality is the only way to address racial inequalities, and this requires consultation to identify the key issues and implementation of specific actions to ‘deliver’ inclusion.

Dawn is the owner, founder and CEO of Equal Approach. 10 years ago Dawn left a well-respected career within HR, where she worked for a number of international organisations, to pursue her passion for diversity and inclusion; as a result she created an inclusive recruitment agency to remove barriers for candidates with difference. Dawn has developed the business beyond that of an inclusive recruitment agency, into a specialist provider of diversity and inclusion solutions, which offers a range of services surrounding the diversity lifecycle. Dawn is a regular public speaker, trainer and contributor to thought leadership pieces on a range of topics surrounding inclusion. Her work has been formally recognised in a number of ways, including her recent inclusion in the inaugural Disability Power List – as one of the top 100 most influential people in UK. Marking Equal Approaches 10th year, featuring on this shortlist is a fitting tribute to the decade of work that Dawn has achieved with within the diversity and inclusion arena.

14 years ago, Sarah Churchman, recognising the need for PwC to focus on diversity and inclusion, established the first D&I team from scratch and has developed it into its current format of a team of 6 covering the UK. Sarah has tirelessly driven and shaped the diversity and inclusion agenda at PwC, and has been fundamental in shifting the firms focus from equality to diversity to inclusion. Under Sarah’s leadership, PwC has implemented a series of activities, these include but are not limited to the sponsorship of Breakthrough – their organisational development programme supporting talented women, establishing PwC’s Diversity Council of senior partners, and the introduction of diversity and bias awareness training. Not surprisingly, Sarah is frequently sought out to share best practice on D&I with external organisations and to speak at conferences. PwC has made significant progress and is a now viewed as a thought leader in this area, and that is down to Sarah’s unstinting passion, resilience and remarkable work in this field.

Mark Mackenzie MBE, a HR specialist at Transport for London, has made a significant contribution to the way LGBT staff are treated as well as the wider LGBT community when they are travelling on London’s transport network. Mark is a founding member of TfL’s staff network group for LGBT+ staff and, as past chair of the group, led support for Pride in London. Mark is also a representative for OutWest, the support group for the LGBT+ community in west London, remarkably securing £20k funding for the charity. He has led work with British Transport Police to reduce hate crime on public transport; This led to a Hate Crime Best Practice Guide for the force and to the monitoring and reporting of hate crime across TfL’s transport networks. Mark developed an outstanding LGBT leadership programme throughout the Greater London Authority family and its stakeholders, and assisted in launching their first Sexual Orientation equality scheme; His phenomenal efforts helped TfL climb from 59th to 5th in Stonewall workplace equality index.