Dean Ridgewell

EiDA16 Shortlisted Nominee

Diverse Champion Award for Private

Dean has been a campaigner for diversity and inclusion all of his professional life. His passion was first ignited in 1991, when he came out at a time when it was perceived as a crime to be homosexual. Dean has been in recruitment for over 22 years and has worked extremely hard to overcome many challenges to reach a position of Directorship. He is a Diversity ambassador at Empiric and has partnered with Stonewall, Job Centre Plus and Women in Recruitment to bring about a true culture of D&I. Dean provides consultancy and actionable roadmap to HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, and Thomson Reuters on hiring diverse talent. He has also launched a new careers website targeted specially towards LGBT talent pool (proudhires.com), and regularly chairs a host of diversity networks including Parents network, LGBT network, BAME network and Women at Work network. In addition, Dean hosted Empiric’s first ever pre-pride party for clients from LGBT communities and their allies, as well as Led Empiric’s first London Pride March, with 100% staff turnout.

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