Travis Torrence

1
Global Litigation Bankruptcy & Credit Team Lead
Shell USA

Travis is the only openly LGBTQ+ member of Shell Legal's global DEI Committee, providing programming for a department of over 1000 staffers and advocating for policies, systemic change, and inclusion efforts affecting Legal's constituents. In addition, he was an active speaker at Shell's events, such as International Coming Out Day in 2021, along with four other LGBTQ+ employees, all sharing stories about their coming out journeys and experiences as out-professionals. Travis also spoke at Shell Americas Lubricants' spotlight on LGBTQ+ inclusion in 2021, covering issues related to intersectionality, LGBTQ+ inclusion, ERGs, and Shell USA's PRIDE Discussion in 2022. Travis has also been a mentor for an ERG mentoring program exploring issues of intersectional identities for midcareer professionals and has taken his efforts externally by becoming the President of the National LGBTQ+ Bar Foundation, the largest association of lawyers, judges, students, and legal professionals promoting justice in/through the legal profession for the LGBTQ+ community.

Bruna Gil

2
Manager, Channel Sales
LinkedIn

Since 2021, Bruna is the Global Co-Chair for Out@In, LinkedIn's LGBTQ+ Network where she leads a global team of 50+ leaders of advocates and allies with presence across 23 offices and 4 regions. Out@In aims to engage, educate, and empower LinkedIn's LGBT+ community by fostering an inclusive and supportive environment across the globe. As the Global Co-Chair, she is responsible for setting and executing the mission and vision, overseeing annual strategic plan and she serves as the primary partner to the Diversity & Inclusion team and Executive Sponsors. As part of her role, she is also a visible lesbian leader and has featured in employee videos centered around Pride month and LGBT+ topics. Outside of LinkedIn, Bruna is a board member of GiveOut, an award-winning LGBTQI charity supporting the funding of LGBTQI activism worldwide. She is also a board member of Pride in Tennis, a network dedicated to making British tennis open and accessible for all LGBTQ+ communities.

Steven Del Gaizo

3
Program Manager, Autonomous Vehicles
General Motors

Steven was appointed Vice President (2021) and then President (2022) of GM PLUS, General Motors (GM) LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group (ERG). He led 10 ERG board members, and 13 chapters globally including chapters in the Philippines, Canada, Mexico, South America, and Europe and helped develop global strategy and goals for the LGBTQ+ ERG. Steven ensured the ERG took part in regional Pride events such as Toronto Pride, Manila Pride, Motor City Pride, Mexico City Pride, and Austin Pride. The ERG also partnered with Marketing to extend its presence beyond Pride month, developing content for LGBTQ+ moments throughout the year. In 2017, he started the GM PLUS Mentoring Program and continued it into 2022, with a goal to mentor and elevate LGBTQ+ employees. The program has now expanded to include an executive mentoring and coming out mentoring group. In 2021, GM PLUS developed Gender Transition Guidelines for employees transitioning in the workplace and partnered with PFLAG to bring Gender Identity Training into the workplace for over 5k employees.

Aritra Kanjilal

4
Sr. Manager, Product Leadership, BASES & mosaic n-ERG Lead, APAC
NielsenIQ

Aritra founded the South Asian chapter of NielsenIQ's PRIDE ERG in 2019 and led it for three years, building awareness and driving policy & benefit changes, which earned NielsenIQ a 'Gold' status in the 2021 India Workplace Quality Index. In 2022, he took up a broader DEI leadership role and became the MOSAIC ERG lead for the entire Asia Pacific with a mission to build cultural competence & inclusion across borders in the workplace. Between 2020 & 2021, Aritra organized nine awareness initiatives experimenting with different formats of employee engagement, launched guidelines for LGBT+ inclusive policies & communications, introduced coverage of same-sex partners and transition costs in health benefits and built a process to recruit LGBT+ talents in partnership with Pride Circle. Even in his new DEI role, Aritra continues to be an advisor to the sustainability and advancement of LGBT+ inclusion efforts within NielsenIQ and beyond, working on initiatives like need-gap analysis of LGBT+ minors, conducting STEM workshops for LGBT+ individuals, guiding organizations other than NielsenIQ on making their workplace LGBT+ inclusive.

Jean Vianney Cordeiro

5
Corporate Development
Smith+Nephew

In 2021, Jean joined Smith+Nephew (S+N) and was Founder and Global Head of the PRIDE Employee Inclusion Group (EIG). S+N marked Pride Month for the first time, running a series of articles on allyship, the experiences of being LGBTQIA+, and hosting as guest speaker one of the UK's first openly gay fighter pilots. The PRIDE EIG sponsored 'On Christopher Street: Transgender Portraits' at the Brooks Museum (Memphis), the first major exhibition in the central USA focusing on the transgender community. The EIG marked Pride Month 2022 by sharing stories about LGBTQIA+ parenting, queer people of color, and identifying as transgender in addition to hosting speakers including Eric Marcus (Making Gay History) and Michelle Visage (RuPaul’s Drag Race), achieving over 300 members. Jean participated in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee as a Pride flag bearer, marking the first time LGBTQIA+ communities were represented during a UK Monarch’s celebrations. Jean is Treasurer Trustee for Stonewall, the most prominent LGBTQIA+ rights organization in Europe, and recently ran 3 marathons (Berlin, London and Chicago) in 3 weeks in support of Stonewall, raising over £10,000. Jean joined Pets at Home in October 2022 and looks forward to progressing the diversity and inclusion mandate in the organization.

Jeiz Robles

6
IBM Marketplace Diversity Leader for Asia Pacific
IBM

Jeiz has done an incredible job as the organization's LGBTQ+ Business Resource Group (BRG) council leader. The LGBTQ+ BRG in the Philippines has been so widely recognized that it has since expanded to cover the rest of ASEAN. This Pride month alone, the BRG has created ten safe spaces that made the Employee Alliance for LGBTQ+ Empowerment (EAGLE) grow in numbers, expanding the enablement of allies through lived experiences in different countries. Globally, as an Asian, bisexual, neurodivergent woman, she has created spaces for intersectional allies on the plight of the LGBTQ+ neurodiversity community. She believes it's important to stand as a role model, enabling others to start speaking about their experiences when it comes to neurodiversity& mental health. In the last two years, Jeiz has been part of strategy building for IBM's LGBTQ+ priorities for Corporate Advocacy and BRG Eminence around the globe. She leads the Philippine Financial & Inter-inudstry Pride and founded the National Inclusion Council of the Philippines, supporting LGBTQ+ Youth by enabling "Balur Kanlungan", a virtual safe space for LGBTQ+ youth in the Philippines.

Jasmin Fox

7
Compensation Manager
Electronic Arts

Jasmin is the UK Chapter lead of PRIDE, EA’s ERG for LGBTQ+ employees and allies, and across the past two years, she has been ensuring the ERG gets regular time in local Town Halls and on internal comms platforms to share LGBTQ+ updates. She bought in Gendered Intelligence to run a Trans Awareness session in 2021, open to all UK employees. She introduced local executive sponsor Matt Webster, Vice President and General Manager of Criterion studio, to give the ERG a voice in local leadership meetings and strategy planning. For Pride Months 2021 and 2022, Jasmin and the ERG ran a series of events on zero budget, including book club crossovers, a watch party, an Ally panel, a Q&A with Drag King Lou Rexx and charity sessions with Pride in Surrey and Diversity Role Models. This led to UK Pride's shortlisting for the Rainbow Honors Awards' 'Outstanding LGBTQI Network of the year' in 2022. In her previous role, Jasmin also co-founded Disney PRIDE UK&I, the first official Disney ERG outside North America, and is currently on the leadership team for Out Making Games, a network for all LGBTQ+ people working or aspiring to work in the gaming industry.

Danni Davies

8
Senior Real Estate Lawyer & Global Co-Chair, LGBTQ+ Lawyers Group
Latham & Watkins

As leader Latham & Watkins’ Global LGBTQ+ Lawyers Group, Danni plays a high-impact role in Latham's goal of advancing recruitment, retention, and promotion of LGBTQ+ attorneys. Danni spearheads strategy and programs that foster intersectional community-building, oversees 18 separate LGBTQ+ networks globally, leads a global mentoring program and is proud to be a visible non-binary role model in the legal world. Danni works closely with firm leaders to influence policies to better support LGBTQ+ colleagues, including surrogacy and adoption benefits, inclusive gender ID in HR systems, formal gender transition guidelines, and a gender-neutral parental leave policy. Danni is a champion of pro bono causes that support the LGBTQ+ community, and has provided hundreds of hours of free legal support to groups such as GiveOut; National AIDS Trust; Just Like Us; OutRight; Mermaids; the World Bank’s Women Business & the Law Report; Cell Studios; and Charity Entrepreneurship. Danni’s recent work as part of the Latham team advising the new ownership consortium in the £4.25 billion acquisition of Chelsea FC has led to Danni being appointed to Chelsea FC’s ED&I Advisory Group and they recently worked on the club’s Rainbow Laces campaign, striving to promote LGBTQ+ inclusion and eradicate homophobia from football.

Jon Tilli

9
Director | Commercial Real Estate
Deutsche Bank

Jon is the Global Chair of dbPride, Deutsche Bank's LGBT+ and ally Employee Resource Group. At Deutsche Bank, he developed intersectional programming for LGBT+ Pride month, which featured the first openly gay Black and Latin members of the US House of Representatives in conversation with MSNBC's Jonathan Capehart. Jon also organized and secured funding for the first in-person Pride event since the pandemic, which took place at The Q, New York's first queer event space designed to help make nightlife more inclusive. In addition to his role at Deutsche Bank, Jon was Co-Chair of OPEN Finance which brings together 48 financial services firms and have engaged thousands of people in the New York area to drive forward LGBT+ inclusion using the power of the financial services sector including the first Open Finance Forum. This marquee event has engaged senior leaders from across the industry in dialogue on how companies can achieve positive change for LGBT+.

Caitlin Downie

10
Manager, Community & Protective Services
Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo

Caitlin authored the Canadian Commission for UNESCO's 2SLGBTQIA+ Toolkit for Municipalities, launched nationally and internationally to guide municipalities in undertaking inclusive 2SLGBTQ+ initiatives. She also developed an initiative called Rainbow Spaces that encourages businesses to adopt more inclusive policies and practices that support 2SLGBTQ+ employees and community members. In addition, Caitlin co-developed an LGBTQ+ training that builds the capacity of and empowers local advocates to spread education and awareness, leading to a decrease in hate and hate crimes. This training has since been rolled out to staff proving to be very successful among employees.

Shibani Ahuja

11
VP, Executive Product Owner, Customer Engagement
TD Bank Group

Shibani believes in the importance of representation. As a bisexual South Asian woman in technology, she is a vocal leader in sharing her experiences and driving a more welcoming workplace and society. Shibani co-founded the 2SLGBTQ+ Women Network at TD, which provides a dedicated and confidential space to support the unique development and community needs of 2SLGBTQ+ women. In 2021 and 2022, under Shibani's leadership as Chair, the Network provided programming for 2SLGBTQ+ women from across TD's global footprint, including a Mentoring program, speaker events, virtual networking events, and an online forum where 2SLGBTQ+ women can stay connected as a community throughout the year. In addition, in 2022, TD became the first bank in Canada to provide surrogacy and adoption expense benefits for colleagues.

Meghna Vanjani

12
Manager, Digital & Technology Strategy
Pandora Jewelry

Meghna is currently a Strategy Manager at Pandora, where she is closely involved with Diversity & Inclusion initiatives. Previously at McKinsey, Meghna led the local chapters of GLAM (LGBTQ+ at McKinsey) in India from 2020 to 2021 and in Japan from 2019 to 2020. As the lead for GLAM (India), Meghna led a team of 8-10 consultants across 5+ workstreams, moderated a panel discussion on "Allyship" for Day of Pink, and represented GLAM in India office leadership meetings. As a result, she achieved nearly two times the growth in the number of Allies in the office between 2020-21. In 2021, Meghna Co-founded Qonnect, a professional community of LGBTQ+ individuals with 400+ members, 350+ email newsletter subscribers, 200+ followers on LinkedIn, and 200+ followers on Instagram. She also conducted three cohorts of a Peer-to-Peer mentorship program connecting queer students and early career professionals with more experienced professionals.

Javanni Waugh

13
Senior Consultant
FTI Consulting

Javanni is a Senior Consultant at FTI Consulting in its M&A Strategy group and this year, they led the charge in advocating for the overhaul of FTI's global communications policy to be inclusive of pronouns. Prior to this, the policy prohibited adding any fields to a consultant's email signature, meaning LGBTQ+ and ally employees were unable to state their preferred pronouns without infringing policy. Currently, Javanni is advocating for extending lactation benefits to all new birthing parents, including trans men and non-binary employees who gave birth. These policy update processes will allow all employees, especially LGBTQ+ employees to feel included and move FTI toward making these updates the standard for new policies going forward. Since 2021, they have also served as the liaison from FTI to OPEN Finance, a collective of LGBTQ+ ERGs in New York City leading to networking opportunities for all ERG members and access to well-needed policy papers to help transform internal policies at FTI Consulting.

Erica Everett

14
Global Autonomous Vehicles Platform Leader
Dow

Erica works alongside Dow partners and customers as a champion of high-level inclusion collaborations. Projects have included launching the first Pride-themed car on a NASCAR track, and a feature during a national primetime broadcast developed thanks to Erica's partnership with Richard Childress Racing. Erica was also instrumental in Dow's recent Maersk collaboration, sending Dow goods worldwide in a rainbow shipping container. In addition, Erica created a new support group for LBGTQ+ parents at Dow and shared her story of coming out in the workplace at Dow's ERG EMERGE conference, an inspiring talk that helped many colleagues to come out too. Finally, Erica's successfully advocated for fully LBGTQ+ inclusive fertility and parental benefits at Dow, leading to updated policies that will have a tangible impact on Dow's community. Erica puts LBGTQ+ inclusion at the forefront of her work, encouraging transparency and inclusive behavior everywhere.

David Baboolall

15
Associate Partner
McKinsey & Company

David is a leader of GLAM, McKinsey & Company’s LGBTQ+ affinity group, and Global Director of The Alliance, a platform for convening a global network of LGBQT+ senior leaders from prominent public, private, and social sector institutions who are committed to driving progress on issues facing the LGBT+ community. At the start of the racial reckoning in 2020, they co-founded and led McKinsey's Global Anti-Racism & Inclusion efforts, which has had enormous impact for LGBTQ+ DEI, including an immense focus on intersectional populations. David helped launch the first Equity and Inclusion learning program to establish an understanding of topics around equity, bias, privilege and allyship. In addition to this, they helped launch anti-bias trainings for evaluators and provided tips for mitigating bias in interviews with the target of identifying and removing potential biases in the firm's processes by early 2021. David is also leading McKinsey’s thinking on transgender inclusion in the USA workplace and intersectionality in the global workplace.

Graham Smith

16
Managing Director, Strategy & Insights / Business Lead
VMLY&R

From growing up on his family’s farm in Scotland, to working for one of the largest and best communications companies in the world, VMLY&R, Graham Smith is a fearlessly authentic leader with extensive global market experience. Having spent almost his entire career within the VMLY&R / WPP network, Graham has worked across multiple departments, clients, agencies, and countries and is currently a Business Lead on Ford. Most recently, Graham spearheaded WPP’s award-winning partnership with the Human Rights Campaign in support of the passing of the Equality Act. The campaign featured the American flag with 29 missing stars representing the 29 states that don’t offer comprehensive protections for LGBTQ+ people. In addition, with the Office of the New York Mayor, he helped lead the team that delivered the award winning ‘NYC Says Gay’ campaign in response to Florida Mayor Ron DeSantis abhorrent ‘Don’t Say Gay Bill’. Graham was instrumental to the growth of VMLY&Rs global LGBTQ+ ERG network now with some 250 people in over 35 countries. He led an agency team to achieve to it’s first ever 100% score in the Human Right’s Campaign's Corporate Equality Index enabling policy changes and improving transgender benefits and transition guidelines.

Emily Carr

17
Associate
Clifford Chance

Emily is Co-Lead of Arcus Australia, Clifford Chance's LGBTQIA+ and Allies network, where she is responsible for drafting routine communications recognising days of significance, as well as arranging LGBTQIA+-specific training, such as the LGBTQ+ Awareness virtual training for all new starters at Clifford Chance Australia and Transgender Awareness training for all staff. Emily arranges internal social events for the Arcus committee to facilitate a positive and collaborative environment for her LGBTQIA+ and ally colleagues. Emily has also featured in various panel events and conferences, such as the Pride in Practice Conference where she and her colleagues discussed the expectations and experiences of young LGBTQIA+ professionals and future leaders. Thanks to her efforts, Clifford Chance achieved gold status in 2021 in Australia's LGBTQIA+ benchmarking index, the Australian Workplace Equality Index, and silver in 2022.

Colin Dunlop

18
Director, Investment Banking Legal APAC
Barclays

As Chair of Spectrum Hong Kong, Barclays' LGBTQ+ employee resource group, and Co-Chair of Spectrum across APAC, Colin plays an active role in formulating and delivering Barclays' LGBTQ+ strategy and is a primary partner on all LGBTQ+ initiatives in the region, focusing on initiatives designed to attract and retain LGBT+ talent. Separately, Colin is the APAC lead for Barclays’ global Legal DE&I Council, focusing on DE&I initiatives specifically relevant to the Legal team at Barclays and within the broader Legal profession. Colin has recently helped to establish Transitioning at Work Guidelines for colleagues and managers in each Barclays location in APAC and was instrumental in establishing trans-inclusive bathrooms throughout Barclays’ Hong Kong offices. Additionally, Colin regularly participates in internal and external thought-leadership events highlighting the business case for LGBTQ+ DE&I and sharing the challenges that continue to be faced by the LGBTQ+ community in APAC. His goal is to pivot the role of Barclays’ regional employee resource group from being an internal networking group for LGBTQ+ colleagues and allies to being a driver of change in the broader industry and external communities in which Barclays operates.

Emma Hilden

19
Associate Director Network Engineering
Verizon

Emma is the Associate Director of Network Engineering at Verizon and Global Lead of Verizon's LGBTQIA+ ERG - Verizon PRISM. In April 2022, she initiated a career and leadership conversational series featuring LGBTQ+ leaders discussing self-compassion, leveraging strengths, building your brand, bold leadership, multiplying leaders, and more. Emma also offered consultations for customer service training on how to support Verizon's Transgender and Non-binary customers properly. Additionally, Emma developed a policy committee with the intent of reviewing and improving Verizon LGBTQ+ policies in all areas of the business but has been providing guidance and support to transgender employees, including name changes, and working with HR. Outside of the company, she has been coaching parents of transgender youth since 2021.

Jessica Nguyen

20
Operations Controls Analyst
Beazley

Jessica is part of the steering group of the Pride Committee at Beazley. In 2021, the Pride Committee highlighted the discrimination trans people continue to face, from both outside and within LGBTQ+ communities introducing steps the firm can take to be more proactive trans allies. Thanks to Jessica's efforts, Beazley Proud was able to host a "lunch" and learn with Mermaids. This charity has supported transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse children, young people, and their families since 1995. Among the topics discussed were Transgender/gender identity 101, Terminology and Pronouns, Growing up trans, the barriers and challenges faced, and stepping up in the workplace. The same year, Jessica moderated a conversation with Katie Sowers, the first NFL Lesbian Coach, on the challenges faced in a masculine-dominated sport with engrained homophobic culture and toxic masculinity.

Deon Pillay

HEAD OF MARKETING OPERATIONS
LGIM

Deon is the Co-Chair of the organization’s DEI Network, through his work on reverse mentoring and coaching, Deon has increased the support and visibility of LGBT and Senior leadership within the organization. In 2022, he was recognised by the Rainbow honours awards as the LGBT+ corporate champion and featured in the pride power list for his contribution to LGBT inclusion in his industry. Deon has supported a number of organisations in setting up their LGBT networks, through mentoring, shared resources and delivering keynotes. He continues to play a key role in increasing awareness of the challenges faced by the Lesbian, Bi and Trans/nonbinary communities through targeted events and industry wide allyship and trans inclusion training. Moreover, his work focused on the development of a Trans and non-binary inclusion policy and a broader review of the organization HR policies to ensure LGBT+ inclusion. His initiatives also led to the development of a Global D&I council in 2021 and has led to increased senior leadership commitment to drive change. Deon is also the Founder and Co-chair of InterInvest, which aims to drive LGBT+ inclusion in the asset management industry, and was awarded the British LGBT Diversity Hero award in 2021

Lynne Nicholls

Vice-Chair - Watmos Board
WATMOS Community Homes

Lynne co-chaired Clarion Housing Group LGBT+ staff network, spearheading the work on Trans & non-binary inclusion with the Transitioning at Work policy, launched in 2020, providing guidance for staff and managers. Moving the activities online, organised virtual prides activities across the group in 2020 and 2021. She designed the 'Listen, Learn, Challenge & Celebrate' campaign, encouraging allyship, resulting in participation from all levels of the company, board, partners, residents and other companies’ LGBT+ groups. She hosted intersectional webinars on Inclusive Education, LGBT+ in Construction, LGBT+ Youth Homelessness and LGBT+ faith. Championing LGBT+ visibility and inclusion throughout the social Housing Sector, for HouseProud organised the sectors participation at Pride (London, UK Black Pride, Bi Pride & Norwich Pride), and supported the formation and development of diversity networks. As Vice Chair of WATMOS Lynne promotes diversity on boards. Passionate about inclusive education as Chair of Trustees for Schools OUT UK she speaks at international conferences and in schools for Diversity Role Models.

Christian Tooley

Expert Manager / Founder
Bain & Co. / i³ investing

Christian is an award-winning queer entrepreneur & strategist based in East London. He works as an Expert Innovation Manager, Founder & CEO, and is a Venture Scout, Investor, Advisor, & Builder. From London and Hong Kong, Christian has created global impact across the business and startup ecosystem, political sphere, & LGBTQ+ community. He engages with founders, investors, boards, policymakers, and corporates at the interlock of innovation, intersectionality, and investing. At Bain & Co., he leads a team across EMEA driving growth for CEOs using Innovation Strategy, Business Building, and Venture Capital; while evolving their ecosystem of startups and VCs. As Founder of i³ investing, he provides Community, Connection, & Capital for intersectional, notably LGBTQ+ founders, and consciousness investors. Christian’s coined philosophy on ‘Intersectional Investing’ and ‘Intersectional Incredibles’ uniquely unpacks how intersectionality as a criteria for investment fosters innovation, leading to the notable launch of his angel syndicate. Christian’s passion for Systems Thinking is evident across his roles, with his thought leadership published by the World Economic Forum as a Global Shaper. Christian’s position as an innovation and ventures expert, intersectional thought leader, startup and board advisor, enables him to continue to drive “Queer Capital” & empower the LGBTQ+ community.

Abhishek Ghosh

General Manager - Restaurant Insights
Swiggy

Abhishek has co-founded initiatives and been the country head of LGBT+ DE&I support groups at the workplace for the past 5+ years. As the India Head of GLAM, at McKinsey & Company, he enabled a thought leadership session by the Asia Lead at India’s first-ever LGBTQ+ job fair and launched a national campaign led by the India Country Director (" It Gets Better India '') in 2020. He has helped pioneer inclusion at educational institutions by moderating the panel to launch India’s first “Statement of Commitment on Gender and Sexual Diversity” at BITS Pilani (2021) and led a sensitization roundtable with faculty members at the Plaksha University (2022). In his new role, he is continuing to work with senior leadership and human resource leaders to set up a Pride ERG. Outside of work, he has co-founded Qonnect, a platform to turbo-charge the careers of queer professionals. With 350+ global queer members, 200+ mentorship members, and members from across 10+ countries, the initiative has enabled admission to US Ivy-League Business Schools and jobs at top strategy, investment banking and impact consulting roles. Via playbooks, webinars and podcasts, he hopes to continue creating sustainable safe spaces for all.

Chris Mossiah

Vice President Digital Product Manager
JP Morgan Chase

Chris, a digital product manager, serves as the Co-Chair of the firmwide Gender Expansive Council (GEC) in JP Morgan Chase where they create space for awareness, visibility, and support within the firm for transgender and gender expansive employees. They are also are a part of the company’s Pride leadership team in the Tri-State chapter as well as lending efforts to the firm’s Global Technology LGBT+ Community talent acquisition team, where they help to bring diverse LGBT+ talent to the technology sector across the globe. Chris has been dedicated to help promote, retain, and recruit transgender and gender expansive individuals to and within the firm and has also created cross-department trainings on the importance of pronouns as well as resources such as a non-binary toolkit and non-binary101 within JP Morgan Chase. Chris is often found to be a panelist, creator, and guest speaker of many inter-company events and conference summits such as Lesbians Who Tech and Out & Equal that focus on LGBT+ advocacy and building an inclusive workplace.

Steven Lewis

Senior Legal Counsel
Capital One

Steven is the Lead of Out Front Canada, the LGBT+ BRG for Canada operations and co-lead of Member Engagement for the International BRG. At Capital One, he has improved internal policies and created a partnership with an LGBT+ high school that includes unique annual Dragon's Den style entrepreneur competition. As part of international efforts, this year Steven's team began a data driven approach to engagement through improved survey and analysis locally and enterprise wide. Locally he kept a focus on unique issues in Canada with tailored programming and intersectionality partnerships with other equity seeking BRGs like CapAbilities and the Allies group. Steven also led advocacy work in the community through many boards he sits on and contributed to significant improvements in the community, particularly with his work advocating for the trans and non-binary community in the Ontario cancer screening programs. In addition, he recently co-founded the Rainbow Griffins Rugby Club focused on the LGBT+ community and sits on Rugby Canada’s Ethics and Integrity Committee making meaningful change in the sport for all.

Paul Henderson

Senior Consultant
KPMG Australia

Now a Senior Consultant at KPMG Australia, Paul co-leads the office in the organization and implementation of inclusion initiatives. At his previous firm, he was a leader of the LGBTQ+ Employee Network. Paul was instrumental in creating "StraightTalk", an initiative that provides a safe space for identifying employees to be their authentic selves. He also organized the company's representation in the 2019 & 2021 Perth Pride Parades. This involved mobilizing senior leadership to sponsor and march alongside the float. Paul is particularly passionate about promoting LGBTQ+ inclusion in STEM-related industries. He played a crucial role in creating and was secretary for the newly formed National InterEngineer Organization, which advocates for diversity and inclusion within the STEM fields in Australia. His contributions to the Western Australian LGBTQ+ community were recognised when he was announced as an “Out for Australia” 30 under 30 award winner in 2020. This included his tenure on the Pride WA board as a committee member and his contribution to improving the livelihoods of the LGBTQ+ community during COVID. Paul is also an advocate for inclusion within sports with being one of the core members who helped facilitated the formation of an inclusive touch rugby team within Perth.

Jenn Renoe

Media Director
Publicis Health Media

Jenn is the Global Co-Lead of Égalité BRG and an Associate Media Director at Publicis Health Media. During the last three years, her work focused on establishing Transition Guidelines to ensure a safe, respectful, and supportive workplace for transgender transition. Jenn created numerous initiatives within the organization including the execution of a recurring programming event during Trans Awareness Week, which aims to offer education to cisgender employees and spotlights their transgender talents. She was also involved in the development of an International Trans Day of Visibility panel to support transgender children by educating parents on the truths of gender. In addition to this, Jenn also participated to multiple external panels and conferences to speak about the importance of gender diversity in the workplace and for affirming trans rights. Currently, she is working to champion a new student organization which creates a pipeline of LGBT+ students’ talent for agencies to hire and offer internships. Her work has taken her around the world to speak about diversity and inclusion at the Cannes Lions festival, Out & Equal, SXSW, and more. Recently she became the first out transgender woman named to AdAge’s Leading Women list.

Marv Echipare

Director, People Development
Optum Global Advantage (Philippines) or Optum

Marv has recently joined Optum but that didn't stop him from putting Pride at the center of his organizational advocacy. In a matter of months, he has been instrumental in setting up Optum's DEI Council and Pride Chapter Networks in all of Optum's locations in the Philippines. He has driven changes in the company's policies on dress code and gender preference restrooms and promoted the company's same-gender/domestic partner insurance coverage. As Talent Development lead, he not only re-launched SOGIE education across the country but embedded it in the new manager program of the company making the subject part of Optum's New Manager Development journey. Marv continues to partner with external organizations advocating for LGBT+ inclusion in the Philippines, and through Pride@Tech, a community he co-founded, partnered with Propel's award-winning initiative ReTold with Pride, aimed at increasing representation in stories we tell. His involvement in the academe has also made him a staple resource speaker for introducing DEI to undergraduates in a Jesuit institution as well as volunteering and promoting the gender hub of Ateneo De Manila University where he currently teaches part-time.

Mayur Gupta

Founder and CEO
Career Accelerator

In 2020, Mayur spearheaded the UK’s first ever LGBT+ business youth mentoring programme - connecting 18-30 year old LGBT+ youth with business mentors from 10+ corporates, such as Microsoft, Snapchat and BCG, to help them achieve successful careers as LGBT+ business professionals through mentoring. He has worked with 400 LGBT+ youth and mentors and many of these mentees have secured roles at Clifford Chance, Just Eat, M&G and more. Since 2020, Mayur has organised LGBT+ ERG Roundtables where he connects 20+ LGBT+ ERG leads with one another to help them build relationships with their counterparts, share good practice and explore collaboration opportunities to amplify the LGBT+ voice in the business world. He’s organised 10 of these roundtables with corporates such as Salesforce, McKinsey and Amazon. In 2022, Mayur was a Fellow at Open for Business where he helped improve their monthly Coalition Connect Calls, helping them work effectively with their business partners and also introducing Open for Business to more corporate partners. Mayur also ran the Brighton Marathon to fundraise for GiveOut. Mayur is a D&I speaker and has given talks about LGBT+ inclusion for The Economist, Out Leadership, Cisco, Pearson, Multiverse, UK Black Tech Fest, Spirax Sarco and more.

Deon Fang

Associate and Solicitor Advocate
Clifford Chance LLP

Deon is the Co-Chair of Arcus, the LGBTQ+ Network at Clifford Chance. The network's initiatives led the firm to reach third place in the 2022 Stonewall index. He created and chaired a Trans and Non-binary Working Group, liaised with senior leadership to implement recommendations, and advocated for greater focus on less-represented groups in the LGBTQ+ communities, leading to events discussing disability in the LGBTQ+ communities and LGBTQ+ people of faith. Deon has been participating in a reverse mentoring program with senior executives and partners on LGBTQ+ issues since 2019 and has been coaching LGBTQ+ trainees and empowering more junior members of Arcus to run projects on the Steering Committee. He also led Arcus initiatives in context of Clifford Chance's global presence, by developing the firm's policy for supporting LGBTQ+ people going on international secondment, and increasing collaboration with the global Arcus network to provide greater LGBTQ+ pro bono support and opportunities. In addition, Deon works on litigation for LGBTQ+ rights on a pro bono basis.

Rebecca Isjwara

Reporter
S&P Global

Rebecca holds leadership positions within S&P Global's Pride People Resource Group, has been the Hong Kong PRG vice president since 2021, and is a member of the Global Board, working for Engagement since early 2022. Rebecca has been organizing internal events for colleagues during Pride month and beyond, with 400+ engaged colleagues globally in June 2022 alone, and also engaging with local LGBTQ+ organizations as both sponsors and participant, e.g., Pink Dot Hong Kong, the largest annual LGBTQ+ event in Hong Kong. Rebecca has promoted building a safe space to support the Network via internal company portals and apply inclusive language in day-to-day reporting. Additionally, she speaks on DEI panels to encourage inclusivity and visibility. Finally, she has mentored LGBTQ+ university students via a mentorship program jointly organized by Hong Kong's Fruits in Suits, the most prominent LGBTQ+ professional Network in Hong Kong, and the Queer Straight Association, the largest LGBTQ+ student network in Hong Kong.

John Sibbald

Management Consultant
Oliver Wyman

John is the Global Co-Lead of PrOWd, the LGBTQ+ Network at Oliver Wyman. In this role, he has focused his leadership efforts on raising awareness and driving empathy around diversity of gender identity via a network re-brand (from GLOW to PrOWd), a pronouns campaign, and a panel on gender non-conformity and the trans experience. Additionally, John has presented on trans inclusivity (going beyond the "G" and "L" in LGBTQ+ inclusivity) to colleagues across North and South America. He has spearheaded a global LGBTQ+ mentorship program, pairing 35+ LGBTQ+ mentees with senior leaders. He is a mentor for several queer junior consultants and has reverse-mentored firm leaders on inclusive practices to embed into teams. In his home region of the Americas, John has supported 10+ offices in hosting dozens of events to celebrate LGBTQ+, promote belonging, and educate on LGBTQ+ issues, including active allyship, gender non-conformity, the history of Pride, and coming out best practices. John brings his personal “BOLD” brand to every aspect of his life and leadership, in an effort to tear down barriers facing all minority communities.

Caroline Tutakiewicz

Senior Director, Fraud & Security Risk
RBC

At RBC, Caroline is Co-Chair of the largest Pride Employee Resource Group nationally. She has led and supported numerous initiatives including over 50 2SLGBT+ inclusion engagements, changed all digital assets across the organization for pride month, consulted on inclusive products services and health benefits, organized the largest contingent to engage in a Pride event and created the speak up series, amplifying LGBT+ voices in corporate Canada. She has also has pioneered and brought to light the need for economic inclusion for underserved populations for survivors of human trafficking and in the 2SLGBTQ+ community. Caroline is a sought after speaker and thought leader on intersectionality, women in leadership, 2SLGBT+, and coming out at work. She serves on the Board of Directors for Start Proud, an organization that facilitates the professional development of 2SLGBTQ+ individuals. Caroline is also a Board Director for Sherbourne Health, a hospital committed to helping people who have been under-served by conventional health services (LGBT+, homeless, and under-housed individuals). Since 2011, Caroline has also been involved in facilitating youth diversion programs drawing on Indigenous restorative justice practices to divert young people from formal incarceration.

Louis Ng

Associate Director, Early Careers Talent Acquisition
Fidelity International

Through Louis’ efforts in D&I, he led Fidelity International’s submission of Community Business' Hong Kong LGBT+ Inclusion Index for 2019 and 2021, achieving gold and silver standard respectively. He achieved this by refreshing the diversity monitoring questions in Fidelity’s early careers recruitment and selection systems to better understand the company’s LGBT+ potential candidates, partnered with Pink Dot Hong Kong as diamond sponsor to drive the LGBT+ dialogue in the community, promoted and recruited new allies in Asia through first ever training in Mandarin, to mention a few. Louis also participated as a panellist in EUROUT conference in November 2021 on Leading from where you stand: Change and organizational transformation and was invited to do sharing sessions with other companies including Burberry and Brunswick Group.

Susan Mann

Assistant General Counsel, EMEA Debt Capital Markets Legal
Bank of America

After co-chairing the LGBTQ+ Pride London Chapter at Bank of America (BofA), Susan was appointed EMEA Regional Lead in January 2022, where she leads and manages the strategic direction of EMEA's 5 LGBTQ+ Pride Chapters. Susan organized and/or spoke at five internal educational events including a "A Discussion with Mohsin Zaidi" in June 2021, "LGBTQ+ Homelessness and Housing Challenges" featuring Stonewall Housing, TONIC Housing and Opening Doors in November 2021. This year, she organized the joint LGBTQ+ Pride and Leadership, Education, Advocacy and Development for Women (LEAD) Network event for International Women's Day and the "Breaking the Double Glass Ceiling" panel discussion featuring speakers across EMEA. In addition, Susan leads BofA's LGBTQ+ talent recruitment and development efforts by participating in junior talent panel discussions including "Pride at BofA", National Student Pride - Europe's largest LGBTQ+ career fair and LGBTQ+ Pride's mentoring program for LGBTQ+ interns where 100% have been hired at BofA.

Kevin Humphreys

Project Information Management
Jacobs Engineering

Kevin has been a member and supporter of Prism, Jacobs LGBTQIA+ Employee Network since 2019 and in 2021 relaunched the European network as the ‘House of Prism Europe’ (HoPE), embracing the core principals of the Haus movement that he grew up within during the 1980’s. Kevin is now celebrated as The Mother of the Family Hope. In 2021, Jacobs achieved 6th place in the Stonewall WEI, becoming the first construction and engineering company to enter the top 100, a rise of over 115 places since their previous ranking, with Kevin's role in the process being instrumental to this outcome. Kevin also facilitated the formation of the Nuclear Rainbow Forum, a network of LGBTQIA+ networks within the nuclear sector holding the core values of collaboration and providing a place of psychological safety for LGBTQIA+ colleagues across the sector. He is the winner of Diversity Hero at the British LGBT+ Awards 2022 and was made a Champion of Stonewall Housing, an independent charity supporting members of the LGBTQIA+ community suffering from or under threat from homelessness. Kevin remains an activist for the homeless, the displaced and refugees, working closely with charities to advocate and support those whose voices need to be heard.

Abhinav Shikhar

Customer Engagement Transformation Specialist
Cisco

Abhinav is the APJC Regional Leader of Pride Inclusive Community (ERG). He is committed to driving inclusion and has been working to create awareness, sensitization and leading community building efforts at Cisco Singapore and in China. He has launched the "LGBTQ+ Mentoring Program" for the community in APJC and established a cadence of events gaining 1,000+ regional attendees and 50,000+ online outreach globally. Abhinav also revised gender-neutral policies and benefits available to the community and partnered with the Benefits team to add SRS therapy coverage to the benefits portfolio. He worked closely with the Talent Acquisition and Branding teams to develop hiring engagements and partnered with Pride Circle for the 'RISE Job Fair' to amplify open positions for LGBTQ+ hiring efforts. Furthermore, he developed a pipeline of NGOs working for LGBTQ+ inclusion, safety and empowerment and founded Coloring Your Closet, gender-neutral apparel and accessories to break the binary-fashion norm.

TJ Richards

Unity Place Outreach & Engagement Manager
Santander UK

As the national Co-Chair of Santander UK’s Embrace LGBT+ network, TJ worked with colleagues across Europe to help standardise policy protections for colleagues regardless of their country of employment. TJ also led an internal initiative around “The Journey to Allyship” which culminated in a candid internal interview with Baroness Nicky Morgan. 2022 has seen a focus on educative and awareness events, from a series of internal videos sharing people’s lived experiences to panel events and watch parties covering topics from Non-binary experiences, conversion therapy, politics in art and many more. TJ manages the internal “Safe Spaces” platform that she launched in 2021, providing space for colleagues to engage in conversation and peer to peer support. TJ is working with internal teams to more fully map out representation across the businesses so that focused support can be provided where needed. Outside of work, TJ is chair of a local LGBTQ+ support charity, Q:alliance. In her spare time TJ also works to address representation in literature, by working with authors and narrating stories in the LGBTQ+ audiobook world.

Mariana Ceccotti

Manager in the Infrastructure Advisory Group
KPMG

Co-chair of the LGBT+ Network at KPMG (Breathe), Mariana is a passionate and ground-breaking leader and the youngest Chair of any KPMG network. She reinvigorated the Network's operation to focus on grassroots activism and intersectionality. She leads authentically, openly sharing her story of being LGBT+ in Brazil and empowering colleagues and clients to challenge themselves and take action to promote LGBT+ inclusion globally. This year, she hosted KPMG's 2022 Global Pride Conference. This was broadcasted across all 144 member firms and had the attendance of over 3,000 colleagues. Mariana actively challenges leadership and works with her CEO and leadership team to drive commitment and progress in the LGBT+ inclusion agenda. She currently mentors many individuals and has created a transport-focused LGBT+ Network that launched numerous events, such as trans inclusion events, which has led to a series of actions for transport operators to support trans people on public transport. This demonstrates her ability to both create a movement and implement change within LGBT+ inclusion. Mariana also supports the wider LGBT+ community by working closely with her clients across different sectors and LGBT+ charities to ensure she is making lasting change for the community.

Christopher Eugenio

Manager - Culture, Communications, Engagement & Capability
BHP

Christopher is the Asia Lead for Jasper, BHP's global LGBT+ Employee Resource Group. Most recently, he spearheaded a monthlong Pride campaign focused on LGBT+ excellence in the workplace, coming out stories and "rainbow" families to introduce LGBT+ identities and narratives to allies and co-workers. For Wear It Purple Day, he produced a webinar featuring advocates from across Asia to highlight the intersection of LGBT+ inclusion and racial diversity, and an empowering video campaign showcasing self-identifying LGBT+ BHP employees and proud allies. A longtime advocate of workplace diversity and inclusion, Christopher sits as a Trustee at the Philippine Financial & Inter-Industry Pride (PFIP), the preeminent LGBT+ organization within the Philippine corporate pride community. In this capacity, he co-developed the PFIP Leadership Development Framework to support up-and-coming LGBT+ leaders; launched the 1st Philippine Workplace Inclusion Forum to recognize common challenges women, PWDs and LGBT+ persons experience; co-manages PFIP's flagship programs including the PFIP Leadership Forum; and expands PFIP's reach by onboarding new member companies and establishing partnerships with embassies, business associations and non-profit organizations. A true empowerment champion, Christopher is the first Filipino mentor of Community Business' Regional LGBT+ Mentoring Programme and a gold-tier facilitator of Google's I am Remarkable program.

Pavlos Papaefstathiou

Partner
Boston Consulting Group

Pavlos is dedicated to driving LGBT+ diversity & inclusion within his organisation and beyond. He leads the Pride@BCG Network in one of the firm's largest regions globally (from South America to Europe and beyond), and hosted the regional Pride@BCG conference in Berlin in June 2022, which more than 200 members attended. In 2021, Pavlos co-led the global internal One Pride@BCG transformation, coordinating a team of 10+ Pride members worldwide. This defined the new strategy and priorities for Pride@BCG globally, driving greater inclusion across multiple business functions and diverse identities. In recent years, he has moderated internal leadership panels on LGBTQ+ diversity (with allies and members), and participated at DE&I events (e.g., Copenhagen World Pride panel moderator, PinkNews Futures panelist, Board member for LBS’ EUROUT conference). Pavlos also leads Pride@BCG's relationship with the GiveOut charity, co-authored GiveOut’s ground-breaking report “Pride with Purpose” (2021) and hosted the GiveOut summer reception in July 2022.

Katie Todd

Director of Communications and Strategic Operations
Pace University

As Director of Communications and Strategic Operations at Pace University, Katie created and delivered training for faculty on building inclusive classroom experiences for LGBTQ+ students, explaining concepts like trans and nonbinary identities, as well as pronouns and best practice. This work enabled Pace's faculty to start creating inclusive learning spaces for their students and drive LGBTQ+ inclusion across the university. Katie is also leading the formation of Pace University's first LGBTQ+ ERG, has successfully advocated adding pronouns to faculty and staff email signatures, and they've launched Pride Coaching, a coaching practice through which they support LGBTQ+ leaders and allies. Additionally, Katie has created and deployed Pride Month workshops for client organizations, including presenting on allyship.

Rafal Dembe

FP&A manager
Bibby Financial Services

Rafal was the Rainbow Network Poland lead at NatWest Group in Poland. As Co-Chair of the Network, he coordinated many initiatives, such as partnering with the LGBT+ Film Festival, sponsoring the only Polish LGBTQ+ print magazine, and driving education by organizing cross-company panels and webinars on topics ranging from LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace to trans and non-binary inclusion. Additionally, Rafal has supported LGBT+ NGOs through internal fundraising initiatives and company donations. Under his leadership, the Network became one of the most recognizable in Poland for its impact and initiatives. He is one of the leaders of the NatWest LGBT+ Diamonds Awards initiative. He has used this opportunity to create an informal coalition of corporate LGBTQ+ networks in Poland to strengthen the impact through cross-company cooperation. Currently as a member of Bibby Financial Services D&I working group he is involved in developing organization’s D&I strategy.

Delia Deng

Senior Account Executive
SAP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

As the Co-lead of Pride@SAP Australia & New Zealand, Delia worked on establishing a Culture of Pride and Inclusivity, which resulted in SAP being awarded Bronze status for the first time in 2021’s Australian Workplace Equality Index, and again in 2022. During her role at within Pride@SAP, she championed awareness of LGBT+ days of significance, promoted SAP’s LGBT+ policies and resources internally, as well as secured funding for D&I initiatives. In 2021, she was involved as a facilitator and panellist in multiple internal and external events, and organized regional Wear it Purple Day and World Aids Day events, resulting in an increase in employee donations over previous years. In addition to being an active advocate and visible leader in the promotion of diversity and inclusion, Delia also featured on Out for Australia’s 30 Under 30 Role Models and was the inaugural category winner of 'Success in Career'.

Lelia Elliston

Assistant Vice President, Cyber & Tech Controls Design and Development
State Street Corporation

Lelia Elliston has served since 2018 as Co-Chair of State Street PRIDE, one of the firm’s first and most significant Employee Resource Groups. Through social events and monthly activities, Lelia has worked to drive increased visibility around LGBTQ+ issues. Lelia has taken State Street Manager’s Pledge Against Racism and Inequality and offers monthly discussions within her unit. Lelia also has managed non-profit sponsorships, educational trainings, firm-wide learning paths, networking, and professional development initiatives. Lelia champions the firm’s Self-Identification Program, promoting the initiative among new hires and emphasizing it in her unit’s onboarding materials. Since coming out as a teenager and later leading the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Student Center at UMass Boston, Lelia has long “had social justice in [her] DNA.” Today, Lelia remains a stalwart supporter of and contributor to countless LGBTQ+ organizations and causes, contributing to over ten non-profit organizations in either consultative or executive board capacities, and is currently very active on two non-profit boards. Most recently, Lelia participates in the UK PRIDE “Reverse Mentoring for Senior Executives” program and hopes to pilot a similar program in the US in collaboration with UK Pride.

Luke Adebiyi

Business Development Manager, Banking
Capital International Group

Within Luke's role as Group Diversity & Inclusion Lead, he has been making strides to implement new policies in relation to Diversity and Inclusion. In the last 6 months, Luke has been working on Capital International Group's five-year diversity plan which sets out long-term goals for board representation and talent acquisition. Representing his company in January 2020, Luke spoke at a sponsored event attended by over 100 local businesspeople. The topic of his talk was 'Creating an Inclusive & Diverse Organization'. Luke has presented and took part in panel sessions dealing with Mental Health & Diversity for Institute of Directors in February 2020. He is also a Company Director of Isle of Pride, who, together with the committee, was responsible for organizing the first ever Isle of Man Pride in history, promoting equality on the island.

Sergio Rodriguez

Tax Senior Manager
Deloitte Tax LLP

As a Tax Senior Manager, Sergio helps organizations manage their cross-border employees, address worldwide tax obligations, and develop and retain a powerful global workforce. He also leads a national offering to help his clients infuse diversity, equity, and inclusion into their Talent Mobility function to drive broader positive societal and economic change. He's been instrumental in bringing Deloitte's Equitable Mobility point of view to the market: that the need to fight systemic bias and racism extends to Talent Mobility. In addition to his client work, Sergio serves as a leader for his organization's LGBTQIA+ and Allies employee community. One of his proudest accomplishments was to secure funding and approval for the first participation in a US Pride Parade. He dedicates time to mentoring professionals from marginalized identity backgrounds, coaching them through career milestones, and helping them navigate challenging situations (such as coming out at work). He also led a program to connect professionals from Latin America to Latin(o/a/x) professionals across US offices and allow best practices to be shared more efficiently globally. When facilitating trainings for this group, he included a role-playing exercise to challenge assumptions about gender and better understand the importance of respecting people's identities and pronouns.

Akila Prayaga

Program Manager
Microsoft

Akila currently serves on the New York Leadership team for Out in Tech as the Marketing head for the NY chapter. She works with companies in the NYC region to be sponsors for events and source speakers in the form of LGBTQ+ leaders making strides in the business and tech world. In addition to Out in Tech, she previously was a Sponsorship Director for the 2022 Out for Undergrad Business conference and serves on the CUNY LGBTQ+ Advisory council. She is also apart of the NYC Steering Committee for Microsoft Advertising's LGBT Employee Resource Group. Within her time at Ernst & Young and Microsoft and in the larger NYC community, she organizes events for the LGBTQ+ professional community, serves on webinars and online panels, and raises awareness of LGBTQ+ initiatives. She is passionate about getting more representation for minorities within the LGBTQ+ community to participate, namely people of color and women.

Paulina Olszak

Assistant Vice President, Valuation Control
Citi

Beyond her job role, Paulina is the co-chair of the Citi Pride Network where she plans, designs, and manages a variety of events for Citi’s employees. She was the panellist speaker during many events and presented on topics such as importance of diverse work cultures, being an effective LGBTQ+ ally, and LGBTQ+ inclusiveness and talent attraction. She was also the LGBTQ+ Reverse Mentor of the current Citi’s CCO of Poland. Outside of work, Paulina cooperated with NGOs and co-led a "Malopolska to moj DOM" campaign to dismiss the "LGBT Free Zone" that was launched in many parts of Poland. Further, she co-created 10-episode long "Rainbow Guidance" series and was a speaker of podcasts about the LGBTQ+ activism. In addition, Paulina launched a Mentoring Program for polish companies that would like to create or raise the visibility of Pride networks within the workplace.

Salman Ali

Senior Client Administrator
Sarasin & Partners LLP

Sal is responsible for servicing the firm’s clients. Alongside his role Sal is the Chair of the D&I Belonging Sub Committee and an active member of the firm’s D&I Steering Committee. Sal has successfully designed events, including Pride in London 2022 and awareness surrounding International Women's Day. Sal informally reverse mentors a board member on LGBT+ matters and has successfully created an open dialogue to discuss and promote LGBT+ diversity and inclusion with Executive Committee Members under the overall D&I Steering strategy. He is regularly selected to speak on his personal journey at external Pride events. As part of his dedicated work and passion to support LGBT+ individuals, he successfully ran regular Zoom sessions that provided a safe and fun environment for LGBT+ people during the lockdown.

Chloe Caparros

Principal
Boston Consulting Group

Chloe is a Principal in BCG, where she is a member of the Health Care practice area. Beyond her work with clients, Chloe is also a leader of Pride@BCG (BCG’s LGBT+ employee network). She is notably leading Pride@BCG Retention Taskforce, which objective is to support the career progression of LGBTQ+ employees in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, so that all employees get equal chances to succeed. This work is done by driving and committing to a deep understanding of their specific challenges and needs, implementing targeted actions like mentorship, strengthened affiliation, and increasing the visibility of role models. She also leads the organization of Pride@BCG’s annual Regional Pride conference, participates in internal events and trainings regularly to strengthen awareness on LGBT+ topics, and engages in mentoring junior LGBTQ+ employees. In addition, Chloe led in 2021 a pro-bono project with a prominent French LGBTQ+ charity that provides shelter to young, homeless LGBTQ+ people (Le Refuge). She also regularly speaks on panels and in the media, such as Têtu (leading French LGBT+ media).

Jay Ersapah

EMEA Head of Financial Risk Management and Model Risk
Silicon Valley Bank UK

As Co-Chair of EMEA Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) LGBTQ+ network, Jay is a leading figure for the bank’s awareness activities including being an panelist at the SVB’s Global Pride townhall to share her experiences as a lesbian of color, moderating SVB’s EMEA Pride townhall and was instrumental in initiating the organization's first ever global "safe space catch-up", supporting employees in sharing their experiences of coming out. Jay created the first month-long SVB EMEA Pride campaign, involving an awareness video with representatives of the firm’s LGTBQ+ communities and allies across the Executive, Board, Stonewall, and SVB UK's LGBTQ+ charity partner. She volunteered to be a panelist on SVB India's first Pride session, highlighting the challenges of Asians across LGBTQ+ communities. She authored numerous articles to promote LGBTQ+ awareness, such as Lesbian Visibility Day, Trans Awareness Week and recently an external blog, on Youth Mental Health Day to highlight mental health issues among young LGBTQ+ people, especially from ethnic backgrounds. To promote LGBTQ+ best practices for SVB’s external clients, she hosted an exclusive fireside chat with Suki Sandhu OBE, Founder and CEO of Audeliss and Involve. She is a trustee for Diversity Role Models, who promote LGBTQ+ education and inclusion in schools.

Eloise Robinson

Director, Market Risk Change
Deutsche Bank

Eloise is Co-Chair of dbPride UKI, Deutsche Bank's ERG for LGBTQ+ colleagues and allies, covering London, Birmingham and Dublin, reporting to Management Board-level sponsors. She provides direction, guidance and mentorship to other SteerCo members and restructured the Terms of Reference to promote broader representation, which included the creation of programmes / events that focus on intersectionality as well as marginalized and under-represented LGBTQ+ groups. As a panellist Eloise has shared her personal journey and, as an LGBTQ+ role model, has participated in several workshops for pupils and staff across a range of schools in deprived areas of London. She was also a formal mentor for two years via the INvolve Mentoring Program. In 2021 Eloise led efforts for Deutsche Bank to join Trans in the City and to ensure support and funding to be a headline sponsor for the Trans in the City gala evening last November.

Josi Reinhardt

Customer Service Representative
Aviva

Josi is a vocal and committed role model at Aviva.They run a yearly Non-binary Webinar covering aspects such as mental health, intersectionality and neurodivergence available to colleagues in the UK, Ireland, and Canada, along with an internal Non-binary education hub they created. They are currently leading an initiative to make pronoun stickers available for work ID passes so trans/nonbinary colleagues face less misgendering and consistently explain the importance of sharing pronouns to allies. They also share their experience of asexuality, which has encouraged several other community members to share theirs, and this has led to the recent founding of an internal Asexual Group. In addition, Josi reviewed and updated Aviva's Allies Guide, notably highlighting intersectionality within the LGBTQ+ community. They also had speaking engagements at AON, Zurich, and Royal London, covering asexuality, being a neurodivergent LGBTQ+ professional, and helped educate their Network and allies to drive further inclusion for LGBTQ+ communities.

Junior Beaman

Learning Manager
NatWest Group

Junior has supported the Rainbow Network for over six years, most recently as one of three global co-chairs. He was also Regional Co-Chair for the Multicultural Network prior to this. Being involved in both networks and the bank's overall DE&I council, he brings intersectionality to the forefront of the conversation. Over the past 12 months he has led engaging educational sessions on Black LGBT+ Excellence, Black Queer Love, Ballroom and Vogue, National Coming Out Day, South Asian Heritage Month, Black History Month and LGBT+ History Month. He also posts regularly on our internal platforms around key events and messages such as Transgender Day of Visibility and Lesbian Visibility Week. Junior is a committed community volunteer for Yorkshire Mesmac outside of work. He has supported gay and bi men and MSM within Yorkshire with access to sexual health services and signposting other health services since 2012. To show his engagement and dedication, he also uses his social media presence to support and promote key initiatives such as UK Black Pride and Prepster.

Bruno Cirne

M&A Manager
Deloitte Brazil

Bruno is one of the leaders of the internal LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group. Along with other colleagues, he increased the number of LGBTQ+ Executives, Directors and Partners, introduced an Inclusive Leadership training and conducted a national research report to understand the maturity of LGBT+ rights at workplaces. Bruno also helped creating a mandatory training for all employees in Deloitte Brazil regarding LGBTQ+ inclusiveness, increasing the rate of professionals who feel respected and safe in the work environment. In addition, Bruno has been engaged in public speaking since he joined Deloitte. He promotes panels and webinars surrounding the most relevant topics raised by LGBTQ+ communities and he also supports the upskilling of transgender individuals living in shelters in São Paulo. Bruno is also constantly in touch with international clients, suppliers and other Deloitte’s employees around the world, which give him a chance to promote LGBTQ+ awareness in many places at once and learn a lot more from other experiences.

Matthew Case

Central Operations Manager
Whitbread PLC

At Whitbread, Matthew co-leads GLOW, the LGBTQ+ Network, and sits on multiple steering committees, across D&I, Wellbeing & Force for Good, including enAble disability network, and leading our Charity Committee for Great Ormond Street Hospital. As part of his role in GLOW, he continues to lead on inclusion strategy and policy improvements for our LGBTQ+ team members and was pivotal in Whitbread’s recognition by Stonewall as a Gold Employer in their 2022 Workplace Equality Index. Matthew is highly visible across Whitbread, working to raise awareness for LGBTQ+ issues and create a safe community for our teams across Premier Inn, Restaurants and Support Centre. Recent examples include hosting a 'Being Proud' live event with Michael Gunning on LGBTQ+ and race inclusion and speaking at Executive meetings and senior leader events about inclusion and Pride. He has consulted on leadership training on inclusion, internal trans awareness campaigns, and Pride branding packs for Whitbread’s hotels, restaurants, and offices, among other influential initiatives. Externally, Matthew speaks regularly at panel events on DEI, discrimination in the workplace, and trans awareness and inclusion. He has also consulted on DEI strategy and policies for Great Ormond Street Hospital and is on the advisory board of ‘CheckingIn’.

April Soriano

HR Deliver Manager
IBM

April is currently Co-Leader of the LGBTQ+ Business Resource Group EAGLE in IBM. Through this BRG they support, protect and make sure that all employees who are part of the LGBTQ+ community have a safe space to discuss challenges and concerns. This BRG focuses on policy creation and engagement activities to foster great relationships and provide opportunities to all employees. April is currently part of an External Eminence Project that revolves around helping new companies create and refine their D&I processes and how they can promote and leverage this to make their organization safer for LGBTQ+ communities. She uses social media to promote safe spaces and is vocal about driving LGBTQ+ inclusion within business and beyond.

Jaipal Sachdev

Lean Six Sigma Black Belt
3M

Jaipal is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt at science-based technology company, 3M. He joined 3M’s Personal Safety Division in 2019 as senior project engineer. Before this he was a process engineer and project manager at Procter and Gamble, having studied chemical engineering at Imperial College London. In 2022, Jaipal made history by becoming the first non-US employee to chair an Employee Resource Network (ERN) within the company. As Co-Chair of 3M Pride (3M's ERN for LGBTQ+ employees), he leads its overall strategic direction. In this role he has expanded 3M Pride globally, tripling the number of countries represented, and delivered 3M's first LGBTQ+ awareness training programme to senior leaders and people managers. Jaipal is an active 3M STEM Ambassador and was profiled as part of a 'Smashing Stereotypes' joint campaign run with the British Science Association and the company to highlight the diversity of people in STEM to students, parents, and teachers and to challenge stereotypes and barriers that young people may face. This enabled a strong focus on LGBTQ+ representation in STEM. Outside of work, he is a member of the Diversity Role Models charity, and visits schools to talk about his experiences of growing up queer and the challenges he faced but overcame.

Carolyn L. Ladd

Senior Research Specialist
Dow

Carolyn (they/xe) serves as Site Implementation Lead for GLAD’s Collegeville chapter, and has led this team to organize various seminars, workshops & volunteering opportunities over the last 2 years. As an active member of the Global GLAD EX team, they created & help launch the GLAD REALNESS Recognition Program to celebrate LGBTQ+ allyship & advocacy globally across Dow. Carolyn has also facilitated trainings for Global GLAD and Dow employees on LGBTQ+ & neurodiversity, allyship, pronouns, and nonbinary/trans issues via leveraging best practices and their personal narratives as a nonbinary autistic person. They recently started TRANSFORM, a subgroup focused on creating a resource and support hub for trans & nonbinary employees and their caretakers. Carolyn was also profiled in a special issue of C&EN News as a 2022 Trailblazer highlighting Out&Proud LGBTQ+ chemists, spends time mentoring LGBTQ+ scientists, and has helped with Dow’s Out4Undergrad recruiting efforts. As an invited panelist for conferences such as Out&Equal, Carolyn has spoken on neurodiversity, gender, and issues facing LGBTQ+ people in STEM. They are also passionate about providing & increasing access to mental health support for LGBTQ+ people and spend their time volunteering for crisis text lines supporting the community.

Berry Yanghao YI

PEOPLE EXPERIENCE MANAGER
HSBC

Berry co-founded the first HSBC PRIDE ERG (Employee Resource Group) in China in 2019 and is now the Co-Chair. He helps foster a strong culture of allyship within HSBC, and with Berry’s leading, his team successfully made huge evolutionarily changes on the internal gender neutral facilities and LGBT+ company policies for every employee, including benefiting LGBT+ employees and their spouses. In addition, Berry and his team initiated and hosted over ten zoom webinars to all colleagues for primary LGBT+ education inside mainland China, led Pride events and driven initiatives such as Pride Movie Night and HIV Introduction learnings sessions to promote workplace equality in 2021. During his spare time, he organized lots of local PRIDE events for the communities on bringing up the LGBT+ awareness and topics, furthermore, he is also a volunteer at ZhiTong, a LGBT+ local NGO, provides counseling hotline support and one-to-one career development coaching to LGBT+ communities.

Rafhael Bentos

Tax lawyer
Mattos Filho

Rafhael co-leads Mattos Filho's pioneering employee resource group for LGBTQIAPN+ rights – Mfriendly. This award-winning initiative was recognized and plays a significant influence across Latin America, shedding lights to the LGBTQIAPN+ inclusion within the legal sector and beyond. Through pro bono assistance, promoting the inclusion of transgender people, and other initiatives, Mattos Filho has seen a significant rise in the number of self-declared LGBTQIAPN+ professionals. At the International Bar Association (IBA), Rafhael is also responsible for engaging young lawyers around the globe in favor of LGBTQIAPN+ rights. Recently, he has been leading a project aiming at gathering medium-sized and small European law firms around the topic. His recent initiatives have covered topics such as inclusion in the workplace, mental health issues, and challenges faced by the LGBTQIAPN+ community during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Maya Harris

Sr Learning Manager
McKinsey & Company

When Maya came out as transgender, she felt like an “only” in McKinsey. Determined that this wasn’t the case, and well supported by people leaders, she sought out others and co-founded a community and safe space for trans, non-binary and GNC colleagues. Through tireless awareness building and sharing her experiences that community has now grown to over 50 people globally. To support hers and others’ transitions, Maya co-developed a “Supporting our Transgender Colleagues” guide to help managers understand the nuances of trans and non-binary identities. In 2022, her focus shifted to driving meaningful change for the community, working to co-found the Gender Identity & Expression Council as a pillar of GLAM, the firm’s LGBTQ+ ERG. Early progress has included creating an efficient name change process and the removal of visible deadnames in firm systems, establishment of All Gender bathrooms in pilot offices and partnering with McKinsey’s London office to include most transition-related healthcare and surgeries under its private health insurance, as McKinsey does in many of its other locations. Maya is a regular speaker at internal DEI panel discussions and conferences, and faculty member of Inclusion learning programs.

Erika Rebecca Belsaas

Specialist, Engineering
Merck

As Global Co-Lead of the Rainbow Alliance at Merck, Erika has dedicated their time to creating LGBTQ+ inclusive workplaces. They were a local Chapter Lead for the Rainbow Alliance, Elkton Virginia—a largely conservative town. Erika has given talks, hosted speakers, and liaised with external stakeholders to refine overall DE&I strategies and bolster inclusion across Merck. Some of her work includes advocating for gender-neutral bathrooms and safe space training. Since taking on a global leadership position, they have successfully implemented a pronouns field in standard forms and continued to give talks worldwide within the company to spread awareness of transgender issues and methods of allyship. Outside of the workplace, they volunteer with local LGBTQ+ youth in Virginia and ensure they have safe spaces to meet and grow. They have also spoken at and taken part in recruiting at conferences, including oSTEM, Out & Equal, and O4U.

Gabriel Durán

Associate
BLP

Gabriel is the coordinator of BLP's LGBT+ Committee, in which he does pro bono work for international organizations and national NGOs that promote the human rights of LGBTQ+ people. He is currently working on several awareness campaigns for BLP's regional offices in Central America. During the last years, Gabriel oversaw the firm's strategy to achieve the goals acquired with the signature of the San José Declaration, a yearly declaration from the private sector to prevent and eliminate discrimination based on sexual or gender identity. As a result of this experience, he created an LGBT+ Committee with members of the rest of Central America from BLP that constantly investigates legal discussions related to the LGBTQ+ community. He published a paper with the U.N. on preventing hate speech against vulnerable groups such as LGTBQ+ members. The Costa Rican Bar Association used this guide to create an internal ruling to prevent hate speech within the Bar Association. Gabriel also created a workshop for companies in Costa Rica to promote the hiring of trans people.

Hayley Meek

Petroleum Engineer
Shell

As Co-Chair of Proud@Shell UK Network, Hayley led training for offshore and onsite supervisors to explore DEI and created a safe space to share learning and experiences, reflecting on what a leader needs to create the best possible space for all. She facilitated conversations de-stigmatising mental health at work and on assets, particularly for those in the LGBTQ+ community, sharing her journey and building interactive resilience workshops. Hayley also helped develop the Aberdeen Inclusion Plan by challenging senior U.K. leaders and embedding DEI and LGBTQ+ representation as part of business to drive real change, which senior leaders fully endorsed. She has facilitated inclusive parenting workshops that focus on supporting parents of LGBTQ+ children and fostering safe spaces for parents to ask questions. She leads conversations and brings together other internal groups across race, gender, and disabilities to highlight shared challenges and commonalities. She singlehandedly organised Grampian Pride march for Shell Aberdeen with Upstream Shell leaders championing and taking part!

Rene Staebe

Senior Corporate Communications Manager
Japan Tobacco International (JTI)

As Co-founder and global Lead of PRIDE, JTI's LGBTIQ+ Inclusion Employee Resource Group, Rene is committed to ensuring LGBTQ+ employees can be their whole selves at work. He has hosted monthly Teams calls to create a cyclical and open forum for discussion. As an authentic, reliable and trustworthy sounding board and "expert in training" for employee-led change, Rene helps to empower JTI employees to be authentic. Rene also worked with the LGBTQ+ empowerment platform, WeCreateSpace, to deliver global workshops for JTI's employee (space) to better understand how they can embrace their most authentic self. He led initiatives for further education surrounding the trans and non-binary community, professional and personal development opportunities for LGBTQ+ employees and created a three-part trans and non-binary educational video series exploring gender identity through stories from non-binary and trans contributors.

Zahara Fernandes

Business Advisory Associate Director 
Accenture Solutions Pvt Ltd

Zahara is the India Pride Employee Resource Group Lead, a subset of the Pride Ally Network. She organized monthly ERG meetings to create a safe space for LGBTQ+ community members to connect, discuss stories, navigate the challenges of coming out and beyond, and enable change. As a visible and vocal Pride advocate, she has led over 25 sensitization sessions and activities that brought together culture makers and future leaders. With high diversity ratios in her team, she set benchmarks for others in Accenture. She Advocates for women's empowerment, authenticity and agency and supported 17 women and Pride colleagues in their growth journey in the last year. As a parent to an LGBTQ+ child, she not only shares her experiences with her daughter but also, with other parents of community members on how to establish strong bonds and connect with their children. She also supports young adults in their journey of coming out and acceptance through personal counseling.

Kevin Ha

Director, Leveraged Finance
SMBC

Kevin is the founder and co-chair of SMBC's LGBTQ+ Allies Network for the EMEA Division and is an adviser to their D&I Steering Committee. In these roles, he leads the Bank’s LGBTQ+ strategy and has delivered numerous events over the last two years, raising awareness about LGBTQ+ topics such as being transgender, surrogacy, a book club event to discuss intersectionality, and LGBTQ+ parenting. Alongside this work, Kevin also led and advised HR on the launch of two new employee policies covering transitioning at work and surrogacy and parental leave and also managed to get respective health insurance companies to update their policies. He advised the Bank on its SMBC EMEA Gender-Neutral Best Practice Writing Guidelines and the use of preferred pronouns in email signatures. In addition, he oversaw the rollout of independently sourced tailored D&I Awareness Training for his department – where the outputs from the training were used to develop his department's ED&I Charter Commitments. The Charter is referenced in individual performance reviews where examples can be provided as actions undertaken to demonstrate one or more of the ED&I commitments and enables progress to be tracked overtime. Other departments at SMBC are now looking to replicate this for their teams.

Sunmi Hirata

Cyber Risks Underwriter
Beazley Insurance Group

Sunmi is the North America Co-chair of Beazley Proud which is Beazley’s LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group. This Network strives to create, protect, and promote an environment that is welcoming to all staff. As Co-chair, Sunmi presented their 2022 plans to the Diversity & Inclusion Steering Committee comprised of Beazley's Executives and HR. She has published multiple internal articles for employees: like "Gender Identity (pro-nouns)" on the importance of sharing pronouns and uses her personal journey to help drive the organization's overall LGBTQ+ inclusion agenda. She is also focused on intersectionality and meets monthly with Beazley’s Inclusion Partner and the other Employee Resource Groups Chairs. Together they collaborated on a formal policy review which resulted in positive changes to an equal paternity leave policies in the U.S., that also includes guidance and support for adoption. These items she is proud to talk about externally from interfacing externally with her brokers and at speaking events to young insurance professionals.

Pauric Havlin

Head of Digital Campaigns
TATA Consultancy Services

Chair of the UK & Ireland Chapter of QOLORs – TCS's Global Network for LGBTQ+ colleagues and allies – Pauric advised on the introduction of gender-neutral bathrooms in order to create a safe space for our trans colleagues. In addition, he organized buildings to be lit in rainbow colors, demonstrating the firm's commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion. Pauric has hosted many events and highlighted a range of perspectives including the historical impact of the transgender community, hate crimes and their effect, and global human rights abuses in Chechnya. Pauric also supports colleagues with coming out, including helping trans colleagues understand how to access healthcare. He also mentors LGBTQ+ colleagues to help them realize their full potential and has lobbied government ministers on the lack of adequate hate crime laws in Ireland and, Ireland's lack of a public stance on the persecution of the LGBTQ+ community in Chechnya and social isolation in Poland.

Michelle Mariana Severino Vallejos

Cybersecurity, Privacy & Forensics Manager
PwC México

Michelle is a core member and spokesperson of Shine Mexico, the LGBT+ ERG of PwC. In her role, she supported students to develop their Inclusive Leadership skills, including LGBT+ Inclusion. She coached other women through her experience as a Lesbian, and led five volunteers to aid the Director of Cinema Queer Mexico. She is now a member of PwC's Staff Council of Diversity & Inclusion, in charge of the "Inclusion of People with Disabilities" workstream. She also appeared as the image of PwC PRIDE 2020 and was awarded PwC’s Wonderful Women of Cybersecurity, Privacy & Forensics for her accomplishments in Mexico and in the US. In 2019, she represented Mexico at the LGBT+ Summit in New York and in 2021, Michelle was the spokesperson at an event for PwC Colombia in which she shared her experience, professional challenges, and expectations for the future for the LGBT+ community.

Hanwen (Evan)  Bai

Senior Principal Research Scientist
Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Volunteer leader and co-chair of Vertex's PRIDE Employee Resource Group since 2020, Evan supported the launch and expansion of the annual PRIDE Reverse Mentoring Program, which has created safe spaces for 35+ senior leader mentees and 70+ LGBTQ+ mentors to have meaningful and personal discussions about the experiences of being LGBTQ+, especially in the workplace. He helped sponsor 60+ company-wide events, including featuring transgender and non-binary speakers, sometimes in collaboration with other ERGs to highlight the intersectionality of being LGBTQ+ with different identities such as race and ability. He advocated and helped establish five all-gender bathrooms across three Vertex sites and has advocated for and implemented company-wide education on the importance of gender-inclusive pronouns. These efforts included adopting inclusive pronouns across Vertex's I.T. platforms, with more than 25% of employees opting to share their pronouns since last year. He also advocated for LGBTQ+ employees to self-identify their gender identity, in order to generate meaningful metrics to track our progress in promoting LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion. Additionally, he helped Vertex provide 20+ sponsorships to external nonprofit LGBTQ+ focused organizations. Outside of Vertex, Evan is the founder of Hanwen Interiors, an interior decorating firm member of the Massachusetts LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce.

Kirstin Early

Research Scientist
Yahoo!

Since 2017, Kirstin has been one of the key drivers creating an internal community and improving policies for LGBTQ+ colleagues at Yahoo. Part of her work as an ERG chapter lead includes organizing monthly events with a mix of social, educational, and volunteer topics; advising executives on making their organizations more welcoming to LGBTQ+ employees; and partnering with local nonprofits to support external communities, such as Outlet, Asian Americans for Community Involvement, and the Billy DeFrank Center (San Jose's LGBTQ+ community center). Kirstin also represents Yahoo in the Silicon Valley LGBTQ+ ERG Alliance, across 60 companies in the Bay Area to share strategies for LGBTQ+ inclusion and work together to transform companies and communities. She serves on the board of the LGBT National Help Center, which provides free and confidential peer support and resources to people of all ages through hotlines, web chat, and a resource database.

Dominik Remplik

Senior Manager, Ops Incubation EMEA
Criteo

As Co-Lead of the Pride Community, Dominik conducted various interviews such as an interview with the CEO, Megan Clarken to understand her experiences, her views as an openly LGBTQ+ CEO. Dominik is committed to driving inclusion, implementing initiatives, and refining policies to ensure that LGBTQ+ employees at Criteo can succeed authentically. He also organized the Pride Month interview 'Being non-binary in the Workplace with Fox Fisher' to provide visibility, raise awareness and strengthen knowledge surrounding non-binary people. Dominik released a video titled 'Why is World AIDS Day Important' raising awareness about AIDS and he also took part in a video campaign with MyGWork called 'Discover What It's Like to Work at Criteo' on being open and transparent about the workspace, the opportunities and what it's like to be an LGBTQ+ employee in the wider business world.

Shawneil Campbell

Global Wealth Management Americas Group Risk Control, Chief of Staff
UBS

Hailing from the island of Jamaica, Shawneil Campbell (he/they) has established a versatile Risk Management expertise across Asset Management, Investment Banking, and Wealth Management. Shawneil’s value systems is rooted in volunteerism, which drives their organizational belonging work with the respective UBS PRIDE and MOSAIC Employee Resource Groups (ERG). Shawneil raises visibility and awareness of ERG objectives by encouraging programming that speaks life to intersectionality. Shawneil was first introduced to volunteering through the UBS PRIDE Hetrick-Martin Institute's Resume Building Program, where they assisted low-income LGBTQ+ students seeking summer and full-time employment opportunities. Over the last four years, Shawneil has co-planned and executed other events, including Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) Quarterly Meal Service and Industrywide Bridging the Gap: Intersectionality & Representation Networking Event. In 2019, Shawneil joined The Collective (CF BERG) a network of Black ERG leaders within the financial industry with the mission to create opportunities for Black professionals to network, share best practices, and collaborate on engagement and philanthropic initiatives to support minority communities. Shawneil has a DE&I certificate from Cornell University, Masters of Science in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University, and a Bachelors of Arts in Sociology from Wheaton College (MA).

Eriko Niijima

Manager, Accenture Song
Accenture Japan Ltd

Eriko is recognized as a trusted leader within the LGBTQ+ Ally Committee, who is asked for input on various occasions regarding her knowledge and perspective, both by the leadership and by members. She has served as a team leader supporting Pride House Tokyo, an intersectoral LGBTQ+ collaborative project, for almost three years. Eriko actively participates in in-house events organized by the LGBTQ Ally Committee, facilitating breakout sessions and serving as a panel discussion speaker actively sharing her opinions and expertise. She has participated in Pride House Tokyo since its establishment, utilizing her knowledge and experience in consulting. She is currently developing a plan to expand the impact of these activities. To promote DEI on a national scale in Japan, she participates in this project and fosters collaboration across industries, including finance, I.T., and manufacturing, with leading companies in Japan.

Michael Maquieira

Associate
Slaughter and May

For the past two years, Michael has served on the committee of PRISM, Slaughter and May's LGBTQ+ network and has actively contributed to the internal Stonewall Workplace Equality Index steering group. He delivered firmwide focus groups discussing the effects of the pandemic on the LGBTQ+ community, including trans healthcare, mental health, financial strain, and the disproportionate effect of HIV on marginalized communities. In addition, he has spoken on a firmwide panel event on social mobility as a working-class gay man, authored articles raising awareness on LGBTQ+ issues, including pronouns and allyship guidance, and shared the importance of LGBTQ+ inclusion for Pride month through internal communications, the firm’s social media, and a Pride video highlighting LGBTQ+ colleagues and allies. Beyond his work within Slaughter and May, Michael has organized a series of panel events in collaboration with Vodafone called Life at the Intersection, discussing the intersections of LGBTQ+ identities with faith, race, and gender.

Kimmah Dozier-Burt

Integrated Program Manager, AI & Data
Verizon

As a Program Manager for the AI & Data Integrated Program Management team at Verizon, Kimmah helps business units solve key challenges using AI and Data solutions. She often serves on panels (both as a participant and as host) in conversations surrounding authenticity in the workplace, both during Pride month and the rest of the year. Her commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion expand into her academic life, having served during her graduate studies on Florida State University’s College of Business Task Force on Anti‐Racism, Diversity, and Inclusion. As a recent MBA Graduate, Kimmah mentors other students and her peers, focusing on the concept of belonging and advocating for one’s self. Additionally, she volunteers her time in many organizations, including leading the Harriet Hancock Center Foundation’s Fiber Arts group to provide her local queer and trans community to create, share in self expression, and gather together in a safe and inclusive space.

Carolyn Pitta

Head of Product Development for the S&P Global Marketplace
S&P Global

With the re-launch of S&P Global Pride PRG in March/April 2022, Carolyn connected new Pride leadership with Open Finance and was nominated by the Head of S&P Global Pride network to be S&P Global’s Open Finance member representative. They have been part of Open Finance Women+ (OFW+) committee since 2018 where they have volunteering with OFW+ events & initiatives like the fashion & finance series focused on how to professionally present yourself while staying true to your queer identity in 2019. This year, they planned/organized two OFW+ events where they engaged the S&P Global community including a Night With NY/NJ Gotham FC where they moderated a panel discussion on building in DEI/LGBTQ-Inclusion at the organizational level featuring panelists from Gotham FC’s front-office, Ali Krieger, and Imani Dorsey. In addition, they represented S&P Global at an Open Finance Roundtable on LGBTQ+ recruiting best practices with other companies within their immediate community. In their spare time, they founded a Brooklyn-based running club called Queer Runnings BK to create a running community for anyone who identifies as a queer cis-woman, non-binary, trans-person, and/or any other gender minority.

Ferenc Szolnoki

Former Global Mobility Coordinator
Diageo Business Services Private Company Limited by Shares

Ferenc joined the Diageo Budapest Rainbow Network in 2020 and was Co-head of the Network. He was a regular attendee of events and sessions to drive inclusion and also mobilised multiple colleagues to walk with Diageo in Budapest Pride 2021. The Network successfully organised the first ever Drag Queen Bingo with over 100 participants, and dozens of employees on the waiting list. In July 2022 they organised a round table conversation entitled "The Importance of Pride and Pride Month History", and for the 2022 Budapest Pride March, they held two tie-dye sessions where employees had the opportunity to paint their own Diageo T-shirts. In September 2022, Ferenc co-led the Diageo Budapest INC Week, with numerous events taking place in the office to promote a highly diverse and inclusive environment. He also finished his university studies in 2022 and wrote a thesis about the Emergence of the LGBTQ+ as a target group in health tourism.

Nayara Ferreira Araujo Alves

Litigation and Arbitration Lawyer
Mattos Filho

Nayara has been involved in Mattos Filho's LGBTQIAPN+ employee resource group – Mfriendly – since its foundation, in 2016, and is an active member of the group's executive committee. Mfriendly is an award-winning initiative among Latin American law firms and has inspired other Brazilian law firms to create their own LGBTQIAPN+ groups. Through Mfriendly, Nayara has participated in events and campaigns aiming at raising awareness of the importance of equity and inclusion of LGBTQIAPN+ people in the workplace, as well as steered the expansion of the firm's pro bono program to provide free legal assistance to LGBTQIAPN+ people and to non-profit organizations that advocate for LGBTQIAPN+ rights. Besides providing counsel to transgender clients in pro bono cases, she has recently participated in the São Paulo Trans Pride Fair, to instruct attendees on how to change the name and gender in their civil records and identity documents.

Domenico Aiello

Software Engineering Manager
Bloomberg

Domenico (Nico) Aiello is a Software Engineering Manager at Bloomberg, where he also founded BProud Tech, a subgroup of Bloomberg’s LGBTQ+ and Allies Community (ERG) that advocates for the visibility and success of the LGBTQ+ community within Bloomberg Engineering and beyond. As the current co-lead of BProud Tech, Nico has worked on increasing LGBTQ+ representation and professional development in the department through recruitment, mentorship, and technical showcases. Earlier this year, he helped launch the Pride Leadership Development program for people managers in Engineering to get career advancement support, access to senior leadership, and to strategize on developing the company's next generation of LGBTQ+ technology leaders. Nico has also been involved with other DEI initiatives both inside and outside of Bloomberg which span many underrepresented groups, including co-creating Bloomberg’s Python Code Camp, a 12-week introductory coding course for high school students who do not have access to computer science instruction in their schools. In his spare time, Nico is also a member of the Bloomberg Puzzle Team, plays volleyball in the NY Urban Professionals Athletic League and Gotham Volleyball, and is a member of the New York Gay Football League.

Anish Kumar Pathak

Employment Associate
Bird & Bird

Anish is passionate about sharing and amplifying the magic and beauty of the Indian LGBTQ+ community, appearing on panels and platforms within his law firm, the UK and in India. He has volunteered at the Naz & Matt Foundation, a multi-award winning charity, that tackles homophobia triggered by religious/cultural beliefs, since 2018 and co-facilitates monthly support groups, which provide a much needed space for parents and LGBT+ individuals from religious or culturally conservative backgrounds. As a volunteer manager of The GIN (Gay Indian Network) LGBTQIA Indian Network, he also founded a group for its younger members, “Next GINeration”, regularly organising events and providing a space and support for those who identify as LGBT+ and belonging to an Indian and wider South Asian diaspora. Most recently, GIN was awarded the “Community Organisation Award: Race, Religion & Faith” at the prestigious National Diversity Awards 2022. Anish and his mother were also recently filmed as part of “Out And Proud Parents Day” on 30 June, inspiring other Indian parents to “come out” as proud parents of their LGBTQ+ children.

Silvio Miguel Suárez Salgado

Specialist Sales Quality & WPB Regulatory Control
HSBC Bank Argentina

Since 2021, Silvio has been the President of Pride ERG in HSBC Argentina and has organized training workshops on various topics, from HIV awareness to allyship and trans inclusion. Moreover, with the group he has been making community service actions helping homes that shelter children with HIV, and giving visibility to outstanding trans. Silvio and Pride ERG, have been working to promote the enrolment of new allies. Today HSBC Argentina has more than 700 allies in all over the country. He is also an Argentina Pride Connection founding member, working on a range of events including the PCA Summit and he has been one of the spokespeople across radio and T.V. As a member of Rotary International, Silvio has been working to promote the Rotary Clubs to become more diverse and inclusive. He has spoken about DEI at training forums in Argentina, Brazil and Chile. In May, 2021 he was summoned as speaker of the international forum: “Leaders who open opportunities”. HSBC recognized him with the award of "Americas Inclusive Leader" as one of the leaders in this subject in 2021.

Winnie Ng

Senior Manager, IM Planning & Implementation
Fidelity International

Winnie is Senior Manager, APAC Change Management at Fidelity International, and the S.G. lead & Regional APAC coordinator for the LGBT+ Network. In this role, she has supported several internal initiatives, including global Stonewall index submission and providing feedback around internal policies. At the regional level, Winnie collaborates with leads on goals planning across APAC locations, promoting allyship uptake, and was involved in several new initiatives in 2022. This includes co-organizing the first Mandarin ally training across Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong offices; coordinated to put together an inter-company IDAHOBIT event in May; and worked with ally volunteers to organize the first S.G. Pride event in June. These initiatives have resulted in increasing education, awareness, participation in LGBT+ activities and allies recruitment across the region.

Kevin Kilpatrick

Product Marketing Manager, Digital Collectibles
Instagram

Kevin (he/him) is the global lead for Instagram’s LGBTQ+@ Employee Resource Group (ERG) and works with a committee to ensure the community has a home at Instagram - by organizing panels, social activities, charity donations and many other initiatives, throughout the year. He has focused on promoting diverse voices at Instagram (and Meta) by co-leading events and internal activities focused on intersectional identities, in collaboration with other ERGs. In addition, he has organized forums for external community members (such as creators and leading UK LGBTQ+ charities) to provide feedback to Meta executives and policy teams. Finally, Kevin led Pride for Instagram this year, coordinating several initiatives aimed at supporting the community and providing tools for expression.

Marta Lima

Technical Product Owner
Vodafone

Marta has led a programme to develop Zoteria, a mobile app that tackles the issue of LGBTQ+ hate crime. Zoteria enables people to report hate crime incidents and access support from LGBTQ+ charities. It also aims to improve the reporting of LGBTQ+ hate crime, and so build a more accurate picture of the issue across the UK. Marta received funding after winning a global Vodafone Foundation competition that was looking for ideas of technology solutions for a social cause. She then partnered with Stonewall and Galop, leading LGBT+ anti-abuse and rights charities, to understand the challenges of civil society in this space, and how an app could support the LGBTQ+ community. She led the development team to build and launch the app in the UK. Since May 2019 Marta has been in the steer-co for the LGBT+ Friends Network at Vodafone in London. She was a keynote speaker in several global Vodafone webinars, and a speaker in PinkNews’s Pride event with Kearney, discussing topics ranging from LGBT+ rights and hate crime, the role of leaders to create a more inclusive environment, the importance of coming out at work, and of allyship.

Bela Gaytan

Technical Instructional Designer
Pantheon

Known for her authenticity, transparency, and vulnerability, Bela unapologetically disrupts spaces to create change. She leverages her lived experiences and intersectional identities as a neurodivergent, queer, and physically disabled Latina to educate folks on disability, accessibility, diversity, inclusion, and equity. Since becoming Co-Lead of Pantheon's LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group, Pridetheon, Bela has introduced speaker sessions, bringing in intersectional LGBTQ+ folks to discuss targeted topics. She has been instrumental in creating awareness for accessibility issues, as well as diversity initiatives focused on marginalized groups, to include an LGBTQ+ focus. Bela also volunteers as a member of Pantheon’s Diversity Task Force, working to embed equity, inclusion, and belonging while driving organizational change. Externally, Bela recently spoke at the Lesbians Who Tech Summit in San Francisco, as well as at the Accessible and Inclusive Design Conference on inclusive accessibility and the importance of providing digitally accessible spaces that prioritize psychological safety, diversity, and amplifying underrepresented groups. She is a former volunteer crisis counselor with The Trevor Project, a nonprofit dedicated to suicide prevention efforts among LGBTQ+ youth and young adults. During Mental Health Awareness Month, she also spoke at Egencia, an American Express GBT company, discussing how intersectional identities impact mental health.

Jay Morris

eLiquid Product Developer
BAT

Jay is an eLiquid Product Developer at BAT and Board Member and Lead on the Southampton Site of B United, the company's LGBTQ+ employee network. In his role, Jay wrote the global guidelines and training material on transitioning at work with guidance for trans employees and their line managers. He has also organised a virtual Pride Panel for all employees across the globe and collaborated with the company’s Women in BAT and Healthy Minds networks to bring awareness on intersectionality. His diversity and inclusion work within BAT includes creating a guide to LGBTQ+ identities, a pronoun guide to raise awareness, and an agenda for the incorporation of gender-neutral bathrooms. In addition to his work at BAT, Jay has been liaising with LGBTQ+ employee resource groups in other companies, such as the RSPB, to provide additional support and advice on LGBTQ+ topics.

Dilraj Sura

Data Science Lead
GSK

Dilraj is a Data Science Lead at GSK and Co-Lead of Spectrum UK, GSK's LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group. In this role, Dilraj created a strategic framework, setting out objectives, structures and specific tole, with focuses on trans/non-binary, health and well-being, and intersectionality, to name a few. This structure supported interviews and webinars with Mermaids, Bobby Pickard and Lady Phyll, as well as a panel talk with Spectrum India during Pride, which Dilraj participated in. Dilraj has also led on days such as IDAHOBT, National Coming Out Day and Rainbow Laces, as leading inclusion dialogues within his business unit. Dilraj is also Spectrum’s Global representative on the LGBT+ Council. Spectrum were specially commend as part of the Stonewall Global WEI. Dilraj secured funding for Spectrum UK to attend Out and Equal, the worlds largest LGBTQ+ conference, as well as an interview with Tom Daley. Dilraj is supporting the launch of a new Spectrum chapter in DACH. Dilraj is a strategic partner to myGwork (WorkFair, WorkPride, mentoring programme), Stonewall (Allies Day, UK WEI) and Open For Business, including a webinar session including representatives from Poland, Kenya and Trinidad, bringing awareness of the challenges LGBTQ+ face across the world.

Max Evans

Strategy and Operations Lead
Google

As former Co-Chair of the LGBT+ Network at Virgin Media O2 (‘Proudly’), Max (he/him) was responsible for the LGBT+ inclusion strategy, leading the 30-strong steering group, advising the business and ultimately representing and maximising impact for VMO2’s LGBT+ people and 1,300 network members. Following a Joint Venture, Max helped bring both businesses together and led the creation and delivery of its strategy for LGBTQ+ inclusion. Under his leadership, the network was recognised externally, including shortlisting in the Pink News Awards and Proud Scotland Awards. In his second year leading the network, the team achieved great things, including its first national in-person pride season since COVID-19 and driving the business to commit firm, public targets to gender parity - inclusive of diverse gender identities and expressions. However, the biggest achievement was for the business to commit to support trans and gender non-conforming employees by funding gender transition treatment - a true breakthrough moment. Max has recently left VMO2 to join Google, where he is excited to see how best he can make a difference as an inclusive leader. He is a LGBTQ+ mentor through the Career Accelerator programme, where he provides coaching and mentorship to a LGBTQ+ rising star.

Sophie Collinge

Applications Analyst
Peabody

Sophie is an Applications Analyst at Peabody and part of the Peabody LGBTQ+ Network. At Peabody, she has participated in a reverse mentoring program to represent LGBTQ+ staff as a mentor and helped promote the development of a Trans and Non-Binary inclusion policy covering staff support and transitioning at work. Amongst all the DEI initiatives she took part in, she was also a panelist and article author for the Peabody Transgender Awareness Week webinar. In addition, she represented Peabody in the London Pride 2022 parade. Since December 2020, Sophie was selected to be the Trans Officer for HouseProud, an LGBTQ+ network group for the social housing sector. She is the lead organizer for the upcoming collaboration between HouseProud and Peabody for an in-person event in November. This event will encourage social housing organizations to provide safe and inclusive workplaces for Trans and Non-Binary staff and is set to coincide with Transgender Awareness Week.

Josephine Wu

Criminal Litigation Instructor
Los Angeles Superior Court

As the Criminal Litigation Instructor for the Los Angeles Superior Court, Jo fosters a classroom environment where individuality is valued and diversity is celebrated. Since 2018, Jo has mentored LGBT+ youth on personal and career development through the LifeWorks Mentoring program at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. She spoke on the importance of mentoring at the Models of Pride Conference in 2019. Jo is passionate about mentoring the next generation of LGBT+ leaders and helping them build a foundation for a bright future.

Sarah Plumer

Senior Portfolio Analyst
AXA

Sarah is a Senior Portfolio Analyst at AXA and Chair of AXA Pride Network for AXA UK. In 2020, Sarah organized a series of blogs and vlogs for National Coming Out Day around coming out, looking at gay, lesbian, trans, and HIV+ positive identities and allies. In 2021, their work focused on taking part in panel events around how mental health affects those in the LGBTQ+ community, organizing senior leaders training with Stonewall and a campaign video for Pride which hosted weekly walks and talks with the Pride Network, as well as supporting the organization of events for Rainbow Laces. In 2022, Sarah also launched the LGBTQ+ Resources Hub, supported a blog series looking at trans figures for trans day of visibility, and organized International Day Against Homophobia Biphobia and Transphobia coffee mornings across 13 locations.

Caxton Chung

Brand Specialist
Nomura

Caxton has been co-leading the Asia ex-Japan chapter of Nomura’s Pride Network since 2019. In 2021, Nomura received the highly regarded Community Business Hong Kong LGBT+ Network Award, recognizing the network’s tireless efforts in promoting the LGBT+ equality and inclusion agenda. This year alone, Caxton has advocated the alignment of Nomura’s Pride Networks across all regions to operate under the same name, bringing a sense of cohesion and global teamwork to the network’s mission. Bridging connectivity, Caxton has also worked with his network counterparts in Japan to support last year’s Pink Day initiative, raising awareness for LGBTQ+ inclusion across Nomura’s Hong Kong and Tokyo offices. Externally, Caxton is an active member of the Hong Kong LGBT+ Interbank Forum, a network of LGBT affinity groups from banks and financial firms to drive awareness of LGBT+ issues in the industry. He is also a mentor for students from Hong Kong’s higher education institutions at The QSA x FinS Mentorship Program organized by Fruits in Suits and Queer Straight Alliances.

Stacey Card

Group IT Director
BMI Group

Stacey is Group I.T. Director at BMI Group, Founder and Chair of the company LGBTQ+ ERG, Pride Under One Roof, and Founder and Chair of the Inclusion & Diversity Taskforce. Since 2021, as the founder of BMI’s LGBTQ+ ERG, she has established a community of members and allies reaching +100 in the first year and sponsored three internal events (World AIDs Day, Pride History Month, and Pride Month). Her work also focused on delivering awareness training and campaigns, personal support and advice for employees, and preparing the LGBTQ+ ERG launch to two other countries.

Dylan van Vuuren

Senior Brand Manager - Prestige Fragrance
Coty Inc.

Dylan is a Senior Brand Manager at Coty Inc. as well as the previous Team Lead of the LGBTQIA+ Sub-stream for Coty’s Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force, and is currently a founding committee member of OUT+ UK & Ireland. Over the last 18 months, under Dylan's leadership of the LGBTQIA+ Sub-stream, three Internal Employee Recourse groups for LGBTQIA+ community members and Allies, called Out+, have been launched in the North American, Asia-Pacific Region & UK&I organizations. They also worked with legal and H.R. teams to develop a Workplace Gender Transition guideline, to provide the framework for Coty to support associates who decide to transition while employed, and created a global LGBTQIA+ inclusion training available online to educate employees. In addition, in June 2021 and 2022, they launched a month of global Pride communication content focused on encouraging allyship, sharing the stories of LGBTQIA+ Coty associates, and showcasing diversity and authenticity in their advertising. Culminating in the Uk& I’s OUT+ marching in a London Pride representing the company, installing Head Office gender neutral toilets and inclusion of pronouns on instore staff badges and access cards for the first time in its history.

Paul Toomey

Print Production Manager
Sky

Paul co-chairs the LGBT+ at Sky Network and contributed to Sky’s placement in the top ten of the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index, maintaining the top media company position. Over the past two years, Paul has worked closely with the On Demand teams to help create LGBTQ+ content collections and is a consultant for the LGBT+ History Month and Pride content collections. In addition, he has organized many events at Sky, including a transgender awareness panel, a Q&A with Lord Cashman, and the company's Pride month events, plus all branding and merchandising for eleven Pride marches. Paul is also working closely with senior leaders to ensure senior buy-in is visible, having recently organised for Sky’s CEO to speak publicly at the company’s Pride event. Additionally, Paul has developed inclusion work between the Network and Bobbi Pickard, founder of Trans in the City, encouraging greater trans inclusion at Sky.