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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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’.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.