WorkPride Panel: ERGs and Their Work Year-Round

Speakers:

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  Geff Parsons

  Founder & CEO
  The Inclusion Imperative

  WHO GEFF IS Geffrye Parsons (pronouns: he/him) is the Founder and CEO (‘Chief Empathy Officer’) of The Inclusion Imperative, a best-practice Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) consultancy practice which helps commercial organisations, and their leaders and staff, harness the power of inclusion as a key strategy for wellbeing, organisational learning and superior business outcomes. Geff is a known thought leader and driver of positive change in the DE&I space – including via LinkedIn, where he has acquired almost all of his >13k followers during the past year. Although his particular expertise lies in LGBTQ+ inclusion, he focuses heavily on its intersectionality with other marginalised characteristics to promote a holistic approach to inclusion. Challenging received wisdoms and practices, Geff facilitates organisational culture shift, and encourages business learning by focusing on issues such as inclusive leadership, authenticity, empathy, compassion, psychological safety, intersectionality, allyship, conscious inclusion, bias management, wellbeing at work and imposter syndrome. WHAT GEFF OFFERS Through The Inclusion Imperative, Geff offers multiple services, including: -- speaking and moderating – keynotes, panels, ‘fireside chats’  various platforms and media, including for commercial organisations, conferences, multi-lateral platforms, podcasts and student societies  examples are available on the resources page of his website -- content generation – e.g. see his frequent posts on LinkedIn -- consulting/diagnostics – on policies, processes and systems -- training/workshops – on a bespoke, targeted-audience basis -- leadership coaching – for executives and line/people managers -- mentoring – mainly for future leaders -- strategic guidance on matters such as:  management and optimisation of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)  impactful events and communications campaigns  optimising submissions for benchmarks and awards. To all this, Geff brings the benefit of a practical, commercial perspective – having worked successfully for 35 years in front office executive roles, for leading international financial and professional services organisations, based in the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Netherlands, prior to launching The Inclusion Imperative in 2022. GEFF'S CREDENTIALS Alongside his executive front office acumen and professional qualifications (in accounting and banking), Geff holds an HR-oriented MBA (Distinction) in International Management from the University of London. As a Managing Director and long-standing chair of the LGBTQ+ ERG, Geff took his former employer, Macquarie Group, from outside the top 300 to #1 on the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index 2022, making Macquarie officially the UK’s most LGBTQ+ friendly workplace by the time he left. Geff also acted as Macquarie’s designated Wellbeing Ambassador for LGBTQ+ and intersectional related matters, and was instrumental in procuring the introduction of dedicated DE&I resources at Macquarie. Under Geff’s leadership and direction, Macquarie also won the inaugural Business Equality Award at the PinkNews Awards in 2018, in recognition of its exemplary commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion, and was shortlisted as a Top Ten Inclusive Employer by the British LGBT Awards in 2022. Individually, Geff has won many accolades, including the following:  winning the award of ‘LGBT+ Inspirational Leader’ at the British LGBT Awards in 2019  featuring in the Pride Power List 2022, the list of the 100 most influential LGBTQ+ people in the UK, published by The Guardian  twice being a shortlisted nominee for the ‘Corporate/Business Role Model’ award at the PinkNews Awards (2018 and 2022)  three times (2018, 2019 and 2021) being ranked in the annual list of the ‘Top 100 LGBTQ+ Executives’ globally (sponsored by the Financial Times/Yahoo Finance). Driven by a desire to promote inclusion in all forms, Geff is also:  a Trustee, and the Treasurer, of GiveOut, a charity promoting and facilitating charitable giving to LGBTQ+ causes internationally)  a Trustee of Diversity Role Models, a charity seeking to tackle bullying and to prevent anti-LGBTQ+ prejudice forming in children  an Advisory Board member of Voda, an LGBTQ+ mental wellbeing app – building on Geff’s experience as a Mental Wellbeing Ambassador during his time at Macquarie  a Board member, and the Treasurer, of Pride in Tennis, a not-for-profit organisation promoting LGBTQ+ inclusion in and through sport (and especially tennis)  a steering committee member of the UK Lawn Tennis Association’s “IDEA” Group, driving DE&I in tennis at all levels  a steering committee member of the British LGBT Awards  a judge of the Queer Student Awards, and formerly a judge of both the PinkNews Awards and the British LGBT Awards  a former Trustee of the London Village Network, a charity helping underprivileged young people reach their full potential.

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  Annie Newman

  Senior digital content editor
  GSK

  Being able to make a difference to LGBT+ inclusion in the health & life sciences sector is of upmost importance to me. Having grown up identifying as gay, I like many in the LGBT community have had to deal with the challenges that that can bring but as an adult I am out and proud and passionate about doing what I can to help others. As the first female lead of GSK’s award-winning LGBT+ employee network group Spectrum, I feel privileged to be able to influence GSK’s LGBT+ agenda and to be in a position to support and be the voice for those within the organisation. During my involvement with Spectrum we have grown from strength to strength and I believe one of my biggest contributions to be enabling the community to connect better than ever before. I also see that through my day job as Senior digital content editor for GSK's internal and external corporate channels, I have been able to utilise my passion for bringing to life the diversity of employees across the company. As Company Director and Engagement lead for the Proud Science Alliance, a ground-breaking cross-company collaboration. I'm responsible for engagement across our member communities. To bring such a large and diverse group of LGBT+ employee groups together with one mission takes a robust strategy and great story-telling. It’s an honour to bring their stories to life and also to work across the organisations to ensure best practice is shared. I recently was named Role Model of the Year 2020 by Pink News. Over the past few years I have placed in the 2019 and 2020 OUTstanding LGBT+ Role Model list, LGBT+ future leader category and was a finalist in DIVA's Rainbow Honours LGBT Champion category.

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  Lee Perry

  Principal Scientist | Leadership Team Member of Spectrum, GSK's LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group (ERG) | Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Champion
  GSK

  Hello Everyone, I am a Principal Scientist at GSK with +30 years of experience working within the pharmaceutical industry – and have a strong background in Research and Development (R&D). In addition to my primary scientific role, I am an active Inclusion Champion and extremely passionate about driving Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) in the workplace – and strive to create a safe environment where everyone feels empowered to bring their authentic selves to work. Through my DE&I work, I play an active role on our UK Leadership Team for Spectrum, GSK’s LGBTQ+ and Ally Employee Resource Group (ERG) – which aims to connect like-minded employees, provide support, and help our company shape a more inclusive environment for our LGBTQ+ community. I am also accountable as the corporate Lead for Pride & External Engagement, and through this role collaborate with organisations such as the Proud Science Alliance (PSA) who I have supported as their lead coordinator for public events, to facilitate an aligned approach for their partnership companies to be represented under one brand. For anyone unfamiliar with the PSA (www.proudsciencealliance.org); they are a collective of healthcare and life science sector LGBTQ+ networks, who work together to raise the bar on LGBTQ+ inclusion within their own organisations and in the sector as a whole. Externally, Caribbean carnival culture has always been a major part of my life – and for +10 years I was part of a team that managed one of the largest Trinidadian Mas Bands in Europe, in the parades at Rotterdam and Notting Hill Carnival; including the organisation of many cultural events, carnivals, parties, socials, live concerts and excursions. I now volunteer to support a smaller carnival charity group; sharing my experience to help them plan, promote and deliver fundraising events; and to raise their profile in the social events space. Please do reach out, should you wish to connect with me. For more information, visit: www.gsk.com/en-gb/responsibility/our-people/inclusion-and-diversity-at-gsk/ www.proudsciencealliance.org

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  Pete Hazell

  Support Lead
  Warner Bros. Discovery

  I've been working in the TV industry for over 25 years in various roles, including creating presentation schedules, writing continuity links and producing and editing programmes and trailers. Since June 2010 I've been working for Discovery, where I currently support the presentation scheduling department. I'm also one of the co-chairs for our UK Pride group.

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  Victor Gonzalez

  Resourcing Officer
  

  Victor Gonzalez is a Regional Recruitment Leader with the Fitch Group/Fitch Ratings in New York. He partners with business leaders on talent acquisition; securing talented individuals for various businesses across the region and in multiple global locations, including the US, Canada and Latin America. Victor has experience in three core human resources functions: Executive Recruitment, Graduate/Campus Recruitment and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. He’s held various positions of leadership throughout his career spanning multiple industries, including financial services, consumer product goods and pharmaceuticals. He’s been a Diversity Leader for the Institutional Clients Group, Office of Diversity at Citi, Global Head of Campus Recruitment at MasterCard and Regional Head of Campus Recruitment at BNP Paribas, Unilever and Roche Pharmaceuticals. Victor is a graduate of New York University.

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  Laila (She/Her) Howard

  Head of Customer Success
  

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  Kevin Brunk (he/him/his)

  Sr Financial Analyst
  Oracle

  Kevin has worked in the tech industry for over 30 years in various roles relating to Accounting, Commissions and Finance. He was born and raised in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia but moved to Indiana where he graduated from Goshen College and thereafter began his professional career. He moved to Texas over 17 years ago to escape the cold weather of Indiana, where he now resides in Leon Valley (a suburb of San Antonio), with his partner Ruben, their three dogs, two cats and a raccoon. By day, he is a bi-lingual Financial Analyst for Oracle. But in his gay job, he is on the Oracle Pride Employee Network (OPEN) ERG Global Board as North America Region co-lead, and is also the OPEN San Antonio chapter co-founder and co-lead. He is also involved with all of Oracle's 8 other Diversity and Inclusion ERGs and holds the Treasurer role for 3 other local chapters. When not in a pandemic, he and his partner enjoy traveling, attending concerts and trying new restaurants.

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  Adam Martel (he/him)

  Learning Experience Designer
  Klick

  Fighting for amazing employee experiences by moonlight. Winning by creating diversity, equity & inclusion into all I do by daylight... I'm a builder by nature. First, of awesome experiences that empower employees to take charge of their development and career growth. With 10 years of experience in learning and development, I am a People expert who's created solutions for systems training, Customer Support functions, performance management, management skills, and DEI. I'm also a builder of spaces where everyone can be their authentic selves. It's important for me to be out and proud as a queer man, advocating for the development and fostering of an inclusive environment for the queer community in the workplace. I have experience creating an Employee Resource Group for members of the community, and promoting education on LGBTQ+ topics for all employees. While this may not be on the same level of a superhero who uses a fancy scepter to fight her enemies, it does mean I'm constantly curious and looking to collaborate with others - leaders, domain experts, HR professionals and DEI champions - to innovate and make work a better place to be for everyone.

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  Ramses Oliva

  Transgender Inclusion Consultant
  Lloyds Banking Group

  Ramses (ramses.uk) is a transgender educator, writer, and activist. His main objective is reshaping the way we talk about trans inclusion in the UK, and he's currently the Transgender lead of the Rainbow LGBTQ+ Network at the Lloyds Banking Group. He has been providing advice to several companies (including British Land, Khiel's, Hitachi) to improve transgender inclusion, championing LGBTQ+ equality in schools representing 3 million students, and his work has been featured on BBC, Gay Times, Metro, PinkNews, and BBC.

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