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.