Workplace Conference 2025 Programme

About the Speaker | Simon Blake OBE is CEO of Stonewall. He joined Stonewall in September 2024. Previously he was Chief Executive of the social enterprise Mental Health First Aid England. Simon is a non-executive director of the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. He was awarded an OBE for services to children and young people in 2011 and is a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute.  

About the Session | In this session, we will explore how to build and strengthen the case for inclusion highlighting the crucial role inclusion plays in organisational success and sharing tools to advocate internally and externally for inclusion.   

About the Speaker | Heather’s career spans over 40 years across Financial, Professional & Technology Services, with a specific focus on international trade, entrepreneurship and corporate banking. Heather has won many accolades, including being listed on the Black Powerlist, as one of the 100 most influential black people in the UK.  She is a member of the Executive Leadership Council (ELC), whose purpose is to open channels of opportunity for black executives to positively impact business and communities, and the CFO's Diversity Forum for Business in the Community (FTSE100). Heather is also Patron of Women in Banking & Finance (WIBF) and in June 2024 she became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers. In 2017 Heather was awarded an OBE for her services to Banking and Financial Services. In 2022 she was inaugurated as the Chancellor of the University of York. 

About the Speaker | Dame Nia is the Minister for Equalities, as well as Minister for Wales and has been the MP for Llanelli since 2005. She has been a vocal campaigner for LGBTQ+ issues and now leads much of the government’s work on LGBTQ+ issues, including banning conversion practices and supporting equal routes to parenthood. 

About the Session | During this session our speaker will share her reflections, on how our personal and professional lives are shaped by our experiences and how we can create spaces of psychological safety that enable people to feel included at work. 

 About the Speaker | Sarah McIntosh is the Chief Executive of Mental Health First Aid England. She is passionate about driving social change to create mentally healthy workplaces where people, communities and businesses thrive. With her background in HR, Sarah found a drive for diversity and wellbeing when developing the experiences of customers, members, and employees. From mutuals and social enterprises, to co-operatives and charities, social purpose has been central to her career. Sarah is a Non-Executive Director at Social Enterprise UK and a Companion of the Chartered Institute of Management. 

About the Session | During this session, we will explore how we take a systems change approach to creating more inclusive spaces and draw learning and parallels from different movements for change that enable us to act collectively and collaboratively from a place of power.   

About the Speaker | Adah Parris is a futurist and pattern navigator crafting transformative frameworks to navigate systemic complexity. As a pioneer in mental health, innovation, and leadership, she invites audiences to rethink their influence and the legacy they will leave behind, using The Presence Lab to bridge individual and collective transformation. 

About the Session | This panel will be convened by Protiviti around their new research into the experiences of different generations in the workplace. During this panel we’ll discuss the outcomes of the research, the implications for LGBTQ+ people, and the related to attitudes towards inclusion.   

About the Chair | Fintan Canavan, Associate Director – Business performance and Improvement (People and Change), Protiviti UK 

For the last 8 years, Fintan has worked at Protiviti UK, supporting organisations as they undergo Change and Transformation, with a particular focus on the impact on people. He has worked closely with academics at the LSE on the Generations study since its inception in 2023. He provides mentoring support to colleagues as they navigate their careers and actively promotes access for all to training and career opportunities. In the later stages of his previous career in the City, Fintan performed Chief Operating Officer roles. He is a qualified accountant (FCCA) and a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.   

About the Speakers |  

Anne Onwusiri, Senior Deliver and Impact Officer, Stonewall & Founder, Black Girls Ruck 

Anne Onwusiri (they/them) is a committed and passionate advocate for diversity and inclusivity. They founded 'Black Girls Ruck', a community network and initiative aimed at increasing the involvement of Black women and non-binary people in rugby and addressing issues of racial and gender equity in sports. Alongside their work with Black Girls Ruck, Anne is a key figure at Stonewall, where they play a crucial role in advancing LGBTQ+ rights, notably through initiatives like the Young Leaders Programme, empowering young LGBTQ+ individuals to become future advocates and leaders in the community. Anne's multifaceted efforts reflect a deep commitment to creating inclusive spaces where everyone can thrive. Through their leadership and vision, they continue to focus on driving meaningful change in the realm of social justice. 

Hendrick Sadie, Manager (Technology Consulting), Protiviti UK  

Hendrik Sadie is a distinguished Manager in the Technology Consulting division at Protiviti, where he brings his extensive expertise in IT Audit to the forefront. His contributions have been instrumental in enhancing our service offerings, particularly in areas such as IT governance, cybersecurity, data privacy, and risk management. He is a strong advocate for workplace equality as an active member of Protiviti's LGBTQ+ employee network group (ProPride) that champions LGBTQ+ causes, fostering an inclusive and diverse environment. Hendrik’s personal milestones echo historic events, as he celebrated his 50th birthday in 2019, the same year as the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, a pivotal moment in LGBTQ+ history. This alignment of personal and historic milestones underscores Hendrik's commitment to advocacy both within and outside the workplace. 

About the Session | All organisations are interesting in attracting and retaining the best talent, including LGBTQ+ talent. As part of Stonewall’s ongoing work around nurturing early career talent, in this panel we’ll explore how to ensure that you’re able to authentically appeal to LGBTQ+ people entering the workforce as well as support them entering your workplace and thriving.   

About the Host | Lucian Main (he/him), Partnership Executive at Inclusive Companies 

Lucian Main is a partnership executive at Inclusive Companies, where he helps organisations create more inclusive workplaces. He is a transgender male breaking barriers in the Diversity and Inclusion world, he is a passionate advocate for Employee Resource Groups and the colleague-first approach. 

About the Speaker | Bobbi Pickard (she/her), CEO, Trans in the City 

Bobbi Pickard is a Diversity Equity and Inclusion professional with many years senior operational and programme management experience in the banking, trading, technology and energy sectors. She is CEO of Trans in the City an organisation she founded in response to seeing a lack of co-operative working between global corporates to help the trans and non-binary community and has transformed it into a global organisation with over 350 major organisations collaborating on furthering trans awareness across the world.  Extremely active in all areas of diversity Bobbi speaks at many events around the world on LGBTQIA+ inclusion in business, trans issues and diversity and inclusion in industry.  

About the Session:  This session will explore how organisations can leverage their commitments to both anti-racism and LGBTQ+ inclusion in order to strengthen all of their work. We’ll explore what a commitment to anti-racism means in practice and how collaboration can support all employees to thrive. This session will be hosted by UK Black Pride. 

About the Chair | Lady Phyll (she/her), Co-founder and CEO, UK Black Pride  

Phyll Opoku-Gyimah is the nucleus of the award-winning celebration and protest that is UK Black Pride. Widely known as Lady Phyll – partly due to her decision to reject an MBE in the New Year’s Honours' list to protest Britain’s role in formulating anti-LGBTQI+ penal codes across its empire – she was also the executive director of Kaleidoscope Trust, an organisation working to uphold the human rights of LGBTQI+ people around the world.  

About the Speakers: 

Hayden Woodley-Gibson (he/him), Senior Community & Engagement Manager, NYX Professional Makeup (L’Oréal) 

Hayden is the Senior Community & Engagement Manager for the NYX Professional Makeup brand at L’Oréal, where he champions intersectionality within the Queer People of Colour community. He is a socially conscious and culturally attuned marketer with expertise in curating nationwide campaigns for product launches, brand equity, and CSR. With his career beginning at L'Oréal Paris, in his work with the NYX Professional Makeup brand, he has overseen the revitalization of the brand’s CSR platform, Proudly Pro-You. Via his leadership, he has been able to impact over 16,000 Queer People of Colour's lives while simultaneously shifting purchase intent among the core brand audience. 

Chaka Bachmann (she/her), Director and Founder, Impact Culture  

Chaka is the founder of Impact Culture, a consultancy that has partnered with over 100 organisations to build inclusive, equitable, and anti-racist cultures. With a particular focus on embedding anti-racist and anti-oppressive practice, Chaka supports teams, boards, and leadership groups to take meaningful steps towards equity and systemic change. A specialist in LGBT+ inclusion and intersectional approaches, Chaka previously worked with Stonewall, where she led state-of-the-nation research on the experiences of LGBT+ communities across the UK. Her work has informed policy and practice across academic institutions, government bodies, and the third sector. Chaka is passionate about the power of data, dialogue, and deep cultural understanding to drive lasting change. Her practice is rooted in the belief that equity work must be both rigorous, relational and restorative. 

About the Session | We’ve spent the past six months inviting and listening to feedback and insights from the organisations that we work with. During this time we’ll share some reflections from this process on future trends for LGBTQ+ inclusion work as well as some of the actions we’re taking to provide you with the best support.   

About the Speaker | Sarah has worked at Stonewall for over eight years and recently took on the role of Head of Programmes, driving our work to provide organisations with the support they need to champion inclusion. She is a specialist facilitator who has worked with hundreds of organisations, teams and individuals across the public, private and third sectors to reflect and develop their inclusion strategies and practice.  

About the Session | In this session we’ll hear from The National Trust who have taken bold and innovative steps to centre LGBTQ+ inclusion in their organisational strategy. They’ll share insights from this process as well as advice for other organisations looking to embed inclusion at the heart of their strategy.        

About the Speakers

Liz Girling (she/her), People Engagement Director, The National Trust  

Liz is a driving force behind the Trust’s Everyone Welcome, culture change programme that aims to create a more inclusive culture, be more relevant to the nation and to diversify the staff and supporter base. Liz has also held various Trustee positions including at Wales Council for Voluntary Action; and is currently a non-Executive Director for Cadw, the historic environment arm of Welsh Government.   

Hannah Burton (she/her), Inclusion and Belonging Officer, The National Trust 

As the Inclusion and Belonging Officer for the National Trust, Hannah works on a wide range of projects including leading and coordinating the National Trust’s presence at multiple Pride events, leading a national partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society, and developing the Inclusion and Wellbeing communications calendar.  

Dr Jerzy J Kierkuc-Bielinski (he/him), Cultural Heritage Curator and Co-Chair of the LGBTQ+ Network, The National Trust 

Educated at the Courtauld Institute of Art, Dr Kierkuc-Bielinski has worked for the National Trust since 2017 as a curator and has looked after such properties as Vita Sackville-West’s Sissinghurst and Virginia Woolf’s former home at Monk’s House. In addition to his substantive role, he is currently Co-Chair of the National Trust’s LGBTQ+ staff network. 

About the Session | In this conversation we’ll look at innovative ways for organisations to put data at the heart of their LGBTQ+ inclusion work. We will explore how to collect and present data to drive inclusion outcomes.    

About the Host | Laura Wells (they/them), Strategy Specialist, Vodafone UK 

Professionally, Laura works in Business Strategy – crunching the numbers and bringing in experts to direct leadership teams towards evidence-based decisions, first in sustainable tech and now telecoms. Queerily, they are Vodafone UK’s Trans & Events Lead, using their 5 years’ experience in Global LGBT+ Network leadership to drive sustainable inclusive change and a sense of community for all LGBT+ people in their organisation.  

About the Speaker | Jennifer Thomas (she/her), Global Head of Diversity Equity and Inclusion, London Stock Exchange Group 

Jennifer Thomas is a prominent diversity & inclusion and communications specialist with over 25 years combined experience in leading external and internal Communications as well as introducing and developing equity, diversity and inclusion strategies within various organisations. She is currently the Global Head of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) leading the EDI strategy and agenda for LSEG. Jennifer was previously the Head of Communications for the Data & Analytics division of LSEG and prior to that she consulted at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to lead the next phase of their global diversity and inclusion strategy. She is also the Senior Independent Director for England Netball and UK Athletics. Previous roles include Director of Internal Communications, Experience & Sustainability and Director of Financial Communications at Direct Line Group.  

About the Session | For this roundtable chaired by Radius, we’ll convene network leads and those who support LGBTQ+ networks to discuss how your organisation can work with your network to effectively support employee wellbeing as people navigate both personal and geopolitical challenges.   

About the Chair | Tim Macavoy (he/him), Head of Product, Radius Networks 

Tim Macavoy is Head of Product at Radius Networks. We have helped top global organisations develop their EDI ecosystem, in particular employee networks and their leaders, for 16 years. Tim came to Radius in 2017 to launch their Employee Network Leadership Programme and enjoys the broad range of challenges and opportunities that come with supporting so many industries and locations as a new and connected workforce. Tim has a broad background in technology, media, and the arts, with previous UX design positions at Microsoft and Government Digital Service. He also has practical experience of founding and leading diversity networks, from the Student Union to LGBT+ youth radio, Skype to InterTech Diversity Forum.  

About the Speakers 

Sarah Churchman OBE, Consultant and Expert ED&I Facilitator  

A pioneering and award-winning global DEI and Workplace Wellbeing leader, speaker and facilitator, Sarah was recently Chief Inclusion, Wellbeing and Culture Officer at PWC. She has featured in Personnel Today’s Most Influential People in HR list, was awarded Diversity Leader of the Year in the Excellence in Diversity Awards and featured in the Accountancy Age Financial Power List. Her work on gender equality at PwC has been recognised externally with a series of accolades and Sarah herself was awarded an OBE in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List for services to women in business, equality, diversity and inclusion. 

Graeme Caul, Chief Operating Officer, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust  

Graeme Caul has been the Chief Operating Officer at Central and North West London Foundation Trust since 2022.  He joined our team in Camden in 2010.  He has been a Borough, then Service Director before taking his first Managing Director role in 2017 (including working in Milton Keynes).  Before becoming Chief Operating Officer, he led Goodall, the largest division of the Trust, as well as Chairing the Camden Integrated Care Partnership and leading several systemwide programmes in North West and North Central London. 

Jack Guest (he/him), Formerly Global Inclusion Director at HSBC  

Jack Guest is a passionate leader dedicated to fostering equity and inclusion (D&I) within Financial Services. With a career in workplace strategy that began at HSBC at 19, he initially progressed from a branch greeter to international roles, securing a placement in Hong Kong in 2011. Jack noticed challenges for LGBTQ+ inclusion in Asia and co-founded HSBC’s Pride employee resource group there. In 2014, he became the region’s first full-time D&I lead, driving critical initiatives like equalizing same-sex partner benefits and enhancing trans-friendly customer service. In 2019, Jack became Head of Diversity and Inclusion for HSBC’s global retail bank, and in 2023, he was appointed Group Inclusion Advisor. His work exemplifies a commitment to meaningful, global change. 

Keiren Sharman (he/him), Head of Portfolio Management, Lloyds Banking Group  

Keiren is the Head of Portfolio Management for Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets, overseeing the Deal Screening Process for LBCM Products, to optimise efficient use of the Banks Capital and liquidity, alongside management and shaping of Commerical Pricing tools, risk mitigation and distribution strategies.  Keiren is deeply passionate about inclusion and has been on the Steering Committee of the Rainbow LGBTQ+ Network since 2012 and Chairing the Interbank Committee between 2021 and 2023. Keiren stepped up to be Co-Chair of the Rainbow Network in 2024. 

About the Session | Erin will share her wisdom and insight from many years supporting businesses in the US and around the world in her role as CEO at Out and Equal. She’ll particularly focus on what UK and global organisations can learn from the political challenges that the US is facing and how we can continue to stand strong in our commitment to inclusion.   

About the Speaker | Erin Uritus (she/her), CEO, Out and Equal 

Erin Uritus has worked internationally to advocate for marginalized groups with a dedicated focus on equal rights, press freedom, racial equality, global education, and LGBTQ+ inclusion. From Europe to West Africa and the Middle East, her experience includes leading significant modernization and cultural transformation initiatives in private and public sectors and building capacity within international institutions. Since joining Out and Equal in early 2018 as a Board member and now as CEO, Erin has been instrumental in stewarding the organization through a period of significant transformation—public policy updates, legislative changes, and the COVID-19 pandemic— all while establishing the organization as a leader in the "Business of Belonging," nearly tripling its staff and revenue.