Last week our London office hosted their second annual proPRIDE UK event. This year’s event welcomed over 100 clients, colleagues and friends to the Shard to discuss the topic of being confident in being your true self at work.  The aim of the event was to raise awareness of LGBT+ issues amongst London’s LGBT+ business community and straight allies.  As part of the evening we hosted a panel discussion to discuss the results of a brief survey that we conducted, along with personal experiences of our incredibly diverse and senior panel.

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James Holt (Communications Director, Pride in London), Sue Baines (Director Premier Banking Products & Savings, Barclays), Pips Bunce (Head of GM Technology Core Engineering Integration Components, Credit Suisse), Sanisha Wynter (Alumni Relations Officer, Stonewall), Philip Maziarz (Managing Director, Protiviti)

The diversity of the panel was duly noted throughout the whole event and brought a distinct life to the conversation. At one point during the panel, panelist Pips Bunce said “I knew I HAD to be authentic”, a note which seemed to resonate with the entire audience.

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Pictured above are the panelist with Peter Richardson (head of Protiviti UK), Suki Sandhu (CEO of OUTstanding), Andrew Wieser (Manager & Co-chair of proPRIDE UK), Belton Flournoy (Associate Director & Co-chair of proPRIDE UK)

As part of the event this year, Protiviti was the Gold sponsor of Pride in the City, a new mayor backed initiative for Pride in London dedicated to increasing diversity in the workplace.

Protiviti Associate Director and event organizer Belton had this to say, “The type of diversity Protiviti supports is not just about orientation and gender identity.” He continued, “We have a global initiative focused on the growth and the retention of women, a multi-cultural employee networking group and a group for working parents and families, just to name a few. The goal of our recent event at the Shard was to publicly discuss the importance being your true self at work”.

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A couple colleagues networking at the event.

All in all the evening was incredibly successful. A night filled with networking, learning and the opportunity to know those we work along side everyday, just a little bit better.

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