myGwork & Willis Towers Watson LGBT Network Event
On Thursday February 16, myGwork, a leading global LGBT professional network, offered 75 LGBT university students from London the chance to network with senior LGBT leaders. The list of leaders included:
- Paul Reed, The chief executive of trading division at BP
- Alicia Millar, EME learning and development Manager at Reed Smith
- Daniel Gerring, Partner at Travers Smith
- Scott James Pinder, Senior Retirement Consultant at Willis Towers Watson
- Michael Shannon, Head of Talent Acquisition Africa & Developing Countries Asia at GSK
- Stuart Mason, Lawyer at Clifford Chance
- Nick Bass, Global People and Development Director at Isobar
- Max Mukhin, Management Consultant Digital & Tech at PwC
- Zoe Burdo, Consultant & Pride Network Chair at Willis Towers Watson
- Scott Nunn, Director at Gay Star News & Digital Pride
- Pippa Dale, Head of Fixed Income Roadshows at BNP & Founder of LBWomen
- Nick Macrae, Senior Vice President at Warner Bros
- Alan Hunt, Associate Lawyer at Lewis Silkin
It was a great chance for students to ask these prominent LGBT leaders about topics both personal (such as their coming out stories), and professional (what is it like being out in the workplace?).
For these leaders, it provided the opportunity to showcase to students how their companies support diversity for their LGBTI employees.
The event was hosted at Willis Towers Watson (a new member of the myGwork community), and was coordinated by LSE’s LGBT+ Student Union.
The myGwork team believes that LGBT peoples’ success in their careers and in life is strongly influenced in these formative years. With ‘inspiration’ as the primary goal of the event, they offered unique access to these senior LGBT leaders while at the same time, provided an opportunity for leaders to give back and support younger generations. A winwin!
During the introduction, Pierre Gaubert from myGwork enhanced the importance of LGBT Role models at all ages: it starts from a very young age when people come out at school and show the way to younger LGBT students. What starts off as a hopeful path for young LGBT, often taken a sudden turn upon graduation... Studies have shown that approximately 62%of UK LGBT graduates go back into the closet during their first jobs after graduation. Sadly, they feel they will not be accepted in the workplace. This leads to a second ‘professional’ coming out process later in their careers after years needed to build up the confidence to do so. The event myGwork organised last week was an important step in helping the young LGBT generation in London feel confident to be themselves in their future careers and to help reverse this trend.
Willis Towers Watson said:
Zoe Burdo expressed her enthusiasm about hosting the event: “In these dark ages where it seems LGBTI rights are going backward, it is more important than ever for the LGBT community to stick together and send positive messages to the rest of the population - messages saying that being LGBTI is normal and we can succeed. No parents, no friends, no teacher and no manager should advise students to stay in the closet to have a great career. That is why LGBTI role models - and role models in general - are so important.”
www.mygwork.com
