Fiftyfaces Focus 2022 Pride Special: Recent Episodes
Aoifinn Devitt
A podcast that celebrates the careers of LGBT professionals around the world throughout the month of June 2022. We talk about how much has changed for LGBT inclusion in the workplace, and how much change is still needed.
Brison Scholar Lee Downing, also known as Dr. Scholar Lee, is an inspirational speaker, spiritual life coach, transformational leader and a leadership consultant based in the Atlanta, Georgia area. As a Black Man of Trans experience, he has unique insights into the challenges of transition and cloaks his guidance in a deep spirituality.
"He is the host of the podcasts "The Dr. Scholar Lee Experience" and "The Dr. Scholar Lee GENDERED. Experience" both will be launching in the Summer of 2022." He is also the CEO/Owner of T.R.A.N.S. parent Life Conversations, A Life Coaching service for Transgender Nonconforming individuals and families to cope, heal, and overcome challenges. His program helps families create affirming, supportive, and healthy relationships with their gender variant loved one.
In addition, Dr. Scholar is the author of the children's book "The Fruits of a S.C.H.O.L.A.R." which will launch to the public in September 2022.
Educationally, he obtains a BA in Psychology and two Masters, a Master's of Science in Management and Organizational Leadership (MSMOL), and a Master's in Philosophy (MPHIL). Dr. Scholar Lee will be receiving his PhD in Philosophy this year 2022. Currently, he is doing his dissertation on "The Characteristics of Trans Affirming Parenting."
Born and raised from New Haven, Connecticut. He now resides with his wife in the East Atlanta area but frequently visits Connecticut to see his 5 year old daughter and family. In addition, he is Blessed with a 15 year old bonus son and 5 year old bonus dog.
You can follow Dr. Scholar Lee on Twitter, tik tok, Instagram, and YouTube @drscholarlee.
Our conversation covers Dr. Scholar Lee's own career start, and how his own trans experience led to his current focus on affirmative coaching and spirituality. He mentions how transitioning his gender was the first decision he had made for himself and how his biggest challenge was to love himself.
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers. Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture.
Chas Manning describes himself as being passionate about people and data. He obtained a degree in manufacturing engineering from Boston University, and has held a series of engineering and operating roles with some twists and turns in between. He lives with his husband Will and two dogs in the Oak Park area outside Chicago and we are in fact, neighbors.
Our conversation starts with Chas's childhood, the importance that "play" had for him and his first enthusiastic coming out experience which was less well-received than he had hoped. He then became less out for a period of time until doing so again some years later. Chas's story is laced with anecdotes of his experience at work and in the interpersonal interactions that he thrives on. He describes feeling invisible when deliberately didn't share details of his personal life, but then the unusual feeling of feeling invisible even after he had come out to his work colleagues, due to their failure to acknowledge what he had shared.
We talk about his experience within start-ups and within data-driven organizations, and how ultimately his career has always benefited when he has been authentic at work.
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers. Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture.
Jack Dodd describes himself as a human who talks about mental health. I came across him thanks to a powerful LinkedIn post he made about how boys get sad too, in which he called to normalize expressing emotion, sometimes at work. He is a corporate partnerships lead in the Charity Sector and prior to that worked in recruitment. I asked Jack to join me to talk about the mental health advocacy that is close to his heart and to hear about the response he received to the LinkedIn post that drew me to him.
Our conversation starts with Jack’s own story, and how he developed the courage to talk about mental health, feeling sad, feeling grief and how to assist others to develop the same vulnerability. We talk about why barriers sometimes exist to this kind of sharing, and how to break them down.
We talk about "talking about" mental health at work and how one's burden can be lightened by sharing common experiences like grief, anxiety and insecurity.
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers. Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture.
Leo Caldwell is an inclusion educator and consultant at Empathy by Design, and an assistant lecturer at Ball State University School of Journalism, where he teaches visual communication courses in the Journalism Department. He also teaches podcasting and strategic social media communication in the graduate program at Drexel University.
Our conversation starts with a discussion of Leo's main focus, which is journalism and communication. Given that Leo is now an academic in the field of journalism we have the opportunity to discuss how journalism and media studies are currently presented and some of the change that is afoot in these disciplines.
We then return to his upbringing which was in Indiana in the 1990s, when transgender was not a widely discussed concept or possibility. He describes his own transition and frames it as a "journey" where there is no one destination but a continuum of constant change, experimentation and iteration.
Leo shares anecdotes of discrimination, misunderstandings and patently "non-inclusive" workplace behaviors which underscore just how different the pace of acceptance is across different work plans. He also describes how he sees every such incident as a "teachable moment" whereby he seeks to "turn his own trauma into cash". He concludes with an exhortation to young people to be less afraid and to make hard choices when required.
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers. Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture.
Robyn Grew is Group COO, general counsel and Head of ESG at Man Group as well as Head of Man Group US. Global Head of Legal and Compliance. She has been with the firm for over 12 years. Previously, she worked in a number of different compliance roles and at financial services firms. She lives with her wife in the New York City area and has a college-aged son.
For Robyn, questioning authority was a way of life - at least at the beginning. She describes her upbringing in the UK and how she was never really "not out" - but also describes the time that she came out to her parents and later in the workplace. She observes that the process of coming out is often an ongoing thing - she suggests that every new person you meet, every holiday you book, any new school you go to, anything that's new at all, you're coming out all the time - it is a constant thing that never stops. This is also the case for the child of gay parents who must "come out" about their own situation too.
Now in an executive role, Robyn describes the variety of work that she does and how much she enjoys it. She also talks about the Pride network within her firm and how little gestures like flags on email signatures or on desks can be so meaningful, and also the surprising enthusiasm around some of the Pride month merchandise that the firm (under)ordered.
Despite this progress in the workplace though, there are still areas and pockets where rights and acceptance are not what they should be and Robyn notes that there are still places she would not feel safe to go on vacation.
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers. Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture.
Joanne Monck OBE is director of global education and equality, diversity and inclusion at the Believe Foundation. She's an advocate for transgender awareness as well as domestic abuse. She was awarded an OBE for services to Transgender Equality as a Global LGBT Advocate and Independent Advisor in the 2021 New Year Honours List.
Joanne's story of transition is a searing one - she first tell's David's story, which was one of a hidden identity that experienced some domestic abuse and shaming. She then relays how Joanne was born, when David was already 58 years old, and the joy that this has brought her. Now as an inclusion advocate her driving mission is to raise awareness of gender non-conformity, suggest subtle changes that can make a difference in the workplace and in the community.
Her experience has not always been a smooth one, and Joanne describes some of the vitriolic comments that she has received on social media, and points to tis as evidence of the long way there is still to go in terms of general acceptance. Her own personal experience has been a richer one, and in particular she describes the joy she derives from her sons and a very special Mother's Day some years ago.
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers. Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture. .
Zander Keig is a social worker, emotional wellness and personal growth webinar facilitator, mental fitness coach, and social care clinical consultant based in Central Florida. He is an advocate for mental wellbeing, LGBT veterans, and trans social care, and was named NASW National Social Worker of the Year in 2020 and NASW California Social Worker of the Year in 2018.
Our conversation starts with Zander's childhood and a devastating bout of childhood illness that not only forced him to miss an extended period of school but delayed his development in a variety of ways requiring occupational therapy and speech therapy and an extended period of rehabilitation. This shaped him in numerous ways - leading to a resilience as well as an empathy which have been central in his career path.
Zander's career path has been a particularly rich and varied one, including a spell in the Coast Guard, as a firefighter, EMT, in law enforcement and a drug enforcement agency. Zander's insights from his transition are extraordinary - first he notes the "empathy gap". While as a Latina woman he would have formerly attracted high degrees of empathy, perhaps due to perceived victim status with those particular intersections. Now as a man he sees far fewer empathic connections, which underscores perhaps the lack of embrace that men get from an emotional support perspective. We move from this to analyze the large number of men who take their own lives every year and how they are perhaps overlooked by society.
Zander's perspectives on the "gender wars" is a fascinating one - having transitioned he found that people considered him to be a gay man, as he seemed effeminate as a man, yet masculine as a woman. Having realized that no-one wins the gender wars he decided to just stop playing.
You can find out more about Zander's work at www.zanderkeig.net.
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers. Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture.
Kate Baur recently started her surgical residency in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She has a particular interest in colo-rectal surgery, in particular as anal cancer is a cancer that has a higher incidence in populations such as the LGBTQ+ population. Since recording her podcast she has not only started her surgical residency but has got married.
Our conversation starts with Kate's upbringing which saw her live around the world in communities in Korea, India and China and what this taught her about different cultures as well as some of the grave inequities in services, particularly medicine. We trace her path to medical school and her interest in surgery, and reflect on the presence of role models within medicine among women and gay women in particular and find that there are very few. We speak then about the importance of medicine embracing the different needs of the LGBTQ+ community and how little of the curriculum addresses this.
Kate is passionate about advocating for the relatively "invisible" LGBTQ+ community when it comes to medicine and this is what drew her to colorectal surgery in particular. We compare the approach to screening for anal cancer to screening for cervical cancer and find that the principles are the same but, again, the advocacy is lacking. There is more information about the "Anchor Study" which is investigating screening and treatment for anal cancer in patients who are HIV+ on the following link. https://anchorstudy.org/
Kate mentions GLMA which is an organization of health professionals advancing LGBTQ equality (https://www.glma.org/) as a prominent affinity group that is raising awareness.
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers. Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture.
Elizabeth (Liz) Kleinerman is a Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at Wellington Management, based in Boston. She has worked at Wellington for her entire career, and is Chair of the Advisory Board of the Wellington Foundation as well as a Founder of the firm’s Pride+ Network and a leader of its diversity and inclusion efforts. She lives with her wife and two sons in the Boston area.
Our conversation starts with Liz's upbringing in a town south of Boston, where her family was one of few Jewish families in a primarily Irish Catholic town. She went to Dartmouth and through a process of elimination found investment management as a career. She joined Wellington as she felt a connection to the people she met, and she has remained at the firm for over 20 years.
We talk about the challenge of being another "other" in financial services, and why sometimes gay women are less visible in the workforce than gay men.
At Wellington, Liz helped to found the Pride Network and we discuss how it came about and grew from modest roots. We examine the areas that it covers now - such as education around evolving gender norms, celebration events and an ongoing commitment to inclusion. We also touch on her work at the Wellington Foundation and its commitment to improving educational opportunities for underserved youth.
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers. Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture.
We are delighted to bring you our second Pride Special, in which we celebrate the career journeys of LGBTQ+ professionals around the world. In this year’s series we speak with a surgeon in training committed to raising awareness of the LBGTQ+ community, a finance industry COO who was once a teenage rebel, a recent recipient of an OBE award for services to the diversity an inclusion, a fixed income fund manager, a data junkie, a social worker and many more.
We talk about the challenges of coming out (sometimes over and over again), the lack of role models across professions and in medicine in particular, how advocacy is lacking in medicine too, and why nobody wins the gender wars. Tune in to hear from these 9 amazing guests:
Elizabeth Kleinerman is a Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at Wellington Management, based in Boston. She has worked at Wellington for her entire career, and is Chair of the Advisory Board of the Wellington Foundation as well as the Founder of the firm’s Pride Network and a leader of its diversity and inclusion efforts. She lives with her wife and two sons in the Boston area.
Leo Caldwell is an inclusion educator and consultant at “Empathy by Design” and an Assistant Lecturer at Ball State University School of Journalism where he teaches visual communication courses in the journalism department. He also teaches podcasting and strategic social media communication in the graduate program at Drexel University.
Chas Manning describes himself as being passionate about people and data. He obtained a degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Boston University and has held a series of engineering and operating roles, with some twists and turns in between. He lives with his husband Will and two dogs in the Oak Park area outside Chicago.
Brison Scholar Lee Downing, also known as Dr. Scholar Lee, who is an inspirational speaker, spiritual life coach, transformational leader and a leadership consultant based in the Atlanta, Georgia area. As a Black Man of Trans experience, he has unique insights into the challenges of transition and cloaks his guidance in a deep spirituality.
Robyn Grew is group COO and General Counsel as well as Global Head of Legal & Compliance at Man Group. Previously she worked in a number of different compliance roles at financial services firms. She lives with her wife in the NYC area and has a college aged son.
Zander Keig is a licensed clinical social worker, emotional wellness and personal growth webinar facilitator, and trans social care clinical consultant based in Central Florida. He was named NASW National Social Worker of the Year in 2020, NASW California Social Worker of the Year in 2018, and WPATH Educator of the Year in 2020. To learn more about Zander visit his website: www.zanderkeig.net
Kate Baur is a fourth year medical student at Loyola. She lives with her fiancée in the Chicago area, however will be starting her surgical residency in Ann Arbor this June. She has a particular interest in colo-rectal surgery, in particular as anal cancer is a cancer that has a higher incidence in populations such as the LGBTQ+ population.
Jack Dodd describes himself as a human who talks about mental health. I came across him thanks to a powerful LinkedIn post he made about how boys get sad too, in which he called to normalize expressing emotion, sometimes at work. He is a corporate partnerships lead at Citizens Advice and prior to that worked in client accounts management and partnership development at Stonewall and prior to that in recruitment. I asked Jack to join me to talk about the mental health advocacy that is close to his heart.
Joanne Monck, OBE is director of global education and equality, diversity and inclusion at The Believe Foundation. She is an advocate for transgender awareness as well as domestic abuse, and last year was awarded and OBE for services to transgender equality in the 2021 New Year
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers. Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture.
The Honorable Judge Victoria Kolakowski, is a judge of the Superior Court of Alameda County, in the Bay Area of California and in November 2010 she was the first Transgender person to be elected a Trial Judge. Judge Kolakowski is a committed advocate for transgender people and makes herself available throughout the United States and internationally for conferences, seminars and interviews acting as a role-model and providing support. Her conversation with a new host, Patrick Devitt, goes back to her childhood, to her earliest days of wishing she were a girl, through adolescence, college and law school. She talks about her transition, reactions to it, the support network that made it possible and how being transgender affected her employment opportunities and career path. We hope you enjoy this profoundly moving interview that we are releasing to coincide with LGBT History Month in the UK. There is more information about Judge Kolakowski on the following links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Kolakowski https://vkolakowski.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzPT40eaEGY&list=PLIsDBjtKYyJalB8rWNJqtKt-bAhhX2h6T
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.
Perry Zizzi is a Managing Partner at Dentons based in Bucharest, Romania, and he has worked in corporate law since the mid 1990s, when we met as office mates in a midtown Manhattan law firm Debevoise & Plimpton. He is the President, Founder and Board Member of the Romanian Diversity Chamber of Commerce.
Our trip down memory lane starts with Perry's childhood in upstate NY where his early fascination with history led him to cycle around the town making a map of the streets. He also collected stamps as well as a coterie of mentors including teachers and local historians. Later on in Georgetown he deliberately sought out professors who might push him outside his comfort zone and his love of languages, Latin America and travel took root. Perry often talked about his time in Palau with the Peace Corps while we shared an office, and it was fascinating to reflect on the lessons learned from time spent in this island in Micronesia with a population of around 18,000 people.
Our conversation then moves to his time at law school, practicing corporate law, and the twists and turns that took him to Paris and then Romania, and the shifts that led him to realize how much he enjoyed practicing. We talk about his work in the Romanian Diversity Chamber of Commerce and how the inclusion of LGBT professionals has changed dramatically over the course of his career. We finish with reflections on wisdom shared by some legendary teachers.
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.
Oli Shakir-Khalil is an investment director in EM Debt at Fidelity International, based in London. We met at an industry conference where he discussed his role as a mental health ambassador within his firm and the industry and his efforts to amplify the importance of mental health awareness. He is passionate about the need to reinforce listening within organizations and the debunk the myth that this area should be taboo. His initiatives both within his own firm and within the industry are innovative and powerful to spread inclusion and promote dialogue about this issue.
Our conversation starts with Oli's university specialty of classics and how he happened upon a city career with this quite unconventional background. What it did endow him with, though, was sharp writing skills and a comfort and ease with public speaking and client situations, which were the essential cultural "add" to round out a team.
We speak about his role as a mental health ambassador, why these roles are more essential than ever today, in light of the Covid-19 disruptions and enforced isolation and how simple adjustments like noting his status on his signature - indicating that he is "free to talk" and that colleagues who may be struggling can open up to him can be critical.
Oli is also an active advocate for the LGBT community at work and in the City.
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.
Genie Cesar-Fabian is a Partner, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Palladium Equity Partners, based in the NYC area. She previously worked as in-house counsel, a law professor and an attorney in private practice. She lives with her wife and two children in the NYC area.
Our discussion starts with a look-back to Genie's childhood in Long Island, her love of sports and music, and her experience of coming out in the Village of NYC in the 1990s. She tells a deeply personal story of some of the struggle that was involved.
Her study of law seemed to be pre-destined, and it lived up to all of its expectations. We spend a little time talking about the law course that she thought on law and literature, and how she started her career in private practice but ultimately transitioned to an in-house role and the benefits that that brought. Her professional experience was a broadly positive one - with inclusive forward-thinking environments where her status as a parent and a member of the LGBT community was welcomed.
We then turn to her assessment of the current levels of inclusion and acceptance and marvel that things have come so far, but we do note the small gestures that continue to make a difference in creating a welcoming environment.
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.
Matthew Choyce is a Virtual Event and Video Production Specialist at I-connections. He has worked in event production since high school. He is the President and Founder of the Foundation for Gay Youth in Technology, a nonprofit which encourages, empowers and provides resources to LGBTQ+ youth and young adults across the technology industries.
Our conversation dives into to the rapidly evolving world of event production - and takes in the dramatic changes that the space has seen since the Covid disruptions. We look at whether a blend of real and virtual events will be the way of the future.
We then turn to the foundation that Matthew founded with his Partner in order to provide resources and support to gay youth interested in working in the technology arena. He describes what the gaps were that this foundation was intended to solve, and reveals the supports that are so critical, particularly when young people feel isolated as many did during lockdowns.
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.
Nicci Take is interim head of growth at Mercer. She is an expert in sales, and is the chairwoman/founder of M62 Vincis, which helps organizations win by working out the last 15 mins of the sales cycle. She is a Presenter, Entrepreneur and stand up Comedienne and a prominent transgender advocate, inspirational speaker and coach. who is a #BritishLGBTAwards Top 10 Inspirational Leader as well as one of the FT 100 Leading LGBT+ Executives 2017.
Nicci's experience as a sales expert was developed over decades of global experience, often as an entrepreneur. She resists efforts to reduce sales to a process and stresses the importance of relationships and the human connection. Her transgender journey had a different trajectory - although she always felt drawn to feminine things in her youth, she only transitioned in her professional life at age 42. We talk at length about that, about how it transformed her approach to business and changed her management style.
The transition also paved the way for tremendous insights not only into how women are treated in the workplace but also into how many contemporaries and colleagues - both familiar and those less so - viewed femininity and women more generally. As a stand-up comic, Nicci can always see the funny side of what life has thrown her way, and this humor comes through wonderfully in this podcast.
You can read more about Nicci on http://niccitake.com/
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.
David Mooney is a former asset manager and commodities specialist, having spent close to 30 years in the financial services industry. He has managed derivatives and commodities desks at investment banks and hedge funds, and ran a fund of commodities funds for close to 10 years, which is when we met.
David is a bit of a legend in the area of commodities investment, and I have always known him to have a skeptical eye and an aversion to hubris. Never afraid to call a spade a spade, in this podcast David gives a refreshing overview of the industry he made his own and advises that it is always essential to maintain the element of surprise.
We turn to the topic of diversity and inclusion and LGBT inclusion in particular, and David has some fascinating insights into the way things were - as well as into the way they are starting to trend.
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.
Georgy Egorov is Chief Financial Officer of Vaccitech, a firm that develops vaccines and T cell immunotherapies to treat and prevent cancer and infectious diseases. It was one of the firms behind the recently launched Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. He has held a series of executive roles in fintech and biotech firms, and prior to that worked in finance both at the EBRD and investment banking. He was born in Russia and studied in the Netherlands and University of Cambridge in the UK.
Our conversation starts with Georgy's upbringing in Russia and the somewhat wild backdrop of the 1990s, which was, surprisingly, a very liberal time in the country. In the spirit of new beginnings, he set off for London after university with the bare minimum in his pocket and no work visa. A fortuitous landing in the EBRD set him on course for a successful career in banking. This is where the first journey of discovery begins. We discuss the environment on trading floors in investment banking in the 1990s, when homophobic slurs were not uncommon and LGBT role models were largely absent.
The second journey of discovery was the drive to keep learning and move into the world of tech, AI and ultimately biotech, which saw him shift from a traditional hierarchical structure to a flat, entrepreneurial environment. Inclusion and acceptance was encouraged in this environment, and we reflect then on how far professional settings have come in terms of acceptance but the areas where more work needs to be done - namely in the area of inclusion and the availability of role models.
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.
Jenny Whiteman is a Director of Legal Services at the international business of Federated Hermes, based in London, a role she has held for over 12 years. She previously worked as a solicitor at Eversheds. She lives with her wife and two children in London.
As a former colleague of Jenny's I was thrilled to talk to her about her career journey and how she moved through the ranks in private practice initially and subsequently in an in-house role. We talk about what attracted her into law, and what she enjoys about in-house practice.
We move then to talk about Jenny's experience in the workplace as a gay woman and as a working parent. We speak about the startling statistic that gay women in the workplace are twice as likely to not be out than gay men, and why Lesbian Visibility Week is even needed to raise awareness of this fact. We mention the inclusive gestures that would contribute to more freedom to bring one's whole self to work and the fact that there is still a lack of prominent gay role models in this respect.
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.
Ozzie Gromada Meza is Director of Membership and Talent Intelligence at the Latino Corporate Directors Association and has spent 11 + years in the executive recruiting space. He is an advocate for LGBT and Latino causes, and is currently based in Reno Nevada and holds a number of committee and volunteer roles.
Our conversation starts with the role of the Latino Corporate Directors Association and the fact that Latin-x individuals remain seriously underrepresented at Board level. We speak about the progress that is needed in this area, and the small degrees of change that are already happening at state level, particularly in California.
We then turn the conversation to the state of LBGT inclusion, at every level in the workplace, but we note that as in the case of the Latino population, LGBT role models are also sorely lacking at Board level and in other executive roles. We discuss Ozzie's own journey, which, in his case, had two speeds - one speed in the workplace, where he found a nurturing circle of colleagues who allowed him to be his authentic self. His personal and family life operated at another speed, and we talk about how he reconciled the two.
Finally we talk about the particular difficulty that some LGBT parents have in finding true inclusion in the workplace and Ozzie discusses what supports have been most helpful in raising his twins with his husband.
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.
Many of our stories in the Fiftyfaces Podcast discuss diversity, but some only touched on LGBT diversity and it was clear from my discussions that even though tremendous progress has been made in the area of LGBT inclusion, role models in this area were highly appreciated, and ongoing allyship was needed.
In this series I have assembled a group of nine diverse professionals, each with fascinating stories of accomplishments and career paths. They discuss how LGBT inclusion has shifted throughout their career, assess their industries according to it today and express their hopes for the future.
The guests in the 2021 Pride Month special are:
Matthew Choyce, who is a Virtual Event and Video Production Specialist at Iconnections. He has worked in event production since high school. He is the President and Founder of the Foundation for Gay Youth in Technology, a nonprofit which encourages, empowers and provides resources to LGBTQ+ youth and young adults across the technology industries
Georgy Egorov who is Chief Financial Officer of Vaccitech, a firm that develops vaccines and T cell immunotherapies to treat and prevent cancer and infectious diseases. He has held a series of executive roles in fintech and biotech firms, and prior to that worked in finance both at the EBRD and investment banking. He was born in Russia and studied in the Netherlands, as well as at University of Cambridge in the UK.
Ozzie Gromada Meza, who is Director of Membership and Talent Intelligence at the Latino Corporate Directors Association and a Former Manager, Board Governance & People Intelligence at JamesDrury Partners. He is an advocate for LGBT and Latino causes, and is currently based in Reno,Nevada and holds a number of committed and volunteer roles.
The Honorable Judge Victoria Kolakowski, who is a judge of the Superior Court of Alameda County, in the Bay Area of California. In November 2010 she was the first Transgender person to be elected a Trial Judge. Judge Kolakowski is a committed advocate for transgender people and makes herself available throughout the United States and internationally for conferences, seminars and interviews acting as a role-model and providing support.
David Mooney, who is a former asset manager and commodities specialist, having spent close to 30 years in the financial services industry. He has managed derivatives and commodities desks at investment banks and hedge funds, and ran a fund of commodities funds for close to 10 years, which is when we met.
Oli Shakir-Khalil, who is an investment director in EM Debt at Fidelity International, based in London. We met at an industry conference where he discussed his role as a mental health ambassador within his firm and the industry and his efforts to amplify the importance of mental health awareness.
Nicci Take is currently interim head of growth at Mercer. She is an expert in sales, and is the chairwoman/founder at M62 vincis, which helps organizations win by working out the last 15mins of the sales cycle make. She is a Presenter, Entrepreneur and stand-up Comedienne and a prominent transgender advocate, inspirational speaker and coach
Jenny Whiteman, who is a Director of Legal Services at the international business of Federated Hermes, based in London, a role she has held for over 12 years. She previously worked as a solicitor at Eversheds. She lives with her wife and two children in London.
Perry Zizzi, who is a Managing Partner at Dentons law firm based in Bucharest, Romania, and he has worked in corporate law since the mid 1990s, when we met as office mates in a midtown Manhattan law firm Debevoise & Plimpton. He is the President, Founder and Board Member of the Romanian Diversity Chamber of Commerce.
This series is brought to you with the kind support of:
David Mooney
Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.