Diversity and Inclusion
We believe that a diverse and inclusive culture makes for more innovative, engaged and effective teams. Through our work identifying leaders across many sectors and throughout the world, we are determined to contribute to the process that will deliver equity, diversity and inclusion.
Appointments
We outline case studies that demonstrate our commitment to deliver equity, diversity and inclusion across our practices and geographies.
York University
Venturers Trust
Warwick Arts Centre
Wikimedia Foundation
CGIAR
University of Leicester
Festival UK 2022
York University, Law and Society Indigenous Scholar
Perrett Laver was engaged by York University to identify, engage, and secure top talent, seeking eight placements, including the appointment of an Indigenous scholar in the Law and Society discipline.
The search’s primary aim was to identify a scholar who would be able to teach using an Indigenous methodological perspective, and who was committed to developing an Indigenous framework from a pedagogical perspective.
Perrett Laver’s research team, using cutting-edge methodologies and proactive outreach, connected with nearly 150 relevant individuals and had 23 confirm their interest in the role.
Venturers Trust, CEO
Venturers Trust is a dynamic and focused multi-academy trust comprising primary, secondary, all-age schools and a special school in Bristol.
Perrett Laver was engaged to support the appointment of a new Chief Executive following the sudden sad death of the Trust’s previous Chief Executive.
Working with a dedicated Trust Board and a high performing Executive Leadership Team, the next Chief Executive would guide the strategy in line with the MAT’s vision to provide an outstanding education for every pupil, regardless of background or starting point, as well as create a team-orientated culture of best practice and continuous improvement.
From a strong longlist, Venturers Trust selected a shortlist of seven candidates from a range of backgrounds appointing David Watson OBE. David was previously Chief Executive and Executive Principal of Changing Lives in Collaboration Trust.
Warwick Arts Centre, Director
Following the 17-year tenure of Alan Rivett as Director of the Arts Centre at the University of Warwick, the University engaged Perrett Laver to support them in appointing his successor.
A multi-art-form venue, in receipt of Arts Council England and funding from the University to redevelop its facilities, the Arts Centre had recently been involved as a strategic partner in the successful bid for Coventry City of Culture 2021.
Perrett Laver presented a diverse longlist which included candidates from University arts centres in the UK and US; arts and cultural leaders across theatre venues, theatre companies, major festivals in the UK, Canada, the Netherlands and Australia, as well as candidates from government and other backgrounds.
The shortlist comprised candidates from the UK, Canada and Australia. The successful candidate was Doreen Foster, the Deputy Director of the Black Cultural Archives and former CEO of the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham.
Wikimedia Foundation, Chief of Community Engagement Officer & Global Technology Executive and Chief Operating Officer
The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that supports and hosts Wikipedia and several other free knowledge sites.
Every month, the Wikimedia sites are accessed by nearly 1.5 billion unique devices. The Foundation builds technology to help people everywhere access Wikipedia, across devices and in nearly 300 languages.
After an extensive and global search for the Chief of Community Engagement, the successful candidate was Valerie D’Costa.
Valerie joined the Foundation after a decade at the World Bank Group, and who bought 25 years of experience launching and growing international initiatives in the developing world.
Following this success, Perrett Laver was also retained to support the appointment of the Chief Operating Officer.
The successful candidate was Janine Uzzell. Janine was formerly Head of Women in Technology at General Electric, where she worked to cultivate a culture across their workforce of 300,000 employees which accelerated the number of women in technical roles.
CGIAR, Senior Advisor, Gender, Diversity & Inclusion
The world’s largest global agricultural innovation network engaged Perrett Laver on the search for an experienced gender, diversity and inclusion expert to support the development and delivery of workplace strategies, programmes, and tools that seek to accelerate the creation of a more inclusive, diverse and engaging global workforce.
This appointment was within a context of a major, international reform process for CGIAR.
The successful candidate was Fiona Bourdin-Farrell, formerly Director of Human Resources at United Nations.
During this time, she was assigned to the Secretary General’s Parliament on Gender Parity, the UN Task Team on Diversity, served on the ‘HeforShe’ advisory board and was invited as a panel speaker at The Commission on the Status of Women.
University of Leicester, Vice- Chancellor
The University of Leicester is a leading UK University committed to international excellence through the creation of world changing research and high quality, inspirational teaching.
Leicester is regarded consistently as one of the most socially inclusive and diverse of the UK’s leading universities with a long-standing commitment to providing fairer access to higher education.
Perrett Laver was engaged to support the University with their appointment of a new Vice-Chancellor who would share the University’s mission and values, build on its success and nurture and shape the institution for the future in a time of unprecedented change.
The appointment attracted a strong long list of candidates from which the University selected a shortlist of five candidates, three men and two women, appointing Professor Nishan Canagarajah was previously Pro Vice-chancellor for Research and Enterprise at the University of Bristol, where he was also the University lead for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and also one of the Bristol Race Equality Commissioners, amongst other responsibilities.
Festival UK 2022, Board Members
In 2018, the Government announced a major UK-wide festival of creativity and innovation in 2022.
The Festival will deliver an ambitious £120 million programme of large-scale work, celebrating creativity and innovation across the four nations.
Perrett Laver was appointed by Martin and the DCMS to oversee the appointment of a Chair of the Board. Following the successful appointment of a Chair we were asked to support with Board recruitment.
It was essential that the Board was representative of the relevant Festival sectors, including AI, technology, science, maths, innovation and creativity.
It was also essential to build a diverse Board that represented all areas of the UK’s geographies and communities.
To date, we have made nine appointments of whom five are from different ethnic minorities, one has a declared disability and the board is also highly diverse in terms of age, geographies and social economic backgrounds.
Take a look at our Campaigns
We are experts in leading major campaigns and our clients often come to us to support them specifically with complex diversity briefs.