The Inclusive Leadership Network

Alison Mackay

Alison is a leadership and human resources consultant, an executive coach and an international speaker on gender issues. She founded the leadership development consultancy Primonovo in 2008 and she co-chairs The Inclusive Leadership Network. Previously she was a Human Resources Director for global organisations such as Goldman Sachs, where she developed expertise in working at senior management levels with high performing individuals and businesses across the world. Alison’s work centres on building strong connections, creating impact and engaging others through inclusive leadership. She also supports individuals from minority communities to maximise their career opportunities and recently delivered a ground-breaking Women In Leadership programme in Saudi Arabia. In addition, she mentors a group of young women forging careers in the human rights, environmental and development sectors.

Alison is known for her drive, her energy and her empathy and for facilitating rapid and significant behavioural changes in those she works with. She has a particular interest in neuroscience which enables individuals to use their mind to enhance performance. She is a qualified NLP Practitioner, a member of the Neuroleadership Institute and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council. She is also a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel and Development.

Mark is a diversity and inclusion consultant for Turquoise Sky and is Co-Chair of The Inclusive Leadership Network. He has extensive knowledge and experience in community engagement, diversity, inclusive leadership and relationship management. He spent the former part of his career in the Metropolitan Police Service in a range of training, strategy, policy, community liaison, communication and policing roles. The latter 10 years were focused on equality, diversity and inclusive leadership where he liaised at senior levels in the Met Police, UK National Policing, the Armed Forces and British government to influence best practice and forward thinking leadership development. He now works in the private and public sectors advising on best practice, consulting on stakeholder engagement and delivering leadership development. He is passionate about influencing hearts and minds, and enabling leaders to optimise opportunities through embracing diversity and inclusion. He is valued for his deep expertise and a supportive, challenging style that gets to the heart of the issue.

Dr. Gilly Shapiro

Gillian is founder and Managing Director of Shapiro Consulting, established in 1998 and is a partner of the Inclusive Leadership Network. She specialises in organisational development and change projects focused on inclusion and diversity. Over the last twenty years Gillian has worked with many of the FTSE 100 corporates as well as public and third sector organisations, helping them to achieve their inclusion and diversity goals. Gillian enjoys working with senior leaders, managers and staff to help establish their role, responsibilities and skills in building on inclusion and diversity to improve organisational performance. She regularly conducts research in this area, most recently publishing on Inclusive Leadership in partnership with Opportunity Now.

Previously Gillian was Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Innovation Management (CENTRIM) within the University of Brighton Business School leading pan-European research programmes across a number of sectors on employee diversity and engagement as well as knowledge management. Her PhD focused on the career development of women into senior leadership roles. Gillian has judged several diversity awards and is a diversity and inclusion advisor to the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). She is also Vice Chair of her local school Council of Governors.

Sarah is an independent consultant on diversity inclusion and organisational change and Director of for business sake consulting ltd.  She works with clients in the corporate and not-for-profit sectors to provide consulting advice and practical solutions on diversity, inclusion and organisational change. 

Previously, Sarah spent over seven years as European Director and Head of Employee Engagement, Diversity and Inclusion for KPMG LLP where she had overall responsible for the firm’s strategy on diversity and inclusion across a 30,000 workforce in ten European countries. Prior to this, Sarah  was National Campaign Manager for Opportunity Now, one of the UK’s leading employer membership organisations providing benchmarking, research and best practice services to corporates on recruiting, retaining and developing female talent.

Sarah’s qualifications include an MSc in Gender and Social Policy from the University of Bristol; a Certificate in Managing Voluntary and Non-Profit Enterprises from the Open University, and a Certificate in Consulting and Change in Organisations from Ashridge Business School.  In March 2013 she was awarded a Practitioner Certificate in Consulting and Change from The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations.  She is CIPD qualified, and qualified to use Implicitly®, the unconscious bias diagnostic.  Additionally, Sarah is a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Relate, the relationship organisation, and an external adviser on diversity and inclusion at the Department for Business Innovation and Skills.

Sonia Bate is the founder of EDIT Development, and a partner of the Inclusive Leadership Network. She has been working in leadership development for over 10 years, helping clients to grow and build upon their talent pipeline. She is a sought-after speaker on gender diversity in both the private and public sector. She has worked with 1000’s of men and women to maximise their potential and build their confidence as a leader. Sonia has a strong belief that inclusive leadership is needed to create a more balanced organization, she is a very challenging facilitator with a reputation for making a difference to the senior teams she has worked with. She sits on the government’s gender pipeline review committee and is the content partner for the Opportunties4Women conferences in the UK. As a keynote speaker, facilitator and executive coach, Sonia is passionate about making a difference to the demographic and performance landscapes of global businesses.

Sonia has developed and facilitated a range of programs and solutions for clients to drive change and improve leadership effectiveness. She has hosted global leadership conferences facilitated top team strategy sessions, and piloted high profile programs with senior leadership teams