Nationally recognised racial equality, diversity and inclusion champion, advocating for diverse leadership talent, improving Britain’s workplaces and benefitting social cohesion.
Raj Tulsiani is an award-winning philanthropist, business leader and racial equality activist who is changing the world of work, education and sport for BAME and disadvantaged communities. Throughout his stable career in the recruitment space as a successful startup CEO turned established firm with a high of £88 million in sales; Raj has become a torchbearer for diversity and inclusion within his organisation, across every client business he interacts with and among the wider community to the betterment of society as a whole.
His impact touches every corner of the community. From his 5 years on the Met Police STRIDE Board which sets the equality and diversity policy for the force to the founding of Race Equality Matters and the Top 100 BAME Business Leaders initiatives which are working to transform the makeup of companies and boards across the country. Raj’s zeal for racial equality, diversity and inclusion also led him to publish a book on the subject, create a mental-health & wellbeing app and support movements like Pride and Mongoose Inclusive Cricket.
Following his graduation from both Liverpool Hope University with a BA in Theology and Gender Studies and Birmingham City University with an MBA, Raj Tulsiani joined storied recruitment and executive search company, Michael Page. Here he came face to face with prejudice. From that foundation as the first ethnic-minority manager at Michael Page, Raj was invited to join Penna PLC leaving to found Green Park in 2006.
Under his leadership, Green Park has been heavily decorated. They’ve won numerous awards including 2020 Recruitment Leader of the Year from Talent International, 2020 Best Recruitment Agency from Recruiter Awards, The 2019 Sunday Times Fastrack 100, 2019 UK Executive Search Director of the Year and 2019 FT Fastest Growing Businesses in Europe. In fact, under his direction, Green Park grew rapidly from basically nothing in 2006 to over £88 million annually today. Raj attributes most of this growth to their pioneering efforts in diversity and inclusion recruitment. During his tenure at Green Park, Raj has been awarded numerously for diversity achievements including Private Sector Diversity Champion of the Year (Inclusive 50), 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year & Award for Inclusion and the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award for Diversity.
Raj and his team are responsible for the acceleration of high-calibre diverse leaders into some of the most senior executive and board positions, with their last 100 board level retained searches being 53% are female and 35% ethnic minority.
While Raj Tulsiani has been well awarded for his contributions to community betterment, it’s worth highlighting specific accomplishments of significant impact on the UK diversity and inclusion agenda.
During the pandemic, Raj launched “Race Equality Matters” a non-profit organisation dedicated to taking real action to create race equality within UK workplaces. The banner event of this initiative is Race Equality Week which takes place annually in February. It’s supported by Lifetime Visionary Partner, BT. The week provided a space for safe discussion of inclusivity topics, lectures on diversity and workshops hosted by ethnic minority leaders.
Race Equality Matters (REM) has grown exponentially. In 2021, when it was originally launched, REM attracted 350 organisations and 300 Race Network Leaders to its community to commit to positive change. Today, it works with more than 5000 organisations and 2000 Race Network Leaders, sharing advice and resources to improve workplace culture. More broadly, we now know that REM’s ‘My Name Is’ campaign, designed to tackle micro aggressions, received over 1.74 billion social media hits in its first month. This campaign is all about getting people’s names right – which in turn helps them to feel wanted, respected and part of the team. Organisations and employees using the campaign include major household brands such as the NHS, Jaguar , Heathrow, Transport for Wales and many more. Raj has also recently offered free REM membership to any NHS leader for the next three years.
But it’s not just the reach that has grown, figures relating to impact are also impressive. The most recent impact dashboard figures show a hugely positive response to REM’s various solutions/campaigns. Just to give a couple of examples, 82% of respondents said that the #ItsNotMicro campaign would have a positive impact in their organisation, and 78% said the 5 Day Challenge would have a positive impact.
