I grew up in a working-class family in Caerphilly, South Wales, and was the first in my family to go to university. That experience was a turning point for me. I remember being exposed to people, perspectives and opportunities that I had never encountered before, it was both exciting and, at times, uncomfortable. It made me acutely aware of how uneven access to opportunity can be, and that awareness has stayed with me throughout my life and career.
My personal journey has also shaped my perspective. I came out as gay later in life, which was an important step in my journey towards authenticity. Together, these experiences have given me a deep understanding of what it means to navigate systems that were not necessarily designed with you in mind and they underpin my passion for diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB), particularly social mobility.
I have spent over three decades working in Talent Acquisition across agency, search, in-house and outsourcing models, and have lived and worked internationally in the US, Australia and New Zealand. These experiences broadened my perspective on workforce inclusion and the structural barriers that exist across different markets.
A defining moment in my career came when I led recruitment for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. I was responsible not only for hiring a workforce of thousands, but also for delivering a skills and employment strategy focused on engaging local communities in some of the most deprived areas of East London. This work showed me the transformative power of employment as a driver of social mobility. I was honoured to receive a British Empire Medal in the 2012 New Year Honours for this contribution, but more importantly, it cemented my commitment to creating access to opportunity at scale.
Today, I am the Managing Director for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging at AMS, where I lead our global DEIB strategy. Over the past four years, I have driven a number of initiatives to embed inclusion and belonging into the fabric of the organisation. This includes relaunching our global Employee Resource Groups with strong executive sponsorship, publishing annual DEIB reports to drive transparency and accountability, and expanding diversity data capture across multiple regions to enable targeted action.
Social mobility has been a core pillar of this work. We have introduced social mobility data collection, published our social class pay gap, and built a highly engaged Social Mobility Employee Resource Group. We have also positioned AMS as an external voice in this space through thought leadership, partnerships and events, including our Social Impact Summit exploring the intersection of skills-based hiring and social mobility.
Alongside my role at AMS, I have built a strong external platform, contributing to policy discussions, leading roundtables, and speaking at industry events to advocate for systemic change. However, through this work, I increasingly saw that while many organisations were taking action, efforts were often fragmented and lacked a collective, coordinated voice.
This realisation led me to found the Social Mobility Leaders’ Forum in September 2024. My motivation was simple: to bring together employers, educators and partners to collaborate, share insight, and accelerate progress on social mobility in a more connected and impactful way.
While still in its early stages, the Forum has already begun to build strong momentum and a growing community committed to driving meaningful change. For me, it represents the next step in my journey, moving from organisational impact to collective, system-level influence.
