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 industriesGeorgy 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 coachJenny 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.
