Tag Archives: LGBTQ+

News, North of England

Accounting and business advisory firm HURST sponsors Stockport Pride festival

Accounting and business advisory firm HURST has signed up as a sponsor of this summer’s Stockport Pride festival, which is taking place in-person for the first time since 2019.

The annual LGBTQ+ festival will be held at Stockport Market Place from 11am to 6pm on Sunday, July 31, with a range of entertainment and stalls including music, crafts and drag acts. The event is free to attend and is open to all.

A parade filling town centre streets with rainbows will take place during the day, It will begin on Bridgefield Street, a short distance from HURST’s headquarters in Tiviot Dale and will make its way to Suffragette Square, through Merseyway and on to the market place.

Stephen Bowyer, Stockport Pride’s chairperson, said: “It will be amazing to be able to hold our first event since the start of the pandemic, and the support of firms such as HURST is invaluable in helping the community and demonstrates a dedication to equality, diversity and inclusion.”

HURST chief executive Tim Potter said: “We’re an inclusive and diverse employer, and community groups which reflect these values are really important to us.

“We are delighted to support the Pride organisation with both sponsorship and attendance at what promises to be a fantastic and very enjoyable event.”

ESG/CSR, News

Unreasonable exceeds tough diversity goal, annual report reveals

More than half the members of invite-only Unreasonable Collective are women and people of colour, previously under-represented among investors

51% of Collective members identify as women or people of colour

70% of CEOs and co-founders of Collective portcos are women/people of colour

100% of the Collective Team is made up of women/people of colour

LONDON, 21st April 2022 – Unreasonable Group has revealed it has hit its ambitious 50% diversity target in just one year. Now 51% of its Unreasonable Collective members are women or people of colour, the company announced in its annual report, released today

Last year, Unreasonable made a commitment to give under-represented groups in investment a seat at the table – and that includes women, people of colour and those who identify as LGBTQ+.

“Inclusivity is at the heart of everything we do, when we’re looking at potential members or companies to invest in, which is why we ended up with these great stats,” says Pratibha Vuppuluri, Head of Investments, and Partner, Collective, Unreasonable Group.

The impact of having diverse investors – whether that’s in terms of gender, ethnicity or geography – has already been felt, with valuable new perspectives being brought to The Collective.

And the shift doesn’t stop there. Diversity filters through to investment decisions, too. One of the Unreasonable Collective’s first investments was Air Protein, the pioneering product that aims to feed the world’s growing population sustainably, founded by Dr Lisa Dyson. And climate technology startup BlocPower, founded by Donnel Baird, is helping disadvantaged communities in New York save on their energy costs.

“When it comes to capital channelled to diverse and under-represented founders, that is where the biggest gap lies. Most of the money in Silicon Valley goes to white, male founders. We’re here to disrupt that,” says Vuppuluri.

The achievement is particularly impressive because 2020 saw women lose ground in the investment space when funding to female-led and mixed-gender founding teams dropped to just 14%.

“Our focus on diversity is ongoing. It’s something I haven’t seen much of in the venture world, but Unreasonable’s community-driven model opens up new opportunities for women, people of colour and LGBTQ+ investors. We offer pre-vetted deals at Series A stage and if someone wants to make an investment they can go and visit the business and ask the CEO questions. That’s so important because people are looking to put their money in companies that have a positive impact on the world,” added Vuppuluri.

And Unreasonable Collective’s investments all have a positive impact, from innovative and sustainable design and manufacturing company Plant Prefab to Goodr, the diverse, female-owned company leveraging blockchain technology to reduce food waste and combat hunger.

Appointments, News

Hootsuite welcomes Maggie Lower as Chief Marketing Officer

Maggie will oversee Hootsuite’s global marketing organisation

Hootsuite, the leader in social media management solutions, is pleased to announce that Maggie Lower joined the company today as Chief Marketing Officer. In her role as a key member of Hootsuite’s executive leadership team, Maggie will own the brand’s overall global strategy, demand generation, communications, and events.

“As I searched for a CMO to join the company to help drive this phase of growth, I knew I was looking for a modern marketer,” said Tom Keiser, CEO of Hootsuite. “Maggie is exactly that. She has spent her career combining both the art and science of marketing to drive exceptional results for global brands and I look forward to working with her as we rapidly grow and transform our company and this industry.”

With a marketing career spanning more than two decades, across various industries including financial services, staffing and technology, Maggie has established herself as an exceptional business and thought leader. Prior to joining Hootsuite, Maggie was the Global Chief Marketing Officer at Cision, the first Chief Marketing Officer at TrueBlue, has held marketing leadership roles at Alight and Aon Hewitt, and spent 15 years at Bank of America, building world class marketing teams.

“Hootsuite is an iconic brand that forged a category – they anticipated how people would connect with the world well before social media became part of the household vernacular,” said Maggie Lower. “I’m honoured to join this incredibly talented, purpose-driven leadership team that is bringing global communities together as we navigate one of the most dynamic economic periods in history.”

Maggie volunteers as a member of the Peer 150 Marketing Advisory Board, serves as an executive mentor for The Marketing Academy US, helping develop and nurture top talent within the marketing, advertising, and communications industries, and is a leader in The Collective, an LGBTQIA+ executive forum striving to create more connectivity in the workplace to drive diversity, equity and inclusion. She is an executive mentor in the Berlin-based Rahm Group, supporting LGBT+ professionals aspiring to C-level roles, and has been named to OUTstanding’s Top 100 Global Executives List for three consecutive years.

“Maggie is not only a talented marketing and business executive, she is a true community leader who exudes empathy and warmth – we are all so happy to welcome her to the Hootsuite nest,” added Keiser.