Premier League and Manchester City legend Vincent Kompany, Great Britain Olympic hero Mo Farah and the UK’s first male professional footballer to come out publicly as gay since Justin Fashanu in 1990, Jake Daniels, have all been shortlisted for the prestigious European Diversity Awards.
Lioness Beth Mead, who finished as UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 top scorer thanks to her six goals and five assists for England, is also in the running for an honour.
Arsenal midfielder Oleksandr Zinchenko, who has spoken out against the Russian invasion of his home country, is battling it out alongside Kompany, Farah, Daniels and Mead for the Media Diversity Champion accolade. TV presenter Maya Jama will also go head-to-head with the stars in the same category.
The European Diversity Awards will hold its 13th annual ceremony on 11 November at the InterContinental London Park Lane. It will be hosted by BBC News presenter Jane Hill.
Headline sponsor UnitedHealth Group is proud to partner with the awards to celebrate leading diversity and inclusion champions, recognising achievements over the past year across race, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and religious belief.
In the running for awards are major companies such as PepsiCo, London Stock Exchange Group and SThree plc, all nominated in the Deutsche Post DHL Group Company of the Year category, and exceptional European projects like the International Mixed Ability Rugby Tournament and Trans in the City, both nominees for the LuluLemon Community Project of the Year honour.
Headquartered in Paris, advertising company Criteo’s Pride Community has been nominated in the Silicon Valley Bank Outstanding Employee Network of the Year category alongside Santander’s Embrace Network and global digital transformation firm Avanade’s Europe Disability Inclusion Employee Network, DiversAbility.
In addition to being the headline sponsor UnitedHealth Group are also sponsoring the Charity of the Year category, and making a generous £5,000 donation to the winner. HOGAR SÍ from Spain, Germany’s Der Lesben-und Schwulenverband and the UK’s Anna Kennedy Online are all in the running.
As well as honouring companies, networks and campaigns the European Diversity Awards also recognises and celebrates individual contributions through the Hero, Diversity Champion, Inspirational Role Model, HR Champion, and Head of Diversity categories.
Amongst the individuals Amjad Khan of HSBC and Greg Turner-Smart of Rolls-Royce SMR are nominees in the Inspirational Role Model of the Year Category, whilst Pfizer’s Antonio Bebba and LSEG’s Isabelle Girolami are both contenders for the Abercrombie & Fitch Diversity Champion of the Year.
Begun in 2010, the European Diversity Awards has been promoting diversity and inclusion for over a decade, and as Europe emerges from the global pandemic and continues to tackle its aftermath, the importance of inclusion, particularly with regards to social mobility and LGBTQIA+ services, is of ever growing significance.
Linda Riley, founder of the European Diversity Awards, commented:
“As Europe comes out of pandemic lockdowns and we start to see the repercussions of this, it is now more essential than ever to recognise those organisations, companies and individuals who persistently work to advocate and promote diversity and inclusion.
“I am delighted that so many of these people and organisations have continued to show their dedication to diversity throughout the pandemic, demonstrating the true strength of their commitment. I am particularly delighted to see more and more organisations doing more to support wellbeing, social mobility and supplier diversity in their agenda. In the last 12 months our nominees have realised great achievements, championing diversity of race, age, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, social mobility or religious belief.
“Our awards ceremony allows us to assemble and celebrate a truly amazing and inspirational group of people.”
With nominations across an array of categories, the European Diversity Awards 2022 continues their powerful advocacy of diversity and inclusion, with this year’s awards recognising the positive impact of marketing, campaigning, media diversity and social mobility representation across Europe. Abercrombie & Fitch, Deutsche Post DHL Group, 10x Banking, Haleon, Swinton Group, IHG Hotels & Resorts, lululemon, Silicon Valley Bank UK, Sanofi, Collins Aerospace and BP are all delighted to be sponsoring categories at the event.
