A new government-backed board of senior bosses meet for the first time today to encourage industry leaders to act as Change Agents to Lead the Change and promote diversity and inclusion.

Lead the Change

The Men As Change Agents (MACA) “Lead the Change” board sees experienced names in business gather to work with organisations across the country to accelerate the pace of change in achieving greater equality and opportunity at the top of companies.

The Lead the Change board supports the Hampton-Alexander Review into female leadership to help make 33% of FTSE 350 business leaders women by the end of 2020. Lead the Change also wants to ensure that each FTSE 100 board has at least one ethnic minority director by 2021.

The key directives of Lead the Change are:

• To take personal responsibility for promoting better diversity and inclusion in business and striving to achieve the targets set out by the Hampton-Alexander and Parker reviews.

• To promote better diversity and inclusion by sponsoring 1-3 individuals from an underrepresented group within an organisation who have the potential to secure an executive role within 3 years.

• To be an active and visible Change Agent by being part of the wider business conversation and achieving better diversity and inclusion within an organisation as a result.

“It is now widely accepted that the workplace needs to become more diverse and inclusive and there is much more that the business community can do to lead the change.

We hope that by increasing the number of supportive senior business leaders, the current majority of whom are male, as change agents, and by sharing best practice and ideas which make a difference, we can help accelerate the change we all want to see.”

Denis Woulfe and Emer Timmons, Co-Chairs of MACA

Commenting on the Government-backed initiative, Hephzi Pemberton, Founder of leading diversity and inclusion consultancy the Equality Group, said: “It is extremely encouraging to see that the government is taking steps towards increasing inclusion and diversity in the workplace; it is essential that the public and private sectors work together to ensure that the UK workforce is one that is fully representative of the cultures, genders and ethnicities that are present in our great nation. 

“Bringing in diverse talent at senior levels, in terms of women and BAME professionals, can help to bring new ideas to boards and leadership teams across the country. This will undoubtedly change working cultures for the better, and a more diverse business often means a more profitable business.”