Press release
Grant Thornton’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Excellence Recognised at inaugural National Diversity & Inclusion Awards 2023
16 Feb 2023
Winners of the National Diversity & Inclusion Awards were announced at a gala event in Croke Park, Dublin on Thursday, 2 February 2023.
From over 150 entries, the 10 winners across the Awards’ 10 categories stood out after impressing the judging panel with their outstanding work with equity, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) covering Race & Ethnicity, Gender, LGBTQ+, Disability and more. Organised by the Irish Centre for Diversity, the event, which was attended by over 400 guests, and MC’d by broadcaster and fashion designer, Brendan Courtney, was the first dedicated awards to celebrate advances in ED&I in Ireland and was supported by a host of leading names that are driving progress on ED&I with their own work – including Aon, Matheson LLP, Musgrave, laya healthcare, Nestlé, National Lottery, PublicJobs.ie and more.
Grant Thornton won the Outstanding Employee Resource Group Award category with its Embrace Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Employee Resource Group (ERG) Programme Strategy and was represented by the firm’s ED&I Lead and the Ability, Family, Ethnicity & Culture, LGBTQIA+ and Gender Equality ERG Leads.
Dan Holland, Head of ED&I at Grant Thornton praised the Embrace members for their hard work and passion for ED&I.
“We are so proud that our Embrace ERG members and leads are getting recognition for their continuous ED&I work. They are always striving for more positive workplace culture initiatives and without their drive and passion, we wouldn’t be the successful ED&I team that we are. This award signifies our benchmark status in the ED&I space and we want to continue to maintain these high standards going forward.”
The judging panel was impressed by the extremely high quality of entries, which highlights the wealth of work going into transforming Irish workplaces and communities into places where everyone shares a sense of belonging and can thrive. Chaired by Margot Slattery, Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion at ISS, the panel included Senator Eileen Flynn; Mamobo Ogoro, Founder and CEO, Gorm Media; Maria Walsh MEP; Siobhan Sweeney, Senior Director of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, Element Materials Technology; Adam Harris, CEO AsIAm; Gavin Hennessy, Diversity & Inclusion Lead, AXA Ireland; Shane O’Brien, Senior Manager, EMEA Employee Experience, MongoDB; Simon Myciunka, CEO at Bauer Media Audio Ireland and Stephen Cluskey, CEO Mobility Mojo – all key players moving the needle and keeping progress on D&I as a business priority.
Caroline Tyler, Managing Director, Irish Centre for Diversity, said:
“The awards celebrate and champion individuals and organisations that go above and beyond in their commitment to providing excellence in all key areas of ED&I, so very well-deserved congratulations to all the winners. Thank you to the award sponsors and judges – all key players in cementing D&I progress as a business priority. They had the real challenge of deciding on the most influential, innovative, and inspiring ED&I work in Ireland.
Everyone benefits when best practice on ED&I is shared and the award winners, finalists, sponsors and judges will be sharing their insights and experience in a series of webinars throughout February and March 2023. The sessions are expected to highlight proven initiatives that can be applied to other businesses and organisations of all sizes, from all sectors and at various stages of the ED&I journey.”
