In this podcast Nathan Richardson is speaking on his own behalf and not on behalf of Grindr, on whose board of directors he sits.

Nathan Richardson has been a member of the board of directors of Grindr since November 2022. He is a partner at Joffre Capital, a private equity firm and the co-Founder of Trading Ticket, Inc., a financial technology company, and served as its Chief Executive Officer, prior to which he held a series of roles in financial services and industry. He is now based in London. 

Our conversation takes a tour through Nathan’s career, and his international exposure which was rich including a stint in the Peace Corps in Africa, and a glittering international career which spanned many countries and cultures. We turn to his time as a founder in Fintech, and what brought him to the Grindr board. We compare the work that Grindr is doing to raise awareness so some of the work Nathan did in the peace corps to spread sexual health awarness. 

We move then to discuss the importance of LGBTQ+ inclusion in the professional workplace and the challenges faced by the community at this moment in time as initiatives are rolled back and rights are not advancing. 

Thank you to Tom Soto and Latimer Partners LLC for sponsoring our 2025 Pride Series. 

Claire William is CEO of Oasis Domestic Abuse Service, and has spent most of her career in the charity sector. We got to know eachother over LinkedIN when I responded to her popular LinkedIN post about Lesbian visibility week, in which she described her life with her partner and their six children and the changing climate and political backdrop.
  

Our conversation is a warm and engaging trip through Claire’s life and career, one in which the charity sector plays a key role. We start with Claire’s childhood where she grew up in a council estate in a seaside town. We hear about her overriding drive to work and find her independence and trace her steps through various parts of the charity sector including charities committed to alleviating homelessness and now domestic abuse.

We discuss the root of our first meeting – the Linked In post that started it all, and discuss why lesbian visibility is still an important issue and deserves its own dedicated week. We discuss Claire’s own coming out story, her experience of being included at work in different environments and the full life she leads now.

We end with a discussion of the rewards that come from seeing people succeed and the advice that Claire would have for her younger self. 

Thank you to Tom Soto and Latimer Partners LLC for supporting production costs of this Pride Series of 2025. 

Fabrice Houdart is Executive Director of the Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors as well as an Advisor to Fortune 50 companies and a former staffer at the World Bank and UN.  He is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and Georgetown University, where he lectures on LGBT inclusion within international development. He is a consultant to the Asian Development Bank and a Board Member of the Canadian Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors, as well as numerous other board roles.  

We start with Fabrice’s upbringing in France and the somewhat accidental route he had into international development.  The nature of this work, including a role with the World Bank and the time at which he was engaged in it led him to not be “out” at work initially.  His travel with the World Bank took him to a series of countries where that would not have been welcome – or even legal.  Later in his career he became an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community and has led affinity groups and also this aspect of human rights action around the world. 

We discuss what the “cost” of homophobia is – what economic growth a country forgoes by failing to include this segment of the population and failing to attract tourists from the LGBTQ+ community. We speak then about role models and their importance, and how, once Fabrice was comfortably out at work, he realized the strain that his “fear” of revealing his authentic self had placed him under.  He recommends that we replace fear with faith, in the humanity of our work colleagues and in the right for every LGBTQ+ person to be included where they work. 

 

Our fourth Pride series is supported by JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan Chase has long been a supporter of equality in all forms, including for the LGBTQ+ community. Starting with the very first PRIDE business resource group in 1996, they recently strengthened their commitment by creating the Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs and a full-time, dedicated team to deliver on a global LGBTQ+ agenda. 

The Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs partners closely with stakeholders across the firm to promote intersectionality and leverage its combined resources to deliver equity and inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees, clients, partners and communities, worldwide.

Lindsey Young, is the founder of Quiet Wealth LLC, which she started to provide a comprehensive set of financial advisory services that successful LGBTQ+ professionals and their families need.  She previously spent 15 years in Silicon Valley finance, primarily as a investment banker working on M&A, IPOs, leveraged finance and other transactions for technology companies. She also advises a series of non-profits, and is Board President of FreeState Justice, the leading statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization in Maryland. 

Lindsey transitioned somewhat later in life and we talk about how she chose her timing.  It coincided with her starting her own financial planning business and she decided that it would be more sensible to time her transition for before striking out on her own.  We move then to discuss the experience of inclusion she saw – pre-transition – in the high performing world of tech and finance, and the pace she is now aiming for in her own financial advisory firm.

Our fourth Pride series is supported by JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan Chase has long been a supporter of equality in all forms, including for the LGBTQ+ community. Starting with the very first PRIDE business resource group in 1996, they recently strengthened their commitment by creating the Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs and a full-time, dedicated team to deliver on a global LGBTQ+ agenda. 

The Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs partners closely with stakeholders across the firm to promote intersectionality and leverage its combined resources to deliver equity and inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees, clients, partners and communities, worldwide.

Mark Segal is a social activist and author, who participated in the Stonewall riots and as one of the original founders of the Gay Liberation Front where he created the Gay Youth Program.  He was the founder and former president of the National Gay Newspaper Guild, and has won various journalistic awards.  He is a lifelong activist who organized the first Gay Pride parade in 1970 and remains an active advocate today. 

 

This rollicking story of a life in activism is one you won’t want to miss, from his introduction to activism by his Suffragette Grandmother at the age of 13, to his awakening in NYC of the 1970s. Mark’s journey as an activist was bold and brave – he garnered national attention for the gay rights movement by some unorthodox methods – such as interrupting a live TV news broadcast. It is thanks to him that many of the rights taken for granted today received attention and he is reflective when we discuss how far we have come – but equally what still remains to be done. 

 

Our fourth Pride series is supported by JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan Chase has long been a supporter of equality in all forms, including for the LGBTQ+ community. Starting with the very first PRIDE business resource group in 1996, they recently strengthened their commitment by creating the Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs and a full-time, dedicated team to deliver on a global LGBTQ+ agenda. 

The Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs partners closely with stakeholders across the firm to promote intersectionality and leverage its combined resources to deliver equity and inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees, clients, partners and communities, worldwide.

 

Marci Bair, CFP® has spent over 30 years working with women in leadership, LGBTQ+ couples and progressive business owners to align their investment portfolios with their values and provide fee based financial and retirement planning. Based in San Diego, she was previously Chairperson of the South Bay Alliance and a Board Member of the Greater San Diego Business Association.  

Our conversation traces Marci’s early career, her attitude that enables her to “bloom where she is planted” and her early authenticity.  We discuss her interests in sports and the coaching that brought two sons to collegiate level athletes. We move then to discuss her financial planning practice and the inclusive culture that she creates.  We also discuss what it means to invest in accordance with values and discuss how values and implementing them are evolving as concepts in the financial planning industry.

You can read more about Bair Financial Planning on their website www.BairFinancialPlanning.com 

 

Our fourth Pride series is supported by JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan Chase has long been a supporter of equality in all forms, including for the LGBTQ+ community. Starting with the very first PRIDE business resource group in 1996, they recently strengthened their commitment by creating the Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs and a full-time, dedicated team to deliver on a global LGBTQ+ agenda. 

The Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs partners closely with stakeholders across the firm to promote intersectionality and leverage its combined resources to deliver equity and inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees, clients, partners and communities, worldwide.

.

David and John Auten-Schneider are a married couple who have branded themselves the Debt Free Guys, and host a popular podcast and website full of tools to help listeners and clients to “live fabulously, not fabulously broke”. They have a proprietary Wealth Builder’s Pyramid tool that they use as a multi-pronged approach to financial freedom, a solid credit score and debt-free living.  Their mission is to help their clients particularly, but not exclusively, members of the LGBTQ+ community to live happy, healthy and wealthy.

Our conversation takes a quick tour through the background of each of David and John, which was quite divergent in its inclusiveness and tolerance of LGBTQ+ lifestyle, and we hear about David’s strict relious upbringing in which coming out was not at all easy. We hear how they met, and the epiphany around sustainable spending that led them to pay down their combined $50,000 in debt and commit to doing the same for other members of their community.

We dig in a little to the root cause of some lack of financial stability among some of their peers and some of it derives from ostantious spending in order to win acceptance and approval. Providing a non-judgemental environment that is inclusive and provides practical supports allowed them to develop an important niche within the landscape of financial planning.  You can learn more about The Debt Free Guys here: https://debtfreeguys.com

Our fourth Pride series is supported by JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan Chase has long been a supporter of equality in all forms, including for the LGBTQ+ community. Starting with the very first PRIDE business resource group in 1996, they recently strengthened their commitment by creating the Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs and a full-time, dedicated team to deliver on a global LGBTQ+ agenda. 

The Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs partners closely with stakeholders across the firm to promote intersectionality and leverage its combined resources to deliver equity and inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees, clients, partners and communities, worldwide.

Dani D’Amico is a partner at McKinsey in their financial services practice. She has previously worked at Oliver Wyman in New York, where she was also a partner, and started her career in various consulting roles.

Our conversation starts with Dani’s early years in Italy and how she devised various distractions to outrun her authentic self – while she always felt she was a female trapped in a male body, she couldn’t at that time conceive how she could live authentically. As a marathon runner, she uses the analogy of trying to outrun the reality that was catching up with her, until she could outrun it no more.

Dani made the decision to transition after she already had had notable achievements in her career, and she is quick to note the position of privilege that that gave her.  She notes that not all transgender people are so lucky to have the financial resources, access to medical care and career capital at the stage that they choose to transition, and this disparity reveals the inequity in play across the LGBTQ+ community that often gets overlooked. 

Dani draws upon her risk management background to explain how she planned out her transition – including scenario analysis and decision trees. Once again we are told of how leadership and peer support was exceptional and surprised on the upside – a recurring theme throughout this series, when it comes to coming out at work.

Our fourth Pride series is supported by JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan Chase has long been a supporter of equality in all forms, including for the LGBTQ+ community. Starting with the very first PRIDE business resource group in 1996, they recently strengthened their commitment by creating the Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs and a full-time, dedicated team to deliver on a global LGBTQ+ agenda. 

The Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs partners closely with stakeholders across the firm to promote intersectionality and leverage its combined resources to deliver equity and inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees, clients, partners and communities, worldwide.

Brad Baumoel is managing director and Global Head of LGBTQ+ affairs at JPMorgan Chase, a position he assumed in April 2021.  He previously was Portfolio Director for the Chase Digital Platform and prior to that led several large-scale transformative programs and teams across the institution. He was a founding member and prior leader of OPEN Finance NYC, a non-profit LGBT network for the Financial Services Industry.

Our conversation starts with Brad describing his upbringing in a single parent household and how he came out in stages – not initially to his family. He moved to New York City early in his career, and we speak about the adjustment that was involved – in terms of modifying his New England accent but also the burst of inclusion that he experienced from being exposed to New York’s LGBTQ+ neighborhoods. 

We move then to his role at JPMorgan Chase, and the breadth of what he is taking on, and speak in particular about what it is to foster true allyship.  

Our fourth Pride series is supported by JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan Chase has long been a supporter of equality in all forms, including for the LGBTQ+ community. Starting with the very first PRIDE business resource group in 1996, they recently strengthened their commitment by creating the Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs and a full-time, dedicated team to deliver on a global LGBTQ+ agenda. 

The Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs partners closely with stakeholders across the firm to promote intersectionality and leverage its combined resources to deliver equity and inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees, clients, partners and communities, worldwide.

 

 

Welcome to our fourth Pride series of all time, which is full of personal narratives that will make you smile, may make you cry and will definitely make you think.  Join us as we discuss what allyship really means, share personal experiences across diverging global backgrops for LGBTQ+ rights, and take you into the realms of personal finance, international development and coaching. 

 

Our stories are personal and nuanced and reveal how activism can come from many sources. We hear about individual stories of coming out, finding authentic selves, and about some challenges faced and achievements enjoyed. 

 

The 2024 collection features the following inspiring guests:

· A long-time LGBTQ+ activist Mark Segal

· A prominent transgender spokesperson and partner at McKinsey, Dani D'Amico

· A couple who hosts a financial wellbeing podcast - The Debt Free Guys – John and David Auten-Schneider

· The head of LGBTQ+ affairs at JPMorgan Chase, Brad Baumoel

· The first transgender graduate from HBS now at an investment fund that represents Finance Flowing with Pride, Soltan Bryce

· A coach who works with parents of LGBTQ+ children, Susan Berland

· A prominent activist within international development and advocate for directors, Fabrice Houdart

· A transgender founder of a private wealth firm, Lindsey Young

· A founder of a private wealth firm that is inclusive and values oriented, Marci Bair

So join us from June 1 and throughout the entire month of June.

 

The 2024 Pride Series is kindly supported by JPMorgan Chase.

Ray Tierney is a cybersecurity specialist who was formerly a paramedic.  Prior to that she was a Security Forces Security Specialist. We chart her path through school and into a series of professions that were explicitly intolerant towards LGBTQ identities and discuss how she was "outed" initially by a polygraph test, which contained particularly intrusive questions.

We talk then about her transition, societal pressure that led her to detransition, and then the decision point that led to her committing to her transition once more. We discuss the rising tide of opposition and hostility to transgender people across the country (US) right now and the real stresses that this causes in their everyday life.  We speak about allyship and where it is genuine and where it is not and the advice that Ray would have for her younger self.

Finally Ray cites a number of organizations and affinity groups, including those listed below, which have supplied support and community to her and she recommends them as resources for others.

Trigger Warning: This podcast contains a discussion of suicidal thoughts. If you or anyone you love is struggling please seek help from one of the organizations below or one of the suicide helplines in your country.
 https://www.thetrevorproject.org/

https://translifeline.org/

www.veteranscrisisline.net

The 2023 Pride Series is kindly sponsored by members of our Rainbow Network including Laura J. LaTourette, who is a financial planner who describes her practice as one designed to enable LGBTQ+ folx make a plan to simplify their lives to enable them to live authentically and leave a legacy of love. Based in Dahlonega Georgia but with a national client base Laura has a particular interest in working with LGBTQ+ elders. You can find out more about Laura's practice by following her on:

Linked In
linkedin.com/in/lauralatourette 

Twitter: 

• LauraLaTourette

Ronnie Woo is the chef and owner of The Delicious Cook, an LA-based private chef company that specializes in four-star dining experiences. He is an accomplished chef, television personality, and cookbook author (Did You Eat Yet?, March 14, 2023) celebrated by his fans and peers alike for his infectious personality, background in dating & relationships, and creative Asian-American cuisine, which combines Asian dishes with All-American influences.

Our conversation starts by discussing Ronnie's childhood and love of food, which we trace through his high school years and early years as a model.  We talk about entering television, and the sometimes stop/start journey that that can entail, and how a recalibration of expectations and dreams is often necessary throughout life. Ronnie discusses what works for him and how he processes feedback in order to improve.  We hear how he connects with his audiences and the role that mentors and role models have played for him throughout his life.

You can find out more about Ronnie on the following website: www.ronniewoo.com and his IG is @ronniecwoo.

The 2023 Pride Series is kindly sponsored by members of our Rainbow Network including Laura J. LaTourette, who is a financial planner who describes her practice as one designed to enable LGBTQ+ folx make a plan to simplify their lives to enable them to live authentically and leave a legacy of love. Based in Dahlonega Georgia but with a national client base Laura has a particular interest in working with LGBTQ+ elders. You can find out more about Laura's practice by following her on:

Linked In
linkedin.com/in/lauralatourette 

Twitter: 

• LauraLaTourette

Meghan Stabler was until recently a fractional CMO at ThriveCart, and a member of the board of directors of Grindr since May 2022. She has had a series of marketing and strategy roles over the course of her career and is a keynote speaker on a range of topics. 

Given Meghan’s expertise, we dive deep into marketing and branding as a discipline – speak about finding the voice of a brand and channeling the energy of a generation. Turning to her personal story Meghan describes her experience as a transgender woman – and the fact that when she decided to transition she experienced significant sacrifice, but that she didn’t see herself as having a choice. 

We compare her experience transitioning in her mid-adulthood to what might be the case for younger people or people at different stages of their career – especially those who may be less well-established. We discuss the impact on children and on families, and on the importance of allyship. 

Ending with her work on Grindr, we discuss her experience in technology, mobile app development, and marketing, and benefits the board and the focus that Grindr has. We discuss the importance of authenticity at every stage of one’s journey, and how it is so important to “be oneself”. 

Thank you to Tom Soto and Latimer Partners LLC for supporting production costs of this series.

Erryca Robicheaux describes herself as shaping the future of Diversity and Inclusion through technology.  She is a certified DEI leader and strategist as well as a Neurodiversity ERG lead.

 

Erryca grew up in Louisiana in a deeply religious household where attending church multiple times a week was common.  She describes some of the belief system and backdrop to that time, and then how she was “outed” at church which was when she had to tell her parents that she was gay.  Her journey back to the church is one that we discuss, as it reveals the complex, intersecting, aspects of that relationship that many members of the LGBTQ+ community have to navigate.

 

We move then to her career and discuss the intersectionality of her neurodiversity with being gay, and how this is actually quite a common area of intersectionality, particularly for lesbians.  This requires a particular kind of inclusion that is in tune with the individual’s needs but just because it requires effort, Erryca’s view is that it is an effort worth making.

 

Erryca is an advocate for better visibility and acceptance on LinkedIn which is where I came across her profile, and she talks there about sometimes being forced to lead a double life and suppress a side of herself for corporate acceptance. She also discusses the pushback that something like a social media post can attract, in particular a recent one in which she was pictured with her jeep and a rainbow flag on Instagram in a joyful image that was actually grabbed by Jeep for their own post. 

 

You can find some of Erryca’s social media posts here:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7067926967219597313?updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_feedUpdate%3A%28V2%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7067926967219597313%29

including the famous Jeep Instagram pic that effuses such joy.


The 2023 Pride Series is kindly sponsored by members of our Rainbow Network including Laura J. LaTourette, who is a financial planner who describes her practice as one designed to enable LGBTQ+ folx make a plan to simplify their lives to enable them to live authentically and leave a legacy of love. Based in Dahlonega Georgia but with a national client base Laura has a particular interest in working with LGBTQ+ elders. You can find out more about Laura's practice by following her on:

Linked In
linkedin.com/in/lauralatourette 

Twitter: 

• LauraLaTourette

Dr. Safi Mojidi describes himself as a Point Guard of Cyber and Data Privacy.  He is the Founder and CEO of Hacking the Workforce, which co-creates employment opportunities for QTIPOC to upskill their lives and move from empowered to employed in cybersecurity. He is a Board Member and Director of Partnerships at TransTech Social Enterprises and has had a long career in cybersecurity.

 

We start with a discussion of Safi’s roots in Nigeria and his prowess in sport, in which he played in the Nigerian national basketball team.  This formed a pillar of his youth and even still he sees his role as a Point Guard.

 

We look at the field of cyber security and the fact that it can largely be done as a remote role today.  While this can enable a more inclusive work environment and a more diverse work force it can also be isolating and can diminish community. The challenge of finding gainful rewarding employment is one that lies at the heart of the Hacking the Workforce initiative, which is a non-profit focused on empowering QTIPOC to upskill their lives. Safi mentions that while there has been progress made in the workplace there is still a gap when it comes to intersectionality and individuals who may be trans and from an ethnic minority. Safi’s goal is to ensure that this segment does not fall through the cracks.

 

Moving on to broader workplace issues, we discuss the toxicity that can exist at various workplaces and why “just leave” is not always the right answer, although it might be the most appealing one. 

The 2023 Pride Series is kindly sponsored by members of our Rainbow Network including Laura J. LaTourette, who is a financial planner who describes her practice as one designed to enable LGBTQ+ folx make a plan to simplify their lives to enable them to live authentically and leave a legacy of love. Based in Dahlonega Georgia but with a national client base Laura has a particular interest in working with LGBTQ+ elders. You can find out more about Laura's practice by following her on:

Linked In
linkedin.com/in/lauralatourette 

Twitter: 

• LauraLaTourette

Nathan Ortiz is an Associate DevOps Engineer at Red Door Interactive, based in the San Diego area. He previously was a software engineer at Trainsquare and prior to that was in the US Navy. 

 

Our conversation starts with Nathan’s childhood in which he played a lot of different sports and after which he ultimately pursued a career in the navy. It was there that he found a supportive LGBTQ+ community which he quickly grew to treat like a family.  This was when he began to question his own gender identity and ultimately transitioned to identify as a man. 

 

Now in the field of software design, Nathan describes what inclusive design really is, and why it is only through the lived experience of users that flaws or failures of a design can be revealed and addressed. 

The 2023 Pride Series is kindly sponsored by members of our Rainbow Network including Laura J. LaTourette, who is a financial planner who describes her practice as one designed to enable LGBTQ+ folx make a plan to simplify their lives to enable them to live authentically and leave a legacy of love. Based in Dahlonega Georgia but with a national client base Laura has a particular interest in working with LGBTQ+ elders. You can find out more about Laura's practice by following her on:

Linked In
linkedin.com/in/lauralatourette 

Twitter: 

• LauraLaTourette

Vikki Le is currently studying in the medical field and is a Youtube content creator as well as marketing specialist.  She has focused on concept creation for transgender individuals including in the beauty, fashion and modeling industries and has spent time as a counselor to transgender youth.

 

Vikki grew up in South East Asia, an area which is actually quite accepting around transgenderism.  She discusses her own transition, which she documented in quite a bit of detail on her Youtube channel mainly as she had found so little available on line in terms of knowledge sharing when she herself was considering her gender affirmation surgery. On her channel she was vulnerable and open and gained a huge following, some of it negative.  It was ironic that the negative attention that this disclosure attracted actually drove engagement and reach, and Vikki describes how she learned to drown it out and focus only on the positive messages.

 

In her career Vikki has worked in a number of different roles including modeling and beauty, and she describes some of the treatment that she has received in workplaces which has amounted to harassment and overall inappropriate behavior.  She claims that this practice stems from a fetishization of transgender people that still persists in the media or popular discussions today, and it is her hope that when stories like hers and so many others are normalized that the diversity of transgender individuals will be seen and celebrated. 

 

You can follow Vikki on her Youtube channel, which she describes as a Love Letter to Her Younger Self here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf0FFIM_5lPeEhCHiWoSfHQ

The 2023 Pride Series is kindly sponsored by members of our Rainbow Network including Laura J. LaTourette, who is a financial planner who describes her practice as one designed to enable LGBTQ+ folx make a plan to simplify their lives to enable them to live authentically and leave a legacy of love. Based in Dahlonega Georgia but with a national client base Laura has a particular interest in working with LGBTQ+ elders. You can find out more about Laura's practice by following her on:

Linked In
linkedin.com/in/lauralatourette 

Twitter: 

• LauraLaTourette

Maggie Lower describes herself as a Pop Culture Enthusiast and Music Lover as well as a CMO and Board Member. She was previously CMO for Hootsuite, a social media management platform where she fostered a collaborative marketing approach. She joined the Board of Directors of Grindr the largest LGBTQIA+ social networking App and has won multiple awards as an LGBTQIA+ advocate and been a keynote speaker. She also holds multiple roles as Senior Board Advisor.

We start our discussion with a quick run through Maggie's childhood in Chicago and St. Louis, her love of sport and her early career in which she followed some inspiring leaders. In discussing work dynamics she makes the interesting observation that just as actors follow directors, employees will follow inspiring bosses and she charts some of the moves that have been pivotal in her career.  She charts the mentors who believed in her, and mentions some of less sensitive encounters that emboldened her.

Her focus on marketing was sealed with her MBA at Kellogg and I take full advantage of her insights as a CMO to ask her about some of her core beliefs with respect to marketing - the need for authenticity in adherence to values and to avoid "random acts of marketing" that are not linked to the overall purpose.  We hear about damage control and messaging, in particular around the Bud Light case study, and how it relates to brand voice. Social media too should relate back to brand identity and voice, and we move then to talk about Maggie's role on the Board of Grindr and what she seeks to bring to that and other board roles.

In discussing her own personal story Maggie has some tales of her own coming out experience as well as the awkwardness encountered around pregnancy and parenting at work. This is all taken with a dose of humor however, and Maggie leaves us with gems of wisdom and strategies that everyone will be able to employ.

The 2023 Pride Series is kindly sponsored by members of our Rainbow Network including Laura J. LaTourette, who is a financial planner who describes her practice as one designed to enable LGBTQ+ folx make a plan to simplify their lives to enable them to live authentically and leave a legacy of love. Based in Dahlonega Georgia but with a national client base Laura has a particular interest in working with LGBTQ+ elders. You can find out more about Laura's practice by following her on:

Linked In
linkedin.com/in/lauralatourette 

Twitter: 

• LauraLaTourette

Dru Holmquist is Principal and Head of Client Facing and Wealth Management Consulting Practices at Cutter Associates.  Now based in San Diego, Dru is also the founder of Out in Finance, an industry affiliate group for LGBTQ+ professionals in finance.

Our conversation starts with Dru's upbringing in Minnesota, his early married life and how he approached coming out in stages - first in his personal life and then at work. He charts the mentors that he had in his professional life, many of whom had a personal interest in Dru, being akin to family.  These mentors celebrated his coming out and enabled him upon the journey to become his authentic self.

We move then to talk about the industry affinity group Out in Finance which Dru founded so that other finance professionals from the LGBTQ+ community could meet role models, share experiences and gain the confidence to grow their own visibility. We talk about the growth of that organization, its impact and the corporate partners who support it.  We end with a note of optimism for the future, about how far we have come.

You can find out more about Out in Finance here: https://outinfinance.org

The 2023 Pride Series is kindly sponsored by members of our Rainbow Network including Laura J. LaTourette, who is a financial planner who describes her practice as one designed to enable LGBTQ+ folx make a plan to simplify their lives to enable them to live authentically and leave a legacy of love. Based in Dahlonega Georgia but with a national client base Laura has a particular interest in working with LGBTQ+ elders. You can find out more about Laura's practice by following her on:

Linked In
linkedin.com/in/lauralatourette 

Twitter: 

• LauraLaTourette

Laura LaTourette is a financial planner that describes her practice as one designed to enable LGBTQ+ folx make a plan to simplify their lives to enable them to live authentically and leave a legacy of love. Based on her own 18 acre farm in Dahlonega Georgia,  Laura has been a financial planner for over 20 years and is also a National Resource Center Ambassador for LGBT Elder Issues. 

Our conversation starts with Laura's somewhat unconventional first years and her early self-advocacy and independence. She speaks about her early family life and how having a "hole in her heart" led to her finding her authentic self and coming out as a lesbian.  Now married to her wife and living her retirement dream today - she has lived on a farm where she lovingly raises llamas, grows an abundance of vegetables and posts regular dreamy landscape photos to Twitter. 

Her path to financial planning was driven by her own circumstances and once there she realized the importance of providing a safe and inclusive space for clients to be their authentic selves.  She leads therefore with her membership of the LGBTQ+ community so clients know upfront and this is also a way to create more visibility and to normalize the mosaic of diversity in different sectors - in this case the financial planning one. Laura is particularly interested in elder issues - as she perceives that LGBT elders - many of whom experienced the ravages of Aids in their community in the 1980s often don't have an outlet and supportive infrastructure. 

Laura has been supporter of The Fiftyfaces Podcast for some time and is kindly supporting this series, along with other members of our Rainbow Community. 

June is here, and we are delighted to be back with our annual Pride Series, that this year will be a little bit different.  It will be a bit different because although we are launching it in June, we intend to keep adding to the series all year long – because Pride is for life, not just every June. This year – to kick things off, we hear from the Founder of “Out in Finance” about the affinity group he is building, and the relief he felt on being able to be his authentic self as well as from a financial planner who specifically focuses on working with LBGTQ+ “folx” to enable them to live their lives authentically. 

We hear from a Director on the Board of Grindr about the company’s vision for inclusion and her own insights from marketing as well as a software developer who speaks about why he focuses on inclusive design. 

A Youtube influencer reveals how some of her online critics actually drove her engagement stats, a DEI expert and a “point guard” of cyber security round out the initial seven podcasts.  

 

Besides professional inclusion we chat about office etiquette – and lack thereof and tackles some of the issues faced by the transgender community:

 

And we ask if for some, for whom intersectionality is a reality, things are getting worse not better and we are left with lessons for all of us:

 

The guests in the series are :

Laura LaTourette is financial planner who describes her practice as one designed to enable LGBTQ+ folx make a plan to simplify their lives to enable them to live authentically and leave a legacy of love. Based on her own 18 acre farm in Dahlonega Georgia,  Laura has been a financial planner for over 20 years and is also a National Resource Center Ambassador for LGBT Elder Issues. 

Dru Holmquist is Principal and Head of Client Facing and Wealth Management Consulting Practices at Cutter Associates.  Now based in San Diego, Dru is also the founder of Out in Finance, an industry affiliate group for LGBTQ+ professionals in finance.

Maggie Lower describes herself as a Pop Culture Enthusiast and Music Lover as well as a CMO and Board Member. She is was formerly CMO for Hootsuite, a social media management platform where she fostered a collaborative marketing approach. She joined the Board of Directors of Grindr the largest LGBTQIA+ social networking App and has won multiple awards as an LGBTQIA+ advocate and been a keynote speaker. She also holds multiple roles as Senior Board Advisor. 

Dr. Safi Mojidi, describes himself as a Point Guard of Cyber Security and Data Privacy.  He is the Founder and CEO of Hacking the Workforce, which co-creates employment opportunities for QTIPOC to upskill their lives and move from empowered to employed in cybersecurity. He is a Board Member and Director of Partnerships at TransTech Social Enterprises and has had a long career in cybersecurity. 

Vikki Le is currently studying vocational nursing and is a Youtube content creator as well as marketing specialist.  She has focused on concept creation for transgender individuals including in the beauty, fashion and modeling industries and has spent time as a counselor to transgender youth. 

Nathan Ortiz is an Associate DevOps Engineer at Red Door Interactive, based in the San Diego area. He previously was a software engineer at Trainsquare and prior to that was in the US Navy. 

Erryca Robicheaux describes herself as shaping the future of Diversity and Inclusion through technology.  She is a certified DEI leader and strategist as well as a Neurodiversity ERG lead.

Ronnie Woo is the chef and owner of The Delicious Cook, an LA-based private chef company that specializes in four-star dining experiences. He is an accomplished chef, television personality, and cookbook author (Did You Eat Yet?, March 14, 2023) celebrated by his fans and peers alike for his infectious personality, background in dating & relationships, and creative Asian-American cuisine, which combines Asian dishes with All-American influences.

Ray Tierney is a cybersecurity specialist who was formerly a paramedic.  Prior to that she was a Security Forces Security Specialist.

This series was kindly supported by Laura J. LaTourette who describes herself as that Lesbian Financial Planner asking LGBTQ+ folx to make a plan to simplify their lives so they can live authentically and leave a legacy of love and a host of others in our Rainbow community. 

Brison Scholar Lee Downing, also known as Dr. Scholar Lee, is an inspirational speaker, spiritual life coach, transformational leader and a leadership consultant based in the Atlanta, Georgia area. As a Black Man of Trans experience, he has unique insights into the challenges of transition and cloaks his guidance in a deep spirituality.

"He is the host of the podcasts "The Dr. Scholar Lee Experience" and "The Dr. Scholar Lee GENDERED. Experience" both will be launching in the Summer of 2022." He is also the CEO/Owner of T.R.A.N.S. parent Life Conversations, A Life Coaching service for Transgender Nonconforming individuals and families to cope, heal, and overcome challenges.  His program helps families create affirming, supportive, and healthy relationships with their gender variant loved one. 

In addition, Dr. Scholar is the author of the children's book "The Fruits of a S.C.H.O.L.A.R." which will launch to the public in September 2022.

Educationally, he obtains a BA in Psychology and two Masters, a Master's of Science in Management and Organizational Leadership (MSMOL), and a Master's in Philosophy (MPHIL). Dr. Scholar Lee will be receiving his PhD in Philosophy this year 2022. Currently, he is doing his dissertation on "The Characteristics of Trans Affirming Parenting."

Born and raised from New Haven, Connecticut. He now resides with his wife in the East Atlanta area but frequently visits Connecticut to see his 5 year old daughter and family. In addition, he is Blessed with a 15 year old bonus son and 5 year old bonus dog.

You can follow Dr. Scholar Lee on Twitter, tik tok, Instagram, and YouTube @drscholarlee. 

Our conversation covers Dr. Scholar Lee's own career start, and how his own trans experience led to his current focus on affirmative coaching and spirituality.  He mentions how transitioning his gender was the first decision he had made for himself and how his biggest challenge was to love himself.

This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers.  Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture. 

  

Chas Manning describes himself as being passionate about people and data. He obtained a degree in manufacturing engineering from Boston University, and has held a series of engineering and operating roles with some twists and turns in between. He lives with his husband Will and two dogs in the Oak Park area outside Chicago and we are in fact, neighbors.

Our conversation starts with Chas's childhood, the importance that "play" had for him and his first enthusiastic coming out experience which was less well-received than he had hoped.  He then became less out for a period of time until doing so again some years later.  Chas's story is laced with anecdotes of his experience at work and in the interpersonal interactions that he thrives on.  He describes feeling invisible when deliberately didn't share details of his personal life, but then the unusual feeling of feeling invisible even after he had come out to his work colleagues, due to their failure to acknowledge what he had shared.

We talk about his experience within start-ups and within data-driven organizations, and how ultimately his career has always benefited when he has been authentic at work.
 
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers.  Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture. 

Rob Smith is Founder and CEO of the Phluid Project, a brand that recognizes the shifting attitude of Gen Z and young Millennials, merging fashion with community and education. He has served on boards for over a decade, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for Steve Madden, following a career in marketing in which he held a series of executive roles. He chairs the development committee for the LGBTA+ Board Directors, is a TEDX speaker and is currently working on his first book.

 

Our conversation charts Rob’s career in fashion and how he found acceptance within this community as well as a keen sense for the ability for fashion to bridge the generational gap and tap into shifting psyches in markets. We talk about his work on boards and in the Phluid project, and what it stands for as well as why the current marketing campaign talks about Pride being a March and not a Parade. We move then to discuss the importance of role models at every stage of career progression. 

 

Thank you to Tom Soto and Latimer Partners LLC for supporting production costs of this series.

 

Jack Dodd describes himself as a human who talks about mental health. I came across him thanks to a powerful LinkedIn post he made about how boys get sad too, in which he called to normalize expressing emotion, sometimes at work. He is a corporate partnerships lead in the Charity Sector and prior to that worked in recruitment. I asked Jack to join me to talk about the mental health advocacy that is close to his heart and to hear about the response he received to the LinkedIn post that drew me to him.

Our conversation starts with Jack’s own story, and how he developed the courage to talk about mental health, feeling sad, feeling grief and how to assist others to develop the same vulnerability. We talk about why barriers sometimes exist to this kind of sharing, and how to break them down.

We talk about "talking about" mental health at work and how one's burden can be lightened by sharing common experiences like grief, anxiety and insecurity.

This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers.  Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture. 

Leo Caldwell is an inclusion educator and consultant at Empathy by Design, and an assistant lecturer at Ball State University School of Journalism, where he teaches visual communication courses in the Journalism Department. He also teaches podcasting and strategic social media communication in the graduate program at Drexel University.

Our conversation starts with a discussion of Leo's main focus, which is journalism and communication. Given that Leo is now an academic in the field of journalism we have the opportunity to discuss how journalism and media studies are currently presented and some of the change that is afoot in these disciplines.

We then return to his upbringing which was in Indiana in the 1990s, when transgender was not a widely discussed concept or possibility.  He describes his own transition and frames it as a "journey" where there is no one destination but a continuum of constant change, experimentation and iteration.

Leo shares anecdotes of discrimination, misunderstandings and patently "non-inclusive" workplace behaviors which underscore just how different the pace of acceptance is across different work plans. He also describes how he sees every such incident as a "teachable moment" whereby he seeks to "turn his own trauma into cash". He concludes with an exhortation to young people to be less afraid and to make hard choices when required.

This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers.  Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture. 

Robyn Grew is Group COO, general counsel and Head of ESG at Man Group as well as Head of Man Group US. Global Head of Legal and Compliance. She has been with the firm for over 12 years. Previously, she worked in a number of different compliance roles and at financial services firms. She lives with her wife in the New York City area and has a college-aged son.

For Robyn, questioning authority was a way of life - at least at the beginning.  She describes her upbringing in the UK and how she was never really "not out" - but also describes the time that she came out to her parents and later in the workplace.  She observes that the process of coming out is often an ongoing thing - she suggests that every new person you meet, every holiday you book, any new school you go to, anything that's new at all, you're coming out all the time - it is a constant thing that never stops. This is also the case for the child of gay parents who must "come out" about their own situation too.

Now in an executive role, Robyn describes the variety of work that she does and how much she enjoys it.  She also talks about the Pride network within her firm and how little gestures like flags on email signatures or on desks can be so meaningful, and also the surprising enthusiasm around some of the Pride month merchandise that the firm (under)ordered.

Despite this progress in the workplace though, there are still areas and pockets where rights and acceptance are not what they should be and Robyn notes that there are still places she would not feel safe to go on vacation.

This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers.  Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture.

Joanne Monck OBE is director of global education and equality, diversity and inclusion at the Believe Foundation. She's an advocate for transgender awareness as well as domestic abuse. She was awarded an OBE for services to Transgender  Equality as a Global LGBT Advocate and Independent Advisor in the 2021 New Year Honours List.
 
Joanne's story of transition is a searing one - she first tell's David's story, which was one of a hidden identity that experienced some domestic abuse and shaming. She then relays how Joanne was born, when David was already 58 years old, and the joy that this has brought her. Now as an inclusion advocate her driving mission is to raise awareness of gender non-conformity, suggest subtle changes that can make a difference in the workplace and in the community.
 
 Her experience has not always been a smooth one, and Joanne describes some of the vitriolic comments that she has received on social media, and points to tis as evidence of the long way there is still to go in terms of general acceptance.  Her own personal experience has been a richer one, and in particular she describes the joy she derives from her sons and a very special Mother's Day some years ago.

This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers.  Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture. .

Zander Keig  is a social worker, emotional wellness and personal growth webinar facilitator, mental fitness coach, and social care clinical consultant based in Central Florida.  He is an advocate for mental wellbeing, LGBT veterans, and trans social care, and was named NASW National Social Worker of the Year in 2020 and NASW California Social Worker of the Year in 2018. 

Our conversation starts with Zander's childhood and a devastating bout of childhood illness that not only forced him to miss an extended period of school but delayed his development in a variety of ways requiring occupational therapy and speech therapy and an extended period of rehabilitation. This shaped him in numerous ways - leading to a resilience as well as an empathy which have been central in his career path. 

Zander's career path has been a particularly rich and varied one, including a spell in the Coast Guard, as a firefighter, EMT, in law enforcement and a drug enforcement agency. Zander's insights from his transition are extraordinary - first he notes the "empathy gap".  While as a Latina woman he would have formerly attracted high degrees of empathy, perhaps due to perceived victim status with those particular intersections.  Now as a man he sees far fewer empathic connections, which underscores perhaps the lack of embrace that men get from an emotional support perspective.  We move from this to analyze the large number of men who take their own lives every year and how they are perhaps overlooked by society.

Zander's perspectives on the "gender wars" is a fascinating one - having transitioned he found that people considered him to be a gay man, as he seemed effeminate as a man, yet masculine as a woman.  Having realized that no-one wins the gender wars he decided to just stop playing. 

You can find out more about Zander's work at www.zanderkeig.net.

This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers.  Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture. 

Kate Baur recently started her surgical residency in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She has a particular interest in colo-rectal surgery, in particular as anal cancer is a cancer that has a higher incidence in populations such as the LGBTQ+ population.  Since recording her podcast she has not only started her surgical residency but has got married. 

Our conversation starts with Kate's upbringing which saw her live around the world in communities in Korea, India and China and what this taught her about different cultures as well as some of the grave inequities in services, particularly medicine.  We trace her path to medical school and her interest in surgery, and reflect on the presence of role models within medicine among women and gay women in particular and find that there are very few.  We speak then about the importance of medicine embracing the different needs of the LGBTQ+ community and how little of the curriculum addresses this.

Kate is passionate about advocating for the relatively "invisible" LGBTQ+ community when it comes to medicine and this is what drew her to colorectal surgery in particular. We compare the approach to screening for anal cancer to screening for cervical cancer and find that the principles are the same but, again, the advocacy is lacking.  There is more information about the "Anchor Study" which is investigating screening and treatment for anal cancer in patients who are HIV+ on the following link.  https://anchorstudy.org/

Kate mentions GLMA which is an organization of health professionals advancing LGBTQ equality (https://www.glma.org/) as a prominent affinity group that is raising awareness. 

This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers.  Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture. 

Elizabeth (Liz) Kleinerman is a Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at Wellington Management, based in Boston.  She has worked at Wellington for her entire career, and is Chair of the Advisory Board of the Wellington Foundation as well as a Founder of the firm’s Pride+ Network and a leader of its diversity and inclusion efforts.  She lives with her wife and two sons in the Boston area.

Our conversation starts with Liz's upbringing in a town south of Boston, where her family was one of few Jewish families in a primarily Irish Catholic town.  She went to Dartmouth and through a process of elimination found investment management as a career.  She joined Wellington as she felt a connection to the people she met, and she has remained at the firm for over 20 years.

We talk about the challenge of being another "other" in financial services, and why sometimes gay women are less visible in the workforce than gay men.

At Wellington, Liz helped to found the Pride Network and we discuss how it came about and grew from modest roots.  We examine the areas that it covers now - such as education around evolving gender norms, celebration events and an ongoing commitment to inclusion. We also touch on her work at the Wellington Foundation and its commitment to improving educational opportunities for underserved youth.

This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers.  Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture. 

We are delighted to bring you our second Pride Special, in which we celebrate the career journeys of LGBTQ+ professionals around the world.   In this year’s series we speak with a surgeon in training committed to raising awareness of the LBGTQ+ community, a finance industry COO who was once a teenage rebel, a recent recipient of an OBE award for services to the diversity an inclusion, a fixed income fund manager, a data junkie, a social worker and many more. 

We talk about the challenges of coming out (sometimes over and over again), the lack of role models across professions and in medicine in particular, how advocacy is lacking in medicine too, and why nobody wins the gender wars. Tune in to hear from these 9 amazing guests: 

Elizabeth Kleinerman is a Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at Wellington Management, based in Boston.  She has worked at Wellington for her entire career, and is Chair of the Advisory Board of the Wellington Foundation as well as the Founder of the firm’s Pride Network and a leader of its diversity and inclusion efforts. She lives with her wife and two sons in the Boston area.

Leo Caldwell is an inclusion educator and consultant at “Empathy by Design” and an Assistant Lecturer at Ball State University School of Journalism where he teaches visual communication courses in the journalism department.  He also teaches podcasting and strategic social media communication in the graduate program at Drexel University.

Chas Manning describes himself as being passionate about people and data.  He obtained a degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Boston University and has held a series of engineering and operating roles, with some twists and turns in between. He lives with his husband Will and two dogs in the Oak Park area outside Chicago. 

Brison Scholar Lee Downing, also known as Dr. Scholar Lee, who is an inspirational speaker, spiritual life coach, transformational leader and a leadership consultant based in the Atlanta, Georgia area. As a Black Man of Trans experience, he has unique insights into the challenges of transition and cloaks his guidance in a deep spirituality.

Robyn Grew is group COO and General Counsel as well as Global Head of Legal & Compliance at Man Group. Previously she worked in a number of different compliance roles at financial services firms. She lives with her wife in the NYC area and has a college aged son.

Zander Keig is a licensed clinical social worker, emotional wellness and personal growth webinar facilitator, and trans social care clinical consultant based in Central Florida.   He was named NASW National Social Worker of the Year in 2020, NASW California Social Worker of the Year in 2018, and WPATH Educator of the Year in 2020. To learn more about Zander visit his website: www.zanderkeig.net

Kate Baur is a fourth year medical student at Loyola. She lives with her fiancée in the Chicago area, however will be starting her surgical residency in Ann Arbor this June. She has a particular interest in colo-rectal surgery, in particular as anal cancer is a cancer that has a higher incidence in populations such as the LGBTQ+ population.

Jack Dodd describes himself as a human who talks about mental health. I came across him thanks to a powerful LinkedIn post he made about how boys get sad too, in which he called to normalize expressing emotion, sometimes at work. He is a corporate partnerships lead at Citizens Advice and prior to that worked in client accounts management and partnership development at Stonewall and prior to that in recruitment. I asked Jack to join me to talk about the mental health advocacy that is close to his heart.

Joanne Monck, OBE is director of global education and equality, diversity and inclusion at The Believe Foundation. She is an advocate for transgender awareness as well as domestic abuse, and last year was awarded and OBE for services to transgender equality in the 2021 New Year

This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers.  Wellington believes in the importance of a diverse workforce, equitable opportunities for all colleagues to reach their potential, and an inclusive culture. 

The Honorable Judge Victoria Kolakowski, is a judge of the Superior Court of Alameda County, in the Bay Area of California and 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. Her conversation with a new host, Patrick Devitt, goes back to her childhood, to her earliest days of wishing she were a girl, through adolescence, college and law school. She talks about her transition, reactions to it, the support network that made it possible and how being transgender affected her employment opportunities and career path. We hope you enjoy this profoundly moving interview that we are releasing to coincide with LGBT History Month in the UK. There is more information about Judge Kolakowski on the following links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Kolakowski https://vkolakowski.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzPT40eaEGY&list=PLIsDBjtKYyJalB8rWNJqtKt-bAhhX2h6T 

This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.

Perry Zizzi is a Managing Partner at Dentons 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.

Our trip down memory lane starts with Perry's childhood in upstate NY where his early fascination with history led him to cycle around the town making a map of the streets. He also collected stamps as well as a coterie of mentors including teachers and local historians. Later on in Georgetown he deliberately sought out professors who might push him outside his comfort zone and his love of languages, Latin America and travel took root. Perry often talked about his time in Palau with the Peace Corps while we shared an office, and it was fascinating to reflect on the lessons learned from time spent in this island in Micronesia with a population of around 18,000 people.

Our conversation then moves to his time at law school, practicing corporate law, and the twists and turns that took him to Paris and then Romania, and the shifts that led him to realize how much he enjoyed practicing. We talk about his work in the Romanian Diversity Chamber of Commerce and how the inclusion of LGBT professionals has changed dramatically over the course of his career. We finish with reflections on wisdom shared by some legendary teachers.

This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.

Taryn Talley is a marketer with over 20 years of experience, who is currently Head of Marketing at an agency Position 2. She has had numerous marketing roles across the digital and traditional spectrum. 

 

Our sweeping conversation takes us through Taryn’s upbringing and her career in marketing, as well as her experience in transitioning in her 20s and coming out on social media and mid-career and how this was received by her co-workers. We hear about inclusive and less inclusive environments, and about the power of allyship can make a tremendous difference in one’s career experience. 

 

Staying on marketing we speak about inclusion and the power of marketing to embrace marginalized communities through intentional inclusion. We stress the importance of action over words. 

 

We turn then to Taryn’s roots and her spirituality and in the particular the guidance she had from a spiritual guru, which taught her that her validity should come from within, and not from any external validation. 

 

Thank you to Tom Soto and Latimer Partners LLC for supporting production costs of this series.

Oli Shakir-Khalil 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. He is passionate about the need to reinforce listening within organizations and the debunk the myth that this area should be taboo. His initiatives both within his own firm and within the industry are innovative and powerful to spread inclusion and promote dialogue about this issue.

Our conversation starts with Oli's university specialty of classics and how he happened upon a city career with this quite unconventional background. What it did endow him with, though, was sharp writing skills and a comfort and ease with public speaking and client situations, which were the essential cultural "add" to round out a team.

We speak about his role as a mental health ambassador, why these roles are more essential than ever today, in light of the Covid-19 disruptions and enforced isolation and how simple adjustments like noting his status on his signature - indicating that he is "free to talk" and that colleagues who may be struggling can open up to him can be critical.

Oli is also an active advocate for the LGBT community at work and in the City.

This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.

Genie Cesar-Fabian is a Partner, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Palladium Equity Partners, based in the NYC area. She previously worked as in-house counsel, a law professor and an attorney in private practice. She lives with her wife and two children in the NYC area.

Our discussion starts with a look-back to Genie's childhood in Long Island, her love of sports and music, and her experience of coming out in the Village of NYC in the 1990s. She tells a deeply personal story of some of the struggle that was involved.

Her study of law seemed to be pre-destined, and it lived up to all of its expectations. We spend a little time talking about the law course that she thought on law and literature, and how she started her career in private practice but ultimately transitioned to an in-house role and the benefits that that brought. Her professional experience was a broadly positive one - with inclusive forward-thinking environments where her status as a parent and a member of the LGBT community was welcomed.

We then turn to her assessment of the current levels of inclusion and acceptance and marvel that things have come so far, but we do note the small gestures that continue to make a difference in creating a welcoming environment.


This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.

Matthew Choyce is a Virtual Event and Video Production Specialist at I-connections. 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 industries.

Our conversation dives into to the rapidly evolving world of event production - and takes in the dramatic changes that the space has seen since the Covid disruptions. We look at whether a blend of real and virtual events will be the way of the future.

We then turn to the foundation that Matthew founded with his Partner in order to provide resources and support to gay youth interested in working in the technology arena. He describes what the gaps were that this foundation was intended to solve, and reveals the supports that are so critical, particularly when young people feel isolated as many did during lockdowns.

This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.

Nicci Take is interim head of growth at Mercer. She is an expert in sales, and is the chairwoman/founder of M62 Vincis, which helps organizations win by working out the last 15 mins of the sales cycle. She is a Presenter, Entrepreneur and stand up Comedienne and a prominent transgender advocate, inspirational speaker and coach. who is a #BritishLGBTAwards Top 10 Inspirational Leader as well as one of the FT 100 Leading LGBT+ Executives 2017.

Nicci's experience as a sales expert was developed over decades of global experience, often as an entrepreneur. She resists efforts to reduce sales to a process and stresses the importance of relationships and the human connection. Her transgender journey had a different trajectory - although she always felt drawn to feminine things in her youth, she only transitioned in her professional life at age 42. We talk at length about that, about how it transformed her approach to business and changed her management style.

The transition also paved the way for tremendous insights not only into how women are treated in the workplace but also into how many contemporaries and colleagues - both familiar and those less so - viewed femininity and women more generally. As a stand-up comic, Nicci can always see the funny side of what life has thrown her way, and this humor comes through wonderfully in this podcast.

You can read more about Nicci on http://niccitake.com/

This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.

David Mooney 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.

David is a bit of a legend in the area of commodities investment, and I have always known him to have a skeptical eye and an aversion to hubris. Never afraid to call a spade a spade, in this podcast David gives a refreshing overview of the industry he made his own and advises that it is always essential to maintain the element of surprise.

We turn to the topic of diversity and inclusion and LGBT inclusion in particular, and David has some fascinating insights into the way things were - as well as into the way they are starting to trend.

This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.

Georgy Egorov is Chief Financial Officer of Vaccitech, a firm that develops vaccines and T cell immunotherapies to treat and prevent cancer and infectious diseases. It was one of the firms behind the recently launched Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. 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 and University of Cambridge in the UK.

Our conversation starts with Georgy's upbringing in Russia and the somewhat wild backdrop of the 1990s, which was, surprisingly, a very liberal time in the country. In the spirit of new beginnings, he set off for London after university with the bare minimum in his pocket and no work visa. A fortuitous landing in the EBRD set him on course for a successful career in banking. This is where the first journey of discovery begins. We discuss the environment on trading floors in investment banking in the 1990s, when homophobic slurs were not uncommon and LGBT role models were largely absent.

The second journey of discovery was the drive to keep learning and move into the world of tech, AI and ultimately biotech, which saw him shift from a traditional hierarchical structure to a flat, entrepreneurial environment. Inclusion and acceptance was encouraged in this environment, and we reflect then on how far professional settings have come in terms of acceptance but the areas where more work needs to be done - namely in the area of inclusion and the availability of role models.

This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.

Jenny Whiteman 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.

As a former colleague of Jenny's I was thrilled to talk to her about her career journey and how she moved through the ranks in private practice initially and subsequently in an in-house role. We talk about what attracted her into law, and what she enjoys about in-house practice.

We move then to talk about Jenny's experience in the workplace as a gay woman and as a working parent. We speak about the startling statistic that gay women in the workplace are twice as likely to not be out than gay men, and why Lesbian Visibility Week is even needed to raise awareness of this fact. We mention the inclusive gestures that would contribute to more freedom to bring one's whole self to work and the fact that there is still a lack of prominent gay role models in this respect.

This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.

Ozzie Gromada Meza is Director of Membership and Talent Intelligence at the Latino Corporate Directors Association and has spent 11 + years in the executive recruiting space. He is an advocate for LGBT and Latino causes, and is currently based in Reno Nevada and holds a number of committee and volunteer roles.

Our conversation starts with the role of the Latino Corporate Directors Association and the fact that Latin-x individuals remain seriously underrepresented at Board level. We speak about the progress that is needed in this area, and the small degrees of change that are already happening at state level, particularly in California.

We then turn the conversation to the state of LBGT inclusion, at every level in the workplace, but we note that as in the case of the Latino population, LGBT role models are also sorely lacking at Board level and in other executive roles. We discuss Ozzie's own journey, which, in his case, had two speeds - one speed in the workplace, where he found a nurturing circle of colleagues who allowed him to be his authentic self. His personal and family life operated at another speed, and we talk about how he reconciled the two.

Finally we talk about the particular difficulty that some LGBT parents have in finding true inclusion in the workplace and Ozzie discusses what supports have been most helpful in raising his twins with his husband.

This podcast was made possible with the kind support of David Mooney, as well as Tom Soto of the Diverse Communities Impact Fund.

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 industries

Georgy 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 coach

Jenny 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.

Luigi Lewin is Senior Vice President and Head of Partnerships at GLAAD. He formerly spent 25 years on Wall Street where he worked in a series of roles in sales, relationship management, operations and business development, until he left to move to the non-profit sector. GLAAD is the largest and most visible non-profit advancing LGBTQ+ acceptance. 

Our conversation starts with Luigi's upbringing in New York City and how he developed an early interest in giving back through volunteering and local community involvement. We hear then about his journey to Wall Street, starting at Morgan Stanley in fixed income operations, and his international experience working in Japan, Hong Kong, Italy, and London. 

Luigi recounts his experience of not being out on Wall Street and the challenges of hiding his identity, including the term "covering." We move then to his decision to leave Wall Street and join the non-profit sector and we talk about GLAAD and its work in promoting visibility and representation, particularly in media, and the impact of seeing characters and personal experiences reflected in film and television.

As for advice as to creating an inclusive work environment Luigi emphasizes the importance of leaning in with empathy and building relationships based on trust and mutual respect.

Thank you to Tom Soto and Latimer Partners LLC for supporting production costs of this series. 

This is our fifth Pride Series of the Fiftyfaces Podcast. We have been proud of the deeply personal stories that we have shared from a diverse group of the LGBTQ+ community – we have discussed the importance of allyship, how workplaces have changed, the gestures that matter, and have thrown in a tremendous among of career advice along the way. This year presented some challenges – as policies change and some companies pull back from openly supporting this and other less represented groups, we asked previous guests whether this was the year to pull back and lie low or to proceed as usual. The answer was a resounding yes, so we got to work.

 

We featured Tom Soto in our main series and he has supported our Pride series twice - first in 2021 and again this year. When I spoke to Tom about 2025, he was affirming in his reasons for doing the series, that I wanted our listeners to hear it from him. 

In this podcast Tom updates us on the incredible work he has done to help rebuild after the devastating fires in Pacific Palisades, how his fund solutions have evolved, and his views on the current state of the rights he was fought for all of his life. 

Aoifinn reflects on the role of the Pride Series, and why we are continuing to tell these stories, which are important now than ever. 

With thanks to Tom and Latimer Partners LLC for supporting production costs of this series.

 

This is our fifth Pride Series of the Fiftyfaces Podcast. We have been proud of the deeply personal stories that we have shared from a diverse group of the LGBTQ+ community – we have discussed the importance of allyship, how workplaces have changed, the gestures that matter, and have thrown in a tremendous among of career advice along the way. This year presented some challenges – as policies change and some companies pull back from openly supporting this and other less represented groups, we asked previous guests whether this was the year to pull back and lie low or to proceed as usual. The answer was a resounding yes, so we got to work.

 

This year’s series contains a collection of heartwarming stories of validity, empowerment and triumph. We start with an introduction by me and Tom Soto, one of the original guests in the series, who was so affirming in his reasons for doing the series, that I wanted our listeners to hear it from him. 

Then, moving on to this year’s guests, we hear from Luigi Lewin, who is Senior Vice President and Head of Partnerships at GLAAD, the largest and most visible non-profit advancing LGBTQ+ acceptance.

 

We then meet Taryn Talley, who is a marketer with over 20 years of experience, and she relates her transgender journey and the spiritual awakening that taught her that validation comes from within.

 

This series is packed with marketing tips as well as insights from people in Board roles. We hear first from Rob Smith, who is Founder and CEO of the Phluid Project, a brand that recognizes the shifting attitude of Gen Z and young Millennials, merging fashion with community and education. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Steve Madden. Next up is Meghan Stabler, has been a member of the board of directors of Grindr since May 2022. She has had a series of marketing and strategy roles over the course of her career and is a keynote speaker on a range of topics. 

 

We then meet a new friend of mine, Claire Williams, who is CEO of Oasis Domestic Abuse Service. We got to know eachother over LinkedIN when I responded to her popular LinkedIN post about Lesbian visibility week, in which she described her life with her partner and their six children and the changing climate and political backdrop.

 

Finally we go back to the Board of Grindr to hear from Nathan Richardson, who has been a member of the board of directors there since November 2022, prior to which he held a series of roles in financial services and industry.

 

So tune in from next week as we release our Pride Series over the entire month of June. Because our work goes on, even when it is no longer news. 

 
WIth sincere thanks to Latimer Partners LLC for supporting production costs of this series. 

 

 

Soltan Bryce is a managing consultant at Guidehouse, which is a consulting firm focused on Public Health Strategy, Application Development and Management, and was recently acquired by Bain Capital Private Equity.  He is a part time General Partner at Colorful Capital, which  focuses on “finance flowing with Pride” and aims to bring capital support and scaffolding to enterprises founded and led by members of the broad LGBTQIA+ community, by filling financing gaps and overcoming detrimental heuristics. 

Our conversation starts with Soltan’s upbringing in a North Carolina suburb, where he was a member of a small Muslim community that had come there as Palestinian refugees.  He described himself as “gender nonchalant” during his youth – always more comfortable channeling male behavior but not, at that stage, aware of the “possibility models” that existed to affirm his gender.  These possibilities opened up to him in his early career in healthcare, and his decision to transition attained such broad support and allyship that he saw that as the model of the leader he would like to be.  Finding a calling to lead in areas such as transgender healthcare and investment in same, Soltan found himself drawn to business school, where he was intentional about coming out as transgender at Harvard Business School, which was still remarkably rare at that time.

We end by talking about Colorful Capital and discuss of the detrimental heuristics that are in place when members of the LGBTQ+ come to fundraise and how they can provide scaffolding and mentorship to bridge the gap

There is more information about Colorful Capital on the website https://www.colorful-capital.com/ and a link to their recently released impact report and management framework here: see press release and a direct link to Outsized Impact: How Investment Can Address the Systemic Risk of LGBTQIA+ Inequity. 

Our fourth Pride series is supported by JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan Chase has long been a supporter of equality in all forms, including for the LGBTQ+ community. Starting with the very first PRIDE business resource group in 1996, they recently strengthened their commitment by creating the Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs and a full-time, dedicated team to deliver on a global LGBTQ+ agenda. 

The Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs partners closely with stakeholders across the firm to promote intersectionality and leverage its combined resources to deliver equity and inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees, clients, partners and communities, worldwide.

Susan Berland is a coach for parents of LGBTQ children.  She has been VP of PFLAG in the East Bay area, PFLAG is a national organization providing support and advocacy for parents, families and allies of the LGBTQ community.

Susan has been a coach for most of her life, and is the proud mother of a gay son. She has channeled her lived experience and her time at PFLAG to offer a comprehensive set of coaching tools for parents of LGBTQ+ youth.  

In our conversation she sensitively addresses the range of emotions that parents can feel – from concern for the happiness and mental health or even safety of their child, to processing the surprise at the adjustment, and some sense of loss which may come from a child transitioning.  While there is a sense of gain too, there is a journey in which support is paramount, and being the provider of that support can be draining and itself stressful. Susan’s coaching provides a method to fill one’s own cup in order to better provide the supports needed but also to allow the parent to remain thee best version of themselves that they can be. 

Our fourth Pride series is supported by JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan Chase has long been a supporter of equality in all forms, including for the LGBTQ+ community. Starting with the very first PRIDE business resource group in 1996, they recently strengthened their commitment by creating the Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs and a full-time, dedicated team to deliver on a global LGBTQ+ agenda. 

The Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs partners closely with stakeholders across the firm to promote intersectionality and leverage its combined resources to deliver equity and inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees, clients, partners and communities, worldwide.