About our guests

Matt and Claire are friends who have a funny story about how they came to realise they were both openly Gay. Together they helped to create the Pride in Leadership network. The purpose of the network is to ELEVATE, CONNECT and SUPPORT LGBTQ+ business leaders and make them more visible. www.prideinleadership.co.uk

Claire Ebrey - is a purpose-driven leader and change-maker. Claire is the founder and director of On the Level, a consultancy focusing on responsible business, diversity & inclusion, membership, partnership and stakeholder engagement.Claire has also held senior roles at the Institute of Directors and Co-operatives UK.

Matt Howarth - has spent his career in the public and third sector working towards that end in a variety of creative, technical and communication roles. In 2007 he founded Reason Digital, a social enterprise that partners with corporate social responsibility, charity, university and other social enterprise in order to do social good with web, mobile and social media.

Rachael and Vikas’s reflections on the conversation 

We really enjoyed our conversation with Claire and Matt. Of the guests we’d had to this point Claire and Matt were our first guests who had met professionally, then went onto become friends. It was clear they’d found a shared need for a network and have worked together to create a much needed space and community for LGBTQ+ leaders. 

The other thing that stood out from the conversation was that we’d not appreciated the role that legislation had played in making it even harder for LGBT leaders to feel like it was safe to be open about their sexuality.