WorkPride 2023: WorkPride - Community-in-Focus Panels for Ethnicity: South Asian

Speakers:

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  George Wright (he/him)

  Senior Communications Officer
  Houses of Parliament

  I am the Senior Communications Officer for an MP in the House of Commons, with a history working at myGwork as the Head of Community Engagement. My undergraduate was in Law at the Royal Holloway College, University of London, and I'm always keen to answer questions :)

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  Rakshet Sachdev

  Senior Associate - External Partnerships
  Reckitt

  In his day job, Rakshet has over 10 years experience in R&D and Product Development and his his current role works with the Front End Innovation team, specifically looking at External Partners to help develop and expand the portfolio of Reckitt's Intimate Wellness and Depilatory brands. In his gay job, he sits on the leadership team of the Global LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group and leads the Asian, Middle East and African markets and assists countries within that region to establish and expand ERGs in their local markets. Rakshet is a Thai-Indian, born and bred in Bangkok but now lives in Leeds, England.

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  Raga Dsilva

  Director & Editor
  The Views Room & Outspoken Voi

  Raga D’silva (she/her) is an award-winning entrepreneur, woman of colour, author, TedX Speaker, screenplay writer, Host & Editor, of The Views Room, Producer and Host of ‘Coming Out Stories from India’, Host - Today with Totally Out Now. Born and raised in India, Raga lived in New Zealand for several years before moving to London, a city she now calls home. Raga decided to publicly ‘come out’ as a lesbian at the age of 50 through her debut book, ‘Untold Lies’ which made headlines, particularly in India. Since then, she has been vocal in her support for the LGBTQ+ community along with creating and producing positive LGBTQ+ content. A story she wrote during lockdown is being made into an international feature film. As a media, events and entertainment industry specialist for over thirty years, Raga has worked in many countries including India, the Middle East, Southeast Asia as well as New Zealand and the UK, receiving various prestigious awards during her journey. Raga is currently a Trustee on the Board of one of India’s largest charities – Child Rights & You (CRY UK), the D&I Board of Aristocrat Technologies India & Sony Pictures India, Trustee on the Board of Enfield Saheli (domestic violence) and an active member of the Gay India Network (GIN) London UK. Raga was recently appointed as the Chair of Board/Trustees for the London LGBTQ+ Centre. Raga’s personal coming out journey was featured across various media channels internationally including BBC India in 2022 in several Indian regional languages. Raga was shortlisted as the ‘Woman of the Year’ by Asian Achievers Awards in 2022 and was the recipient of the Woman of Courage award at the UK Houses of Parliament. Raga's story has featured across TV and several other published media.

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  Vipul Bhatti

  UX practitioner
  LSEG (London Stock Exchange Gr

  Currently on a career pause - studying a MSc in Cognition and Computation.

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  Azeem Ahmad

  Head of Pharmacy and CDAO
  HCA Healthcare

  Hi my name is Azeem and I’ve lived in London for 25 years now. I’m originally from Glasgow although my parents migrated back in the 60s from Pakistan so I have a slightly darker complexion than your average Scot. I’ve been qualified as a pharmacist for almost 30 years now and have worked in Glasgow, London, Southampton and Sydney as a pharmacist as well as spend a year in Berlin teaching English. I love playing badminton as well as running and I managed to run a marathon before my big five oh! I’m also passionate about my faith and have been on a journey since the age of 15 when I did the Haj pilgrimage to Makkah. I’ve helped set up a queer Muslim group in London back in 1999 and have organised conferences back in the noughties to discuss queer sexuality within the Islamic tradition. Recently I’ve been inspired by the more spiritual aspects of Islamic meditation as well as traditional Indian yoga to keep my mind, body and soul at peace. Last year in July I got married to my partner, Erik, of 10 years (then). As he is Swedish and I have a Punjabi background, we fused our traditions and had Punjabi sherwani wedding outfits and replaced the turbans with Swedish midsummer flower crowns!

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  Weena Ekid

  Vice President - Corporate & Investment Bank
  JPMorganChase

  Weena is a Vice President for Corporate & Investment Bank at JPMorgan Chase & Co. – Philippines Corporate Center, with 18 yrs of experience in the Business Process Outsource Industry. Also, a Co-Chair of the Gender Expansive Council, a community of practice & the firmwide leadership for transgender, Non-binary, and gender expansive under the Office of the LGBT+ Affairs at JPMC. Named to the OUTStanding 2020 & 2021 Top 100 LGBT+ Future Leaders Role Model by INVolve supported by Yahoo Finance, An Out & Proud Transman Leader with Primary Advocacy is LGBTQ+ Workplace inclusion, a speaker on various DE&I and LGBTQ+ engagements. Co-Founded the PRIDE Summit in the Philippines, the Largest LGBTQ+ Conference in the country and winner of the Gold Standard Award for Diversity & Inclusion by PublicAffairs Asia. Serving as Chair of The Philippine Financial & Inter-Industry Pride (PFIP) is a collaborative, voluntary and non-profit community of practice composed of dedicated representatives from LGBTQ+ employee resource groups and/or human resource/diversity teams of private firms in the Philippines. One of the leading voices and champions of LGBTQ+ workplace inclusion, providing safe spaces and inclusive opportunities for LGBTQ+ professionals among private organizations in the Philippines. Currently resides in Taguig City, Metro Manila, Philippines with his wife & 2 furkids.

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