MIX Diversity Developers

MIX is a boutique consultancy firm specialising in Diversity & Inclusion, Unconscious Bias training and effective communications.

We offer a range of services to help our clients build authentic and inclusive workplace environments including:

Whether we’re doing a D&I audit of an organisation, running a workshop or creating unique communications projects we do so with passion, flair and caring and have considerable experience working in both the public and private sector.

Keeping our finger on the pulse of business practices, research, and trends is part of our reason d’être.

We’re in this space because we believe that every individual matters and that diversity creates excellence. We want to support organisations to utilize the talents of their full workforce - to ensure everyone can realise their true potential at work. We’re helping organisations reap the benefits of a truly inclusive workforce including better customer service, staff retention, creativity, and ultimately, greater profits.

Debra Searle MVO MBE

debra[at]mixdiversitydevelopers.co.uk

Debra founded MIX and is our Head of Consulting. She has always been a successful woman in a man’s world having taken on some of the toughest conditions and events on the planet, including rowing across the Atlantic solo and sailing around Antarctica.

She was also the youngest and only woman at the time to be appointed to the Board of Trustees for The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, one of the UK’s biggest youth charities, working alongside HRH Prince Philip and HRH Prince Edward. This gave her ten invaluable years of experience of being the only woman at the boardroom table.

Debra was heavily involved in the formation of the Women’s Business Network Forum based out of Buckingham Palace and chaired by HRH The Countess of Wessex. The Forum brings together leaders of some of the biggest women’s networks in the UK including BP, Ernst & Young, Merrill Lynch, HSBC and Google to share best practice and to provide a platform for innovative debate.

Debra has also worked with companies such as Tesco, HSBC and eBay on developing female talent and seeking to stem the leaky pipeline of women to senior posts. She is proud to be a member of the 30% Club.

David Scott

david[at]mixdiversitydevelopers.co.uk

In his executive career David was HR Director at United Utilities plc, BT Group headquarters and was Director of Personnel for HM Prison Service of England and Wales.

Recent interim experience involved being Chief Executive of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, and HR Director in the Strategic Rail Authority, the NHS and First Group plc.

David’s expertise is in managing structural and culture change in large and complex public and private sector organisations. He is an accredited practitioner for a number of psychometric assessment tools.

Deborah Gale

deborah[at]mixdiversitydevelopers.co.uk

Deb Gale is MIX’s resident Ageing aficionado. Her expertise in Gerontology (‘Ageing’ to laymen) has led her to become a regular contributor to The Huffington Post. She addresses the issues surrounding an ageing population and how that interacts with and affects the business world in an engaging and practical way.

Deb is a research fellow at the BioCentre on Ethics, an affiliate director for eProvStudio.com and senior storyteller for AONR - Age of No Retirement. She has had work published in The New Bioethics: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body, Journal of Intergenerational Relationships and The New Bioethics: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body.

Deb is an Apple Computer veteran, serial ex-pat and mother to five daughters, so she also knows a thing or two about women in tech and cross-culturalism.

Paul Helsby

paul[at]mixdiversitydevelopers.co.uk

Paul has over 20 years experience of working in Human Resources including heading up HSBC’s Employee Relations Policy Unit for over eight years.

Before that Paul undertook a range of employee relations, resourcing, compensation & benefits and generalist roles, successfully working with businesses of varying sizes.

Paul bridges the gap between HR departments and top lawyers with an excellent understanding of UK employment legislation. Whilst, at MIX we take a creative approach to Diversity and Inclusion, Paul helps ground us to ensure we can help organisations comply with equality legislation.

Paul is a fully CIPD qualified HR Consultant and experienced trainer.

Hayley Barnard

hayley[at]mixdiversitydevelopers.co.uk

As the Managing Director and Diversity Strategist at MIX, Hayley is a compelling communicator, with work previously published in The Times and Hello! Magazine.

She studied marketing at postgraduate level and then worked in internal and external business communications for over 17 years. Her specialism is in strategy development, communication planning and execution.

Hayley’s focus is to improve inclusiveness, reduce inequality and bring competitive advantage to organisations through development and communication of innovative D&I strategy. She is an experienced speaker and trainer on unconscious, inclusive leadership and the business case for diversity, regularly providing Board Level Briefings on these topics.

Hayley recently returned from the Arctic Circle as part of the LeasePlan Women’s Arctic Challenge. MIX worked with LeasePlan to develop this unique platform to communicate the gender balance issue and challenge unconscious bias within their company.

Watch an overview film of this unique diversity project »

Claire Elwin

claire[at]mixdiversitydevelopers.co.uk

Claire brings great insight as a Diversity and Inclusion practitioner. Her experience includes being the D&I Lead for the UK and Ireland during her role as Head of Organisational Development at AXA. She has also been on the other side of the table, working with D&I trainers and consultants - accordingly, she can provide insight into both what works and what doesn’t.

Claire is a passionate HR professional with a range of experience in organisational development, change management, people development and employee engagement. She has over 15 years of experience working in financial services, retail, ecommerce and the charity sectors.

What we love about Claire is that, having worked in highly commercial environments, she likes to offer pragmatic, professional and effective solutions to meet the needs of businesses. She is engaging, collaborative, results focus and a jolly lovely person to boot!

Matt Keen

matt[at]mixdiversitydevelopers.co.uk

Matt’s one of those brain boxes that regularly floors us with his brilliance! He has an MA from Oxford and an MBA with Distinction from Cass Business School (thankfully, he’s also very modest!). He’s worked for some of the biggest brands around including GlaxoSmithKline, IBM, PWC, Barclays and The John Lewis Partnership before becoming Group Head of People and Organisational Effectiveness at Endava.

He is passionate about helping organisations embrace difference. He comments “I try to help people appreciate how different we all are and how it's only by creating a platform where each individual gets to bring their best, regardless of any stereotype, that companies and teams really unlock value and get to achieve great things”.

Matt has significant experience in the culture piece around national differences and how to work effectively with people from a range of cultures.

He is also passionate about mental health and the workplace and is a compelling speaker on this subject.

Stef Clifton-Sprigg

stef[at]mixdiversitydevelopers.co.uk

The main contact for many of our clients, Stef is MIX’s Operations and Account Manager par excellence!

Stef qualified with First Class Honours in English before briefly working for one of the largest TV production companies and then for a magazine.

Thankfully for us and our clients we then got our teeth into her and we’re not letting go! Stef keeps us all on track; there’s nothing she loves more than good to-do list or spreadsheet!