The winners of this year’s Scottish Diversity Awards have been revealed.
400 guests gathered for last night’s ceremony, organised by The Herald and GenAnalytics, at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Glasgow.
The event showcased the companies, organisations and individuals across Scotland making a difference to their communities and workplaces by putting diversity and inclusion at the heart of what they do.
The Lifetime Achievement Award this year, sponsored by MacRoberts LLP, went to Iain MacRitchie from MCR Pathways recognising his outstanding contribution and championing of inclusion.
“We were delighted once again to sponsor these brilliant awards. It never fails to be a great night, celebrating those who go above and beyond to ensure diversity and inclusion is at the heart of their business and organisation. Huge congratulations to all the winners and finalists – well deserved!”
Katy Wedderburn, MacRoberts LLP MCR Pathways and University of Strathclyde were awarded the Diversity through Education accolade supported by SQA.
Raza Sadiq was awarded the Diversity Hero of the Year Award sponsored by Diageo Catriona Mackie, HR Director, Diageo, Global Supply said: “Diageo in Scotland are delighted to have been a supporter of the 2019 Herald and GenAnalytics Diversity Awards. Diversity is an important area of focus for us as a business and we know that greater diversity drives better performance and decision making. These Awards recognise achievements across diversity and we would like to congratulate all of this year’s commendable winners – well done!
The Rising Star award was given to Andrew Hastings and Janine Flynn Standard Life Aberdeen and Glasgow Science Centre, Deloitte, award sponsor said: “Deloitte is a people business and we are proud that our people reflect every part of society and we’re particularly pleased to support this award. It is a pleasure to celebrate today a new generation of leaders, Scottish businesses and the wider community that are embracing diversity and inclusion. The Rising Star award is a recognition of outstanding progress on the diversity agenda and it echoes Deloitte’s commitment in creating a culture that supports everyone to be themselves and where every voice and opinion is heard and respected
Professor Wendy Loretto, Dean of the University of Edinburgh Business School, said: “Well done to the winners of these awards and to Scottish Water in particular for winning the new award category of Age Inclusiveness. The submissions showed we have plenty of innovative employers across Scotland. "We know that there's huge potential for our economy and our society if we support those who want to extend their working lives. Private firms and public organisations stand to benefit from age-inclusion across their workforce, so I'm delighted these awards are helping encourage this important agenda.”
Gillian McLennan, Executive Director, J.P. Morgan Global Technology said J.P. Morgan “It has been a fantastic evening celebrating the outstanding talent within our community and would like to extend our congratulations to all finalists and especially the winner of our sponsored category Adopt an Intern. The awards provide a much needed platform for exceptional diverse talent in the industry.”
Cllr Allan Casey, Chair of City Building Glasgow, said: “What a fantastic evening! It’s great to see so many businesses and organisations across the country working hard to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to reach their true potential. I’d like to offer a huge congratulations to all the winners this evening, and a special mention to Glasgow Afghan United for being crowned this year’s winners of the Building Diverse Inclusive Communities category. Well done to all, and we’ll see you next year!”
Steve Borley, Head of Strategic Planning & Governance at SQA said, “Our Diversity through Education finalists are leading the way in helping everyone in society access learning opportunities. Congratulations to all of you, and in particular our joint winners, MCR Pathways and University of Strathclyde”
The Diversity Awards 2019, was a wonderful event. Congratulations to all the winners! The evening was a true display of what talented and committed people Scotland has to offer. We are proud to continue to support and sponsor the “Design for Diversity” award. – BAE Systems, Philippa Arter
Lee Ann Panglea, Head of CIPD Scotland and Northern Ireland said: "Many congratulations to all of the finalists and winners in the Diversity Awards who are reaping the benefits of having a diverse workforce. Diversity and inclusion are important aspects of good people management, and we hope that your example will inspire other organisations in Scotland to become more inclusive."
Audrey Ross, Sales & Marketing Director for Taylor Wimpey West Scotland said: “We’re really delighted to have been involved another successful year of The Herald Diversity Awards where we’ve seen some incredible work and achievements in the Diversity and Inclusion space, and we would like to congratulate each of the winners on winning their awards.
“Our support of these Awards recognises the importance that we’ve placed on embracing diversity and inclusion within our business, and the opportunity that it creates for the wider housebuilding industry.
“This year’s winners have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to delivering diversity and inclusion within their organisation, and the Awards have provided us all with a valuable insight into the opportunities that exist for every business or group regardless of their size.”
Sarah McNulty, Director Strategic HRM, ScottishPower said “We’ve enjoyed another inspirational evening at the Herald Diversity Awards, the energy, passion and creativity of this year’s finalists was evident in every category. Congratulations on behalf of ScottishPower to all the winners on a night that has become one the main events in Scotland’s inclusion calendar”
Roy Gardner, Vice Principal Corporate Development & Innovation, City of Glasgow College, said: “Once again this was an incredible evening showcasing the hard work that goes on across Scotland to champion equality, diversity and inclusion. The quality of entries was exceptional and well deserved congratulations go to this year’s winners.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here