“Entertaining Transgender Speaker - Expert in Gender and Diversity issues and Public Speaking”
My performing career started at college when I studied drama, performed as Marc Antony in Julius Caesar and completed a season as a Butlin’s RedCoat.
Then I had to get a proper job and ended up in the insurance industry for 25 years becoming a Sales and Marketing Manager and expert in PR and Marketing. In the 90’s I changed my expertise to specialise in Sales and Marketing Technology. I wrote regularly for most of the financial services press, authored two books and became known as an international technology and marketing speaker and founder of the UK Professional Speaking Association.
However I had lived with a secret and in 2002 decided to change my gender from male to female. My speaking career came to a dead stop and I enrolled in the University of Hull to read for an MSc in Gender Research. On leaving university, I founded GenderShift Ltd, a social enterprise, providing support for gender non-conforming people and speaking, training and consultancy services to employers. I became active in local and regional community leadership, serving as a representative, board director or trustee for a variety of charities and NALGOs, helping them to embrace the impact of the changing equalities law.
Gendershift became a victim of the austerity programme and I became an independent speaker and trainer once again. Following the increase in trans[gender] and non binary media attention in 2015, I focused my attention on delivering keynote presentations and workshops on gender and LGBTQ+ issues, including two TEDx talks. I work extensively with a diverse range of organisations assisting them in improving gender equality in the workplace and becoming more LGBTQ+ inclusive.
2020 has brought about the effective closure of the meetings industry. I had already started delivering and broadcasting keynotes and training online, but that has now accelerated and become my primary means of delivery. I currently speak and coach on Trans and Non binary inclusion, Unconscious Bias, Gender Equality and Remote Speaking Skills. I have also begun developing my voice acting skills as a narrator with three published audio books.
