Chatting with Hephzi Pemberton and the Diversity Playbook

I had the pleasure of speaking with Hephzi Pemberton recently and talking about her book, The Diversity Playbook. Her book, which I just ordered through Amazon, demonstrates with clarity, relevant case studies and research as well as an applicable exercise in each chapter, show leaders and firms who embrace and embed inclusion and diversity into their business will benefit. They will be the businesses that innovate and adapt more rapidly.  Can’t wait for my copy. Hephzi explained Angel Investing to me, which is a long time, and sometimes risky investment, but very worthwhile. Her background is impressive - She is an entrepreneur and Angel Investor, who runs a strategic consultancy and search firm called Equality Group. In partnership with leading Finance and Technology firms, they help source diverse executive leadership talent and consult on how to create a more inclusive culture to nurture and develop executives through to their full potential. Equality Group also regularly publishes research and insights across the inclusion and diversity space. Recent reports include ethnic minority representation at board level, the problems of bias, authenticity at work and a wide range of diversity-related topics. Hephzi is the CEO and founder of Equality Group, a strategic consultancy that helps firms hire diverse leadership talent and fully integrate social sustainability, diversity and inclusion into the fabric of their organization. Her childhood was spent growing up in multiple locations from Leeds, England  to the Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire) to Cambridgeshire. All of these moves had one thing in common: community. Equal parental rights as mandatory across the public and private sector; better government funding for early years childcare (see Denmark and Sweden for inspiration) and bring back the gender pay gap reporting with harsher repercussions where no progress has been made. Her advice to her younger self? Don’t worry too much about the future, just focus on what you need to get done now and enjoy it! Even the hard parts where you don’t know what’s going to happen will come good. Remember you are more capable and more adaptable than you think, and you will surprise yourself with what is possible. She still gives this piece of advice to herself today. The recent pandemic and lockdown has really taught her to focus on each day as it comes and how to savour the joy and the fun of the moment. Her plans for Equality Group are to grow and impact the Finance and Technology industry for greater social sustainability. Hephzi is very inspirational and extremely interesting.  She can be found on her website, hephzipemberton.com, and LinkedIn.