We talk a lot about building leader capability with our clients, and over the past year we’ve been building our own team capability and diversity of background.
Grazia Pecoraro joined Diversity Partners last year, bringing years of corporate experience in leading diversity and inclusion initiatives, a background in communications, and plenty of energy to the job.
Grazia Pecoraro
Based in Sydney, Grazia has already delivered a range of solutions to help our clients achieve diversity progress.
As well as working across the broad diversity and inclusion agenda, Grazia’s specialties are in strategy development, implementation of flexible working practices, and initiatives to support people with disability.
We asked Grazia a few questions about her background and commitment to diversity and inclusion.
What led you to work in the diversity and inclusion space?
Growing up in South Africa during the height of the Apartheid era and living with a sight impairment of being legally blind without my glasses, has heightened my awareness of difference, identity and inclusion (and left me with a life-long quirk of referring to traffic lights as ‘robots’!). My background is in Communications, Reputation Management and Public Relations and I started out my career working for clients such as Apple, Microsoft, IBM and Cisco in South Africa and Australia.
FIve years after working in Westpac Group as an Internal Communications Manager, I volunteered for the then-new ABLE Employee Action Group that champions inclusion for people with disability. That was almost six years ago and I can truly say that every day I learn something new in this space as there are so many intersecting facets relating to human behaviour, change and beliefs.
What are you most enjoying about working with the DP team?
Being part of the Diversity Partners team has allowed me to get a broader diversity of experience – our clients span multiple industries, sectors and range in size.
I’ve already worked on projects for clients in emergency services, environment support, infrastructure, marketing, pharmaceutical, healthcare and energy. It’s fantastic to access a ‘hive mind’ of consultants with a range of experiences and thinking styles, so our clients get the best outcomes possible.
Joining a consultancy with an outstanding reputation, excellent practices and a number of innovative inclusion products has meant that I can focus on what I’m passionate about – delivering meaningful diversity outcomes to a broad range of organisations so that collectively, we shape and change Australia for the better.
What were some of the highlights of your career at Westpac?
There were many standout moments but for me these are the ones I reflect on most often:
· Winning Gail Kelly’s Westpac CEO Award in 2010 for my work in championing sustainability and environmental initiatives in our business including bringing Keep Cups into all internal cafes.
· Being selected as a Jawun business mentoring participant and spending 5 weeks supporting Aboriginal communities in Cape York.
· Accepting the 2016 Australian Human Rights Award on behalf of Westpac for the leading-edge, ‘intuitively inclusive and accessible’ design of the new Barangaroo Campus in Sydney.
· Winning the 2013 Australian Government’s National Disability Award for programs such as the Breaking Down the Barriers training I’d developed with Westpac’s ABLE Employee Action Group.
· Rolling out programs of work to support the bank’s aspirational target of having 50% of women in leadership by 2017.
If you’d like to speak with us about ways we can help your organization progress diversity, please contact us at info@diversitypartners.com.au and we’ll organise a call with you.
