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The European Diversity Awards 2026 Finalists

The shortlist for the European Diversity Awards 2026 has been announced, celebrating the people and organisations making a significant impact on diversity, equity and inclusion across Europe.

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The shortlist was unveiled at a special event hosted by Deutsche Bank at its PalaisPopulaire venue in Berlin, with support from DHL Group. The evening brought together shortlisted nominees, sponsors, business leaders and diversity champions from across Europe.

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Headline sponsored by Optum, the European Diversity Awards recognise achievement across 16 categories, including Company, Changemaker, Diversity Champion, Inspirational Role Model, Head of Belonging, Culture or Diversity and Social Mobility Initiative.

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This year’s finalists represent businesses, charities, universities, community organisations and employee networks from across Europe, with shortlisted organisations including Sanofi, Sky, Serco, Vodafone, Toyota Motor Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery, Haleon, Salesforce, Tesco, Centrica, Bosch and Deutsche Bahn.

The winners will be announced on Friday 13 November 2026 at the London Hilton on Park Lane, hosted by broadcasters Kamali Melbourne and Gillian Joseph, with a special performance from M People’s Heather Small.

“Across Europe, there are extraordinary people continuing to drive meaningful change in their workplaces and communities. This year’s shortlist reflects the breadth and impact of that work, and we are incredibly proud to recognise those leading the way towards a fairer and more inclusive future.” - Kat Parsons, CEO

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The Full Shortlist

HR Champion 2026
Thea Fineren - Advania UK
Lisa Sanderson - Atos Group
Serita Suman Bonsignore - Cambridge University Press
Kerstin Papenberg - Capgemini
Priyanka Patel - Colgate-Palmolive
Zoe Shackleton - Huddersfield Town Football Club
Mélissa Brette Ogée - Hyatt UK & Ireland
Chiara Adam - JLL
Karl Wood - Millennium Hotels & Resorts
Lauriane Mounard - Nord Anglia Education

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Social Mobility Initiative 2026
Accenture & Tech She Can National AI Roadshow - Accenture
AMS Skills Creation & ONS - AMS Skills Creation & ONS
Redesigning Opportunity: A Whole-Lifecycle Model for Social Mobility - Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, UCL
STEM Ambassadors Work Experience Programme - Harbour Energy
Social Economic Equality at Kantar (SEEK) - Kantar
Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship - Royal Academy of Engineering
Premier League Kicks - The Premier League
The FootbALL Programme - UEFA

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Diversity Team
QueerER Research and Conference Team - Anglia Ruskin University
Global Inclusion Team - BAT (British American Tobacco)
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion - Bosch
Diversity & Inclusion - Chanel
Kearney Europe Diversity & Inclusion Team - Kearney
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Team - Manchester Metropolitan University
Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging - Nord Anglia Education
Drive for Change - Oracle Red Bull Racing
Diversity & Inclusion - Ramsay Health Care UK
Savills D&I Team - Savills
Inclusion Ambassadors and Allies Team - Serco
Diversity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Social Impact (DIASI) Team - Ubisoft

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Outstanding Employee Network 2026
Authentically Azets - Azets UK
Centrica Forces Network - Centrica
Veterans and Reserve Forces Network - easyJet
YoPro (Young Professionals Council) - Fiserv
STEM Ambassadors Network - Harbour Energy
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Council UK & Ireland - Henkel
Parents at Work - Howden Insurance
Connecting Generations Kenvuer Impact Network (KIN) - Kenvue
Working Families - PVH Corp.
Generations+ - Sanofi
Serco Parents & Carers Network - Serco

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Outstanding LGBTQIA Network 2026
railbow - Deutsche Bahn
Pride Network - E.ON Group
Fly with Pride - easyJet
LGBTQ+ Alliance - HubSpot
Rainbow Alliance - MSD
IN-FUSE - ScottishPower
Proud at Selfridges - Selfridges
PROUD - Shoosmiths LLP
Pride at SLR - SLR Consulting
LGBTQ+ at Sky - Sky
Together with Pride (TwP) - Swiss Re
Pride - Worldpay by Global Payments

 

 

Outstanding Ethnicity Network 2026
The Society for East Asians in Law (SEAL) - A&O Shearman
Asian Leadership Council (ALC) - Fiserv
Anti-racism and Racial Equality Network - Jisc
Race for Change - JLL
CHORD - Mitie
Serco Embrace - Serco
NUBI (Noir·e·s @UBI) - Ubisoft
Black Professionals Network - Vodafone
BOLD (Black Outstanding Leaders Delivering) - Warner Bros. Discovery

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Outstanding Ability Network 2026
Scaffold - Barratt Redrow
ENABLE - Bayer
BeAdept@Bosch - Bosch
Ability@Capco - Capco
Accessibility - Capgemini
Critenable Community - Criteo
Spark - Macquarie Group
Enable - Mitie
Disability - Ramsay Health Care UK
SPARC - ScottishPower
Enable - Worldpay by Global Payments
Enable_All - Xerox

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Outstanding Women's Network 2026
Women's Empowerment Network - CEVA Logistics
Women at Gilead - Gilead
Women@Haleon - Haleon
Women’s Business Network (WBN) - JLL
K5 Female Circle - K5 GmbH
Women at Kenvue - Kenvue
Gender Inclusioneers - Oracle Red Bull Racing
Women in Tech (WiT) Network - PA Consulting
Business Women's Network (BWN) - SAP
Women@Sky - Sky
With Women - Starling
Gender Diversity Network - Toyota Motor Europe

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Changemaker 2026
Yavor Trichkov - Baringa
Simon Reeves - EBRD
Tony Fagelman - Formerly Xerox
Nishma Patel - Gilead
Mavis Anagboso - Harbour Energy
Adelheid Moxon & Alessandra Noris - Holcim
Katie Brickell - Howden Insurance
Philip Hocking - Lloyds Banking Group
Priscilla Ephraim - National Grid
Colin Kimber - Pareto Facilities Management
Elena Ghighimoc - Serco
Adelle Barker - Sky
Vikki Ryan - Worldpay by Global Payments
Ben Cicchetti - WPP

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Inspirational Role Model 2026
Sareena Bains - Accenture
Andy Goff - Capgemini
Dorothy Oduguwa - easyJet
Grant Alexander - Entain
Sunna Daswani - Fiserv
Richard Stevens - Go-Ahead Group
Rosie Frost - Logitech
Andrew Hulbert - Pareto Facilities Management
Michael Briggs - Shoosmiths LLP
Kirsten Whitworth - Sky
Dan Porter - Tesco
Anna Vaher-Conlon - Toyota Motor Europe
Matthew Jones - Weightmans LLP
Alex Morgan-Moodie - Worldpay by Global Payments

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Head of Belonging, Culture or Diversity 2026
Rubén Alejandro Ramírez - Bayer
Fiona Pargeter-Griffin - Chanel
Chrissie Clarke - Go-Ahead Group
Lydia Samuel - Jisc
Katy Hall - NES Fircroft
Jodie Williams - Pan Macmillan
Rohit Burman - PVH Corp.
Reema Samuel-Lewis - Sky
Taylor Mirkarimi - Vodafone
Asif Sadiq - Warner Bros. Discovery
Cheryl Ryan - WPP Production

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Diversity Champion 2026
Michael Herron - Atos Group
Martin Parkes - BlackRock
Dr Stacie Graham - Burson
Cecilia Lindqvist - CEVA Logistics
Sarah Stone McDevitt - HubSpot
David Ziyambi - Latham & Watkins
Brendan Hegarty - NatWest Social & Community Capital
Veronica Motta - Salesforce
Monica Risam - Starling
Anna Deignan - The Premier League
Dr Serufusa Sekidde - Viiv Healthcare/GSK

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Company 2026
ASOS
EBRD
Ford Otosan
Holcim
Kearney
PVH Corp.
Sanofi
Serco
TJX Europe
Toyota Motor Europe

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Community Project 2026
Atos ANTZ Mentor Programme (AAMP)
Christopher Street Day Dresden 2026 - railbow by Deutsche Bahn
Hair & Care
Hospital Playrooms - Ubisoft
Volunteering in Community - CEVA Logistics
KuMamy Biznes - Capgemini Poland
Impact Squad - Virgin Voyages
Older Queer Voices
Tomorrow Meets Today - Pareto Facilities Management
Why Not Her?

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Charity or Not-For-Profit 2026
ADHDAF+ Charity
Comic Relief
Digilearning
European Network Against Racism
Fundación A LA PAR
Girls at Tech Nordics
IMANcorp FOUNDATION
Micro Rainbow
NEURO
Stichting Uit met Autisme

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EVENT INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT - events@europeandiversityawards.com

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