Our Team & Trustees


TEAM

Dominic Arnall

CEO, Open For Business

Before joining us as CEO, Dominic was Chief Executive at Just Like Us, the charity dedicated to advancing young LGBTQ+ lives. Under his leadership, the organisation managed to reach more than half of all UK secondary schools with at least one of their programmes.

Dominic acted as the head of Programme Management for Mind, successfully delivering the £25-million Time to Change campaign for challenging stigma around mental health conditions, as well as implementing programmes for change across the workplace, in education and via regional community groups.

Additionally, Dominic also worked as Head of Projects and Programmes at Stonewall, leading their international programmes team, delivering several international programmes defending human rights across Russia, Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans, and Turkey.

Liz Jacobs

Director of Global Programmes

Liz (they/them) has worked in international development, human rights, and philanthropy, in both the private and third sectors. Prior to joining Open For Business, Liz was the Head of Middle East Programmes and LGBTQI+ Lead at Choose Love, overseeing grants for all partners working in the Middle East and developing Choose Love's first global LGBTQIA+ strategy. Before Choose Love, Liz worked in the Office of Corporate Engagement at Goldman Sachs, managing philanthropic projects focused on racial equity and mental health. They also worked for Stonewall in their Global Programmes Team where they delivered Stonewall’s principal international programme. Liz lived in the US, South Africa, Thailand, and the Netherlands, before moving to the UK nearly a decade ago. They have an MSc in International Development Studies with a focus on the impacts of globalization on LGBTQ+ communities from the University of Amsterdam.

 

Marco Greco

Director of Development

Before joining Open For Business, Marco (he/they) was Director of Development & Finance at Just Like Us, the LGBTQ+ young people’s charity, where they tripled the organisation’s annual income, expanded the Development Team, and diversified the charity’s fundraising streams.

Prior to this, Marco worked as Fundraising Manager for Coram’s Fields, a youth charity, and in the Trusts & Statutory Team at the British Red Cross, one of the UK’s largest household charities. Whilst Marco started out in trust and statutory fundraising, their expertise has expanded to also encompass corporate partnerships, major donors, individual giving and event fundraising.

Marco is a Clore Social Leadership Fellow and has a Masters Degree in Voluntary Sector Management from the Centre for Charity Effectiveness, Bayes Business School, with a specialism in charity fundraising and marketing.

Fernando Alonso Pérez-Chao

Director of Global Engagement

Fernando (he/him, all pronouns welcome) brings over 7 years of experience in equity and inclusion, socioeconomic research, and cultural diplomacy.

Before joining Open For Business, Fernando worked at the World Economic Forum, leading their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) external initiatives. There, he co-authored various publications and led the institution's Employee Resource Group on LGBTQI+ inclusion. He also contributed to the Forum's business engagement function, managing a portfolio of pro-bono consulting services valued between $20M-$40M.

Fernando holds a strong academic background in global affairs, gender, and sexuality. He has worked on global equity and inclusion initiatives in several international organizations, foundations, and NGOs, including the Consulate General of Spain in Hong Kong, UNICEF's office in Madrid, and various NGOs in Latin America and China.

 

Matt Horwood

Director of Communications

Matt has over twelve years' communications experience, six within leadership roles in sectors including sexual health, human rights and LGBTQ+ equalities at organisations including Liberty, akt (The Albert Kennedy Trust) and Terrence Higgins Trust. He has vast experience in media relations, partnership work and developing strategy and infrastructure for growing communications functions. 

Matt was the former Chair of LGBTQ+ wellbeing charity London Friend and is a co-founder of LGBTQ+ non-profit events troupe LOOSE CHANGE.

 

Emma Appleby

Project Manager

In January, Emma joined us from one of our coalition partners on a pro-bono secondment. She is a project manager at a professional services firm, and joins Open for Business to project manage the upcoming Southeast Asia research for 6 months. She has previously worked on the corporate side of a charity partnership with Just Like Us, project managing the event launch of their 2023 young adult’s research, and is the first UK employee to obtain a pro-bono secondment with one of the firm’s charity partners.

Lukasz Antkiewicz

Campaign Lead - Poland

Lukasz is the Campaign Lead for Poland, striving to support the local LGBT + community. His 15 years of professional experience was gathered as a PR manager, while working with business, media and policymakers. He used to work as a journalist in Polish national media, as well as an advisor to political and business leaders. Lukasz has also done work for non-governmental organizations.

 

Amarildo Fecanji

Project Management Consultant

Amarildo Fecanji has over twelve years of experience working in the LGBTIQ+ field. From 2011 to 2015, he was Program Director at PINK Embassy / LGBT Pro, an organization in his home country, Albania. From 2016 until 2023, he was Program Director and Executive Co-Director at ERA - LGBTI Equal Rights Association, a network of 85 organizations operating in the Western Balkans and Turkey region. Before working full-time on LGBTIQ+ inclusion, he worked in officer or managerial positions for over nine years in media and public relations. He holds a B.A. in International Relations from the State University of New York, USA, and an LL.M. in Public International Law from the University of Nottingham, UK.

Reyanna Sankar

Caribbean Lead

Reyanna Sankar is a judicial expert who specializes in gender, judicial reform, and human rights. She is well experienced in designing and implementing national and regional projects promoting the rule of law, criminal justice reform and LGBTI rights advocacy. Reyanna holds an LLM in International Development Law and Human Rights from the University of Warwick and is dedicated to advancing legal and social reforms ensuring access to justice and empowering vulnerable populations.

 

WeAreOpen is an Open For Business project partner

Zsuzsanna Garaj

Project Manager and Researcher

“I’m a Consulting Psychologist with extensive experience working with LGBTQ clients using the approach of affirmative psychology. I also bring significant organizational, team leadership, and project management expertise from my years in HR and Talent Management. Currently, I balance my private practice with organizational development and training projects, focusing on the intersection of psychology and business, with a special interest in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. As a Researcher and Project Manager at We Are Open, I participate in varied DEI projects.”

Steph Galera

Head of Southeast Asia

Steph Galera's pronouns are she/her/hers. She is a proud Asian woman raised in the Philippines, now residing in Thailand. She is also part of the women, LGBTQ+, and neurodiversity communities. Steph was with a global tech company for 15 years and has been in different roles within HR and People disciplines from Talent Acquisition, Business and Data Analytics, Talent Development, and Diversity and Inclusion. She continues to advocate for LGBTQ+ communities in the region as a consultant for Radius Networks and uses her unique knowledge of the region to support & connect employee resource groups across Asia and globally.

 

ADVISOR TO THE BOARD

Fabrice Houdart

Executive Director, Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors

Fabrice Houdart is the Executive Director of the newly created Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors. He also advises Fortune 500 firms on human rights issues. Fabrice is a member of L'Oreal Global Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board. He is an advisor of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Center for Inclusive Governance and serves on the Editorial Board of the Women's Forum.

Read more

 
 

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Jon Miller

Partner, Brunswick Group; Chair of the Board

Jon Miller founded Open For Business in 2015 and is Chair of the Board. He is a partner at Brunswick Group, where he co-leads the global Business & Society practice, which he co-founded in 2011. Today, the practice works with many of the world’s leading companies on their critical societal issues – from climate change and biodiversity to human rights and inclusion and diversity. He has written two books on the role of business in society – Everybody’s Business and most recently, The Activist Leader, published in January 2023.

Lori Dobeus

Principal, Advancing Inclusion; Vice-Chair

Lori Dobeus is a global inclusion & diversity professional with a broad professional background and change management experience. She is currently the Principal of Advancing Inclusion, a boutique consulting firm helping companies advance their inclusion and diversity strategies. Prior to this role, she was the global co-lead for inclusion and diversity at McKinsey & Company.

 

Ken Chan

Bursar and Chief Administrative Officer, Victoria University in the University of Toronto

Ken has diverse and broad leadership experiences in the public, private and non-profit sectors. Prior to becoming the Bursar and Chief Administrative Officer at Victoria University in Toronto, his prior roles include: Vice President of Administration at Brock University, Assistant Deputy Minister with the Ontario Government, Public Affairs Director at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Vice President of Advocacy, Research and Healthcare at Cystic Fibrosis Canada, Assistant Director with the UK Department for Business, and Senior Advisor in the Mayor’s Office at London City Hall. In addition to Open For Business, Ken currently serves on the boards of ALS Canada, Alterna Savings and Alterna Bank, and holds the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors. He is also working towards an Executive Ph.D. at ESCP Business School where his area of research is corporate political activity.

Netanya Clixby

Senior Managing Associate – Derivatives & Structured Finance, Sidley Austin LLP

Netanya is a derivatives and structured finance lawyer in Sidley Austin’s London office. Netanya served on the Law Society's LGBT+ Lawyers' Division Committee for five years, where she focused on bi and trans inclusion in the legal profession. Netanya is co-founder of the London Bisexual Network, the first professional network for bisexual people and allies working in London. Netanya is a trustee and Head of Income Generation for Open for Business.

 

Robert Glick OBE

VP, International Government Affairs & Corporate Communications, American Express

Robert Glick, OBE, has held various senior positions in corporate communications and public health – in New York, Paris, New Delhi and London. He currently serves as Vice President of International Government Affairs & Corporate Communications at American Express.

Dinah McLeod

Consultant and Trustee

Dinah is a social and environmental sustainability professional with over 20 years of policy, business and international development experience. Most recently, she served as CEO of the GCCA, a trade association for the cement industry, where she led efforts to achieve sector-wide commitment to net-zero carbon emissions. Dinah’s previous roles include senior appointments with the Business and Sustainable Development Commission, the Overseas Development Institute, The B Team, Novartis, BT, the UK Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit and the World Bank.

 

Liam Rezende

Assistant Director - Brand, Marketing & Communications, EY

Liam is Assistant Director for Global Sustainability Brand & Marketing at EY. Prior to joining EY, Liam was Senior Marketing Communications Manager for EMEIA at Hyatt where he also worked as an Open For Business Fellow, focused on our research in the Caribbean. Originally from Trinidad and Tobago but based in London, Liam has over ten years' experience in the hospitality and tourism industry and is a champion of LGBT+ inclusivity.

Ken Janssens

Co-founder, Windō

Ken has 25 years experience as a tech & data executive at JPMorgan Chase. In that time, he worked and lived in Tokyo, São Paulo, New York and London. He is the founder of JPMorgan Chase’s LGBTQ+ Executive Council and a former Board Chair at Out & Equal. More recently he co-founded Windō, a platform that aims to connect talent with companies that share their values. He lives in London with husband Thierry and their two dogs. 

 

Danni Davies

Senior Real Estate Lawyer, Latham & Watkins

Danni is a senior real estate lawyer with elite US law firm, Latham & Watkins. Danni advises their clients on operational real estate matters, with a focus on hospitality, sports, leisure, and retail assets. In their role on the global DEI committee for Latham & Watkins, Danni has been a vocal advocate for the recruitment, retention, and promotion of LGBTQ+ and other minority lawyers. Danni has overseen significant policy changes supporting LGBTQ+ colleagues, including surrogacy and adoption benefits, private medical care for transitioning individuals, pronouns in email signatures, formal gender transition guidelines, and inclusive parental leave policies. Danni is a champion of causes that support the LGBTQ+ community, and has provided hundreds of hours of free legal support to charities such as Mermaids (launching the UK’s first name change clinic for trans people); GiveOut; and National AIDS Trust. Danni is proud to be a visible role model for non-binary and queer people in business, regularly speaking on panels, providing training, and advising businesses on building successful diversity networks. Danni’s sits on Chelsea FC’s ED&I Advisory Group and recently worked on the club’s Rainbow Laces campaign, striving to promote LGBTQ+ inclusion and eradicate homophobia from football.

Gurchaten (Nanoo) Sandhu

Director of Programmes, ILGA World

Born to Panjabi Sikh work-class migrant parents in the UK, Gurchaten (he/they) is a widely respected LGBTI changemaker and community leader, joining ILGA World to further strengthen and build on the organisation’s programmatic work and manage its growing Programmes team. Before their time at ILGA World, Gurchaten was the Non-Discrimination Programme Officer at the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Brance, where they built their expertise and knowledge on promoting social justice through decent and inclusive work for all, in particular to enhance LGBTIQ+ rights and work and economic inclusion. They were also the President for UN-GLOBE, the group representing LGBTIQ+ personnel in the United Nations system.Gurchaten serves as a steering committee member of International Family Equality Day NGO, a fellow of the Salzburg Global LGBT forum, a Sarabat LGBT Sikhs volunteer and a trustee for We Create Space. Gurchaten has been listed as the OUTStanding LGBT Role Model from 2018 to 2021. They are also an Honouree of the Out & Equal’s 2021 Global LGBTQ Corporate Advocate Outie Award, and the winner of the British LGBT Award for Exceptional Inclusion 2021.

 

RESEARCH ADVISORY BOARD

Suen Yiu Tung

Founding Director of Sexualities Research Program, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Assistant Professor of Gender Studies; Author of studies on LGBT+ issues in Asia, including business and workplace contexts.

Read more

Dr. Vivienne Ming

Cognitive neuroscience faculty member of Singularity University; Co-Founder of Socos Lab

Theoretical neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and author who is frequently featured in The Financial Times, The Atlantic, Quartz and The New York Times; Speaks regularly on AI-driven research into inclusion and gender in business; Former visiting scholar at UC Berkeley's Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience.

Read more

 

Matteo Winkler

Professor of Law, HEC Paris

Teaches diversity and inclusiveness. His research concerns international human rights law in general and the rights of LGBT+ people in particular. He is now working on a project on human rights in Africa.

Read more

Paul Jansen

Senior Advisor for Global Advocacy, OutRight Action International

Worked as International Consultant from Sitges, Spain, mainly on organisational and strategic reviews for LGBTIQ organisations and networks, as well as key population networks working on HIV issues.

Read more

 

Pawel Adrjan

Economist, Indeed

Research Fellow at Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford; Economist with international experience in the finance and technology sectors; Researches global labour market trends.

Read more

Paul Donovan

Chief Economist, UBS Global Wealth Management

Economist and author. Presenting macroeconomic and political economic views, with a focus on the economic costs of prejudice and the role of business and investors in promoting diversity and inclusion.

Read More

 

Yvette Burton

Senior executive with 20+ years of accelerating business performance through leadership transformation and global workforce innovation. A trusted advisor to Fortune 50 companies, foundations, and early stage non-traditional start-ups.

Award-winning scholar-practitioner and behavioral scientist obsessed with agile practices for converting strategic market insights into hard to imitate executions capabilities.

Drew Keller

Former Global Program Director for Open For Business and researcher on the connection between LGBT+ inclusion, economic growth, and business performance.

Works with businesses, academics, and activists on exploring novel ways to improve businesses' impacts on the environment and human rights.

 

Egerton Neto

Programs Manager, International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE)

Egerton Neto is a technology policy strategist specializing in the intersection of technology and diversity. He is a founding member of the International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE), an institution established during his tenure as the Manager of the Programme on Democracy and Technology at the University of Oxford. Since he came out as a gay man in one of Brazil's largest newspapers, he emerged as a prominent advocate in the field of Diversity and Inclusion, having worked in various capacities within Brazil's government, NGOs, and academia. He earned a Master of Public Policy from LSE and is an Aspen Institute New Voices Fellow and a Connected by Data Fellow. His work has been featured at The New York Times, Project Syndicate, El País and The Washington Blade.

 

A Tribute to Karen McKenzie

IMG_3416.JPG

Karen McKenzie sadly passed away in December 2020. Karen was a real warrior for justice and human rights, and she had a huge heart.

Karen was an early Board member for Open for Business, joining us in the days before we became incorporated as a charity. We benefited from her great experience and understanding of the global human rights space, as well as her vast networks and contacts – she really boosted the early impact we were able to make, especially in Kenya. She was a dynamic and committed member of the team and was driven by a vision to bring equality to all. 

Karen will forever be a part of the Open For Business family, we will miss her deeply.