The shortlist for the European Diversity Awards 2026 has been announced, celebrating the individuals and organisations driving meaningful progress on diversity, equity and inclusion across Europe.
The European Diversity Awards 2026, headline-sponsored by Optum, recognise outstanding achievements across 16 categories, including Company, Changemaker, Diversity Champion, Inspirational Role Model, Head of Belonging, Culture or Diversity, and Social Mobility Initiative.
This year’s finalists represent businesses, charities, universities, community organisations and employee networks from across Europe. Shortlisted organisations include Sanofi, Sky, Serco, Vodafone, Toyota Motor Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery, Haleon, Salesforce, Tesco, Centrica, Bosch and Deutsche Bahn.
“Across Europe, there are extraordinary people continuing to drive meaningful change in their workplaces and communities,” said Kat Parsons, CEO of the European Diversity Awards and organiser of the awards, Diversity Umbrella. “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.”
2026 EUROPEAN DIVERSITY AWARDS FINALISTS
The finalists across the 16 award categories are as follows:
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
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
Diversity Team 2026
- 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
- 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
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
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
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
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
- 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
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
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
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
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
Company 2026
- ASOS
- EBRD
- Ford Otosan
- Holcim
- Kearney
- PVH Corp.
- Sanofi
- Serco
- TJX Europe
- Toyota Motor Europe
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?
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
AWARDS CEREMONY
The winners will be announced at a ceremony on Friday 13 November 2026 at the London Hilton on Park Lane. Broadcasters Kamali Melbourne and Gillian Joseph will host the event, which will also feature a special performance by M People’s Heather Small.
Click here for more information about the shortlist and awards.
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