I found my way to Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe's London offices using Google Maps. This seemed appropriate as Palmer-Edgecumbe is head of diversity and inclusion at Google, with responsibility not only for the UK but also Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
What some may find surprising is that he "fell into diversity purely by accident". He began his career in investment banking. "This was in 1991 and the work culture was awful – racist, sexist, homophobic." He wasn't out at work. "It would have been impossible. I haven't been on a trading floor since, so I don't know what it's like now. But in those days it was very laddish."
Shortly afterwards he moved into human resources at NatWest, then took a number of similar positions before moving to South Africa, where he worked as the HR director of several museums. It was here that he discovered how important diversity could be. "In South Africa, you have many different races, many different cultures, which really shows you what diversity means. I'd always thought it was simply about equal opportunities, which is what many people still think. What I saw in South Africa is that you could actually make or break your organisation through diversity. It's critical to the success of your business. If you have diverse teams with diverse ways of thinking, you get much better decision-making. If you have homogenous teams you have group-think. I believe it was group-think that led to the financial crisis - the same kind of people thinking the same way and nobody challenging them. If you have mixed gender teams with different ethnicities and sexualities, different cultural backgrounds and experiences, you will get better, richer decision-making."
When the financial crisis hit, Palmer-Edgecumbe was working at Barclay's as global head of diversity. He left, set up his own business, moved to Argentina and did some work around disability before joining Google. "I'd decided that I'd done my corporate stint. But what excited me about Google is that the whole business is about innovation and experimentation. This came through in the interviews. They wanted me to explore new ways of implementing diversity. Google is a truly global company. If we don't reflect the global nature of our business in our employees, how can we possibly hope to understand our customers? In the same way, we have to have a good balance of men and women. Half the world's internet users are women. If we only have men building our products and services, how are we going to appeal to half the world's population?"
When I wasn't out at work, my performance suffered. If you're always guarded, how can you perform as well?
How important would he say it is for LGBT people to be out at work? "I'd say it's very good for them and it's very good for the organisation. When I wasn't out at work, my performance suffered. If you're always guarded, how can you perform as well? When I was interviewed for Google, one of the first things I said was that I was gay, and that I'd started an LGBT group at my university. I thought, if cannot be 100% myself at work then I don't want to work for this organisation."
Eighteen months on, Palmer-Edgecumbe is still 100% himself. One of his proudest moments last year was the launch of the European Diversity Awards, which took place in November at the Savoy Hotel. "Linda Riley from Square Peg Media came to me with the idea, and I leapt at the chance. One of the ways in which Google demonstrates our commitment to diversity is by sponsoring awards. The opportunity to recognise different areas of diversity across all of Europe was a very attractive proposition to me. Because the awards cover both the corporate world, and people working for charities or as journalists or campaigners. What was really wonderful about that night was seeing people like Peter Tatchell mixing with the army's diversity team. I was a campaigner myself in the 1980s. Back then, nobody was recognised for that kind of work - quite the opposite in fact. So now if Google can give some credit to those people, I think that's something we can be proud of."
Content produced and controlled by Square Peg Media, supporter of the Diversity hub.
