In today’s episode, we bring you an important and insightful conversation between three champions for allyship.

Leaders in EDI is a monthly series covering news, views, comments and debates happening across the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion space. It also shines a spotlight on the progress being made and the challenges being faced in EDI across sport. This month’s episode, recorded live at our International Women’s Day pop-up event, sees three trailblazing advocates for women in sport discuss the importance of allyship. 

First on our panel is Katie Shaw, an inspiring female leader in sports and entertainment. Shaw spent seven years at prominent sports marketing company Fuse, before leaving in the latter half of last year to begin a new role of Global Head of Brand Engagement at Entourage Sports & Entertainment Company. A keen champion for women in sport, Shaw was a committee member at Omniwomen UK during her time at Fuse.

Joining Shaw is Manisha Tailor, Assistant Head of Coaching at Queen’s Park Rangers, and a leader who has dedicated much of her working life to supporting women and those with mental illness through work in education. A qualified head-teacher with over 15 years of experience working in schools across the UK and Internationally, Tailor is also an education worker for Show Racism the Red Card, and Founder/Director of Swaggarlicious Limited, which uses the power of football and education to engage with diverse community groups and organisations to help them lead a healthy lifestyle and develop lifelong learning skills.

Rounding off our panel is the man Tailor sees as a great example of allyship, Chris Ramsey, a former professional footballer and Taylor’s colleague at QPR, where he serves as Technical Director. He has coached and managed at all levels of football, and has been listed among the 30 Most Influential Black People in Football by the Voice, the UK’s leading black newspaper. As an outspoken advocate of social justice and EDI, Ramsey has been lauded as a trailblazer for changing the face of the QPR Academy in a positive way.

In an illuminating and educational discussion, the three panelists talked to Leaders hosts Javan Odegah and Laura McQueen about different facets of allyship, such as how to implement allyship on a day-to-day basis, traditional line management vs allyship and how exactly you can “microwave someone’s learning.”

The Leaders in EDI podcast is part of the Leaders Meet: Diversity Series, delivered in partnership with Meta, which provides a platform for executives within sport to come together to drive diversity across the industry, accelerate the pace of change and inspire the next generation of executives, through thought-leadership events and digital forums. To find out more about Leaders Meet: Diversity series, please visit https://leadersinsport.com/leaders-events/leaders-sport-business-summit-abu-dhabi/.

The fourth edition of Leaders Sport Business Summit Abu Dhabi returns on 16th and 17th March. To find out more and register your interest, please visit https://leadersinsport.com/AD2022

Note: This is a live podcast recording, so there may be some slight distortion in the panel section, but this should not take away from your listening experience.