(Pictured from top left: Wales; Scotland; UK Parliament; England)
By Brian Grim
We explored and celebrated the role that faith plays in making workplaces and communities more resilient and caring in a series of meetings across three of the four countries of the UK.
In Wales, I met with Simon Gibson and the FoRB Foundation’s Julie and Matthew Jones. We explored the possibility of hosting a Faith@Work conference in Wales in the near future.
Gibson is the chairman of Alacrity Graduate Entrepreneurship Foundation and chief executive of Wesley Clover Corporation, a global technology investment fund. He’s a non-executive director of the Celtic Manor Resort, the United Kingdoms’ largest leisure resort. He’s also a regent of the Harris Manchester College at the University of Oxford and a professor at the Swansea University School of Management. He was most recently High Sheriff of Gwent, a royal appointment. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1999 and Commander of the same order (CBE) in 2018 for his services to Wales’ industry, community and economy.
In Scotland, Louise Bailey, Belonging Lead at OVO, invited companies headquartered in Glasgow to engage in a morning long discussion on the business case for faith-and-belief-friendly workplaces. Companies participating were invited to consider benchmarking their journeys on creating religious inclusive workplaces, using the REDI index. One outcome of the meeting was to pencil in a date for a city-wide follow up on 23 April 2025.
In England, we had a series of meetings, including a discussion with board chairs from FTSE 100 organizations hosted by Oliver Pawle at Korn Ferry on religiously inclusive workplaces. Following that we met with partners at Equinix, whose president of EMEA, Bruce Owen, has offered their headquarters to host our 29 April 2025 annual Faith@Work summit. Finally, we had a roundtable discussion in the Palace of Westminster on the role of faith in providing health and resilience as people face the challenges of life. Participants included HSBC’s diversity lead, the Canary Wharf Multifaith Chaplaincy, and leaders of the Muslim and Christian networks the NHS.