Diversity is a lived experience: Interview with Lopa Patel MBE

Lopa Patel MBE Image by Vineet Johri

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Lopa Patel MBE Image by Vineet Johri

Lopa Patel MBE is a digital entrepreneur with two successful ventures in online media and data marketing to her name. She is also Trustee of the Science Museum Group, a Non-Executive Director of the Intellectual Property Office and a Council member of the Open University. Computing spoke to Patel about Diversity UK, the charity founded by herself and others a decade ago to research, promote ideas, educate and advocate for greater diversity and the inclusion of minority ethnic communities in Britain at senior levels in the workplace.

Lopa Patel is a long-standing STEM evangelist, her early career being spent at ICI after obtaining a degree in biochemistry and applied molecular biology. ICI was the largest company in the UK in the late eighties, and a tough environment for a young Asian woman with both her ethnicity and gender so drastically under-represented. It wasn't the first time in her life Patel had felt like an outsider, and she explains how these experiences shaped her to the extent that diversity and inclusion isn't an agenda in the way it's often written about and discussed, it's part of who she is.

"Diversity and inclusion aren't things you do separately. It's a lived experience every day and it frames you. It determines what you do, it determines outcomes and what you can achieve. I had the experience of coming to the UK when I was quite young and often feel like an outsider both as an Asian and as a woman. So throughout my career, diversity and inclusion has been something that I've championed not just for myself, but for others like me."

Diversifying public sector appointments

Diversity UK was founded in 2012 focusing specifically on public appointments. Patel explains:

"At that time, all ethnic minorities and women were very underrepresented with public appointments, so our research focused on that because this was public money and we thought there needed to be more accountability."

"Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Representation in Public Appointments," was published in 2013, and almost a decade later remains a fascinating read. For example, in the year 2012 - 2013, 5.5% of appointments to public boards came from ethnic minority backgrounds. Women represented 35.6% of such appointments. The research of Diversity UK focused on interpreting publicly available data from a user experience and it uncovered some dubious recruitment practices.

"Boards didn't have any targets and a lot of the appointments were made in very informal way. A lot of them weren't even advertised, or were advertised for a really short time," Patel says.

Seema Malhotra MP picked up the report and triggered a debate in the House of Commons which then prompted considerable activity across a number of departments, with Diversity UK engaging with the Government Equalities Office (GEO,) Cabinet Office and other public departments as well the Office for the Commissioner of Public Appointments (OCPA) to help these departments formulate plans to increase diversity - and measure their success.

Fast forward nearly a decade and it is clear that this structured approach works. Public appointments have become more diverse with ethnic minority individuals winning 11.2% of public appointments in 2020/21 (down from 14% in 2019/20) and women 45.1% (from 51.4% in 2019/20.)

Crucially, the whole sector has become far more open and transparent, with 95% of opportunities being advertised via the Cabinet Office portal, and rigorous reporting from OCPA.

Top 100 Asian stars

Diversity UK began working with the private sphere in 2011, working with the Davis Review from 2011 - 2015 which presented practical ways to redress the gender gap on FTSE 100 and 250 boards and also had input into the McGregor-Smith Review of Race in the Workplace, and Parker Review into board level ethnic diversity. The charity also worked with the GEO before gender pay gap reporting became a legal requirement in 2017 and are similarly supportive of ethnic pay gap analysis which increasing numbers of organisations are reporting voluntarily. It is notable that every review that Diversity UK has had input into has had tangible success - coming close to achieving original targets if not surpassing them.

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Lopa Patel MBE. Image by Vineet Johri

In 2015, Patel, aware of the demand for tech skills and also the reputation of the tech sector for its homogeneity, challenged herself to reach into her large network of contacts in the Asian community and see just how many were participating in British tech. The answer turned out to be hundreds, engaged in every corner from start-ups and angel investing to Fintech, Cleantech, EdTech, MedTech and social enterprises. Patel wanted to showcase this talent and alongside tech accelerator Wayra , launched Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech in 2015. The list is now in its eighth year.

"Every year I wonder if we're done," says Patel, "but I've had lots of feedback from amazing people who are at the top of their game who have never been acknowledged and so part of it is acknowledging people. Part of our aim is to increase visibility, "

Patel acknowledges that visibility only solves one side of the equation. The other side has to be addressed by those seeking to fill roles, and this is where the pace of change has been frustratingly slow.

"Some boards lack a sense of how they're perceived from outside. If you have a homogeneous board, you will get homogeneous people applying for those roles. You've set your job specification based on the last person that was in that role. I'm beginning to see a change but it's rare that I see a brief saying, ‘we're looking for something quite different.' The flip side is that a board will tell an executive recruiter that they want a diverse shortlist and they'll duly present one. But the person hired at the end will be the same as the one they had before."

Patel also explains that another persistent barrier faced by those from under-represented ethnicities and genders is that they are often set up to fail - and are understandably wary.

"Diverse hires report being put forward for poisoned chalice roles - high profile and with high risk attached. Big change programmes, big political issues that sort of thing. Given that we're all judged on how successful we are in previous roles, many non-traditional applicants will ask themselves if they really want that type of job."

"Also, I don't think the penny's dropped that 'The Great Resignation' doesn't necessarily mean that there is a great pool of talented diverse individuals just waiting for a role. The people I know who left their high-profile jobs want to do something on climate change, poverty or sustainable development. And the people that are filling board vacancies want to have far more input and control of the organisations they're coming into."

Socio-economic and geographic diversity

Despite the challenges that Patel articulates, she is at pains to emphasise the degree to which start-up culture in the UK is thriving, not least because the UK is incredibly welcoming of talent from beyond our own shores. Start-up founders in the UK are an ethnically diverse bunch. She also raises research suggesting that founders are also becoming more diverse in terms of class background, and where they choose to set up their business.

"Back in 2015, when we started the list, the universities were predominant, and founders were mainly from a middle-class background. Because of the ecosystem support the UK has given, such as Capital Enterprise and Tech Hubs and accelerator programs that balance is shifting and becoming more socio-economically diverse. The technology itself has become more accessible and reliable and broadband is much better so we've got better regional balance. In 2015 the starts-ups were all London centric. This year we had people from Newcastle, Manchester, Leeds and Hull."

Patel also cites decisions such as expanding the regional presence of the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to Manchester and other cities including, Cardiff and Loughborough as a positive way to encourage levelling up of opportunity across the UK.

There is no shortage of ideas for Patel and her fellow trustees at Diversity UK to explore both in terms of VC funding and more broadly in tech. Gender diversity in particular remains elusive for the sector. Patel and Diversity UK have helped usher in genuine and welcome change, and there remains plenty more of that needed to fill the skills gap and ensure that UK tech goes from strength to strength.

Diversity is a lived experience: Interview with Lopa Patel MBE

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