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2020 Outies: LGBTQ Corporate Advocate of the Year

Outie Awards (the “Outies”) recognize individuals and organizations who are leaders in advancing equality for LGBTQ people in workplaces globally. Outies are awarded at the annual Out & Equal Workplace Summit.

This award recognizes an LGBTQ individual who is actively advocating to improve their organization’s inclusion efforts, pushing significant adoption of best/innovative practice, benefiting LGBTQ employees and advancing their organizations standing as a true leader in this work. Advocates are bold and are making a difference outside their workplace to drive change and equality in their community, their country, and the world.

Winner


NIKKI GIBSON, DELL

Nikki Gibson is the North American Lead for Dell Pride ERG at Dell Technologies. Under Nikki’s leadership, the Pride ERG has grown to be one of the largest, most active ERGs at Dell. In her time as the Pride ERG lead, she has grown the ERG chapters from three to twelve, continues to create and deliver ally training for all employees at the company, authored Dell’s Transgender Toolkit, and pushed for gender pronouns in Dell’s formal email signature. One of Nikki’s recent accomplishments, after years of collaborating with leadership, was Dell’s launch of Self-ID for LGBTQ employees in August. Amidst the current BLM/racial justice protests Nikki mobilized to have Pride co-sponsor programming with Dell’s Black Networking Alliance to demonstrate solidarity and support. Her passion for advocacy has led to a strong relationship with Dell’s Government Affairs team, which now has grown into a formal Lobby Day for LGBTQ equality at various state capitols throughout the country.

“Nikki is a role model to so many of us in the LGBTQ community. She seeks to empower people and encourage new ideas and ways of doing things. She lifts and amplifies minority voices and never seeks the spotlight herself. She is one of the kindest people I have ever met.

Honorees


JOANNIE FU, INTEL

Joannie Fu serves as the Chief of Staff for Intel’s Custom Logic Engineering Group. Her inspirational and inclusive leadership style has resulted in meaningful diversity and inclusion impact in and outside of Intel. Outside of her Chief of Staff role, Joannie founded two chapters of Intel’s LGBTQ ERG and currently sponsors one of the most globally active chapters. She is a sought-out mentor and coach for the LGBTQ community and takes an active role in helping many LGBTQ people advance their careers. Under Joannie’s leadership, more LGBTQ employees than ever have reported feeling safer to bring their authentic selves to the workplace in the annual Employee Inclusion Survey – 20% improvement from before she took on a leadership role. Additionally, as a woman of color, a mother, and a first-generation immigrant, she uses her platform to help with advancement of women, working parents, and immigrants.

“Joannie’s authenticity, positive energy, fearlessness, creativity, intelligence, and high standard for her work makes her very unique as a corporate advocate. She is willing to share her personal stories to help to drive change.”

ARITRA KANJILAL, NIELSEN

Aritra Kanjilal is a Product Manager for Innovation Measurement and PRIDE South Asia ERG Lead at Nielsen. Aritra is responsible for launching and leading Nielsen’s PRIDE ERG in South Asia. At the time of launch, Nielsen’s South Asia offices had fewer LGBTQ inclusion initiatives than company offices in other regions. Aritra, however, took this as a challenge and continued to lay the groundwork for the South Asia chapter. Aritra’s hard work has led to one of the company’s most active ERG chapters, with reach across India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka and with more than 200 current members and allies. During Aritra’s leadership, PRIDE South Asia has launched dozens of awareness and inclusion campaigns, introduced domestic partner benefits for same-sex partners, created gender neutral restrooms, and hosted a LGBTI+ job fair. Aritra’s leadership derives from authenticity and the approach of driving the ERG with business-like precision.

“I first heard Aritra’s name when we got an email in March 2019 announcing the launch of PRIDE ERG in Nielsen South Asia. Since then, his name has become synonymous with PRIDE. He was instrumental in starting the South Asia chapter of PRIDE and has continued to be an advocate within and outside of Nielsen in building a more sensitive, inclusive and respectful workplace. At the same time, he also mentors budding allies like me in driving our company’s culture of inclusion. I have learned so much from him and there is so much more to learn. He is kind, encouraging, diligent and most of all passionate about the cause!”


more 2020 outies

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Global workplaces where all people are equal, belong, and thrive.

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Out & Equal is the global convener, thought leader and catalyst actively working to achieve workplaces of equality and belonging - supporting LGBTQ+ employees and leaders who thrive in their careers and lives and achieve greater impact on the world.