Stronger Together Leeds City Region

Season’s greetings and happy holidays from Stronger Together Leeds City Region. To our network members, colleagues and friends who are celebrating #Christmas and #Hanukkah, may your festivities be filled with warmth and joy. Wishing you a wonderful break with your friends, families and loved ones. All the best for a prosperous new year ahead.

🌟 Well done to our Junior Committee who have been shortlisted in the 'team of the year' category at the prestigious Insider Media Yorkshire Young Professionals awards. It's great to see our team being recognised for their passion, innovation and leadership in making the professional services sector in Leeds more diverse and inclusive. 👏 This recognition is hot on the heels of the team being shortlisted for the Yorkshire Accountancy Awards last week! 🫶 Wishing the team the best of the luck at the awards ceremony in February. Find out more about the awards here: https://lnkd.in/dftFWzFB

🫶 We're delighted to welcome BDO as the newest members of the Stronger Together Leeds City Region network. Dan Brookes, Tax Partner at BDO in Leeds, will join Stronger Together’s Executive Committee, who focus on the strategic direction of the network and its key objectives of retention and attraction of minority ethnic talent in the Leeds #ProfessionalServices sector. He said: “We’re thrilled to be joining Stronger Together, working collaboratively with other like-minded firms in building a more inclusive professional services sector. At BDO, we have a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion by encouraging people to ‘Be Yourself’. We believe that by bringing together our people and fostering a diverse and inclusive culture, we can truly help each other succeed in line with our core purpose as a firm. This aligns with the objectives of Stronger Together and our membership will support our existing EDI activities in Leeds.’’ 🗞️ Thanks to the Yorkshire Times for profiling the news. https://lnkd.in/dXGDqQVH'.

Lovely evening with some of our fab Stronger Together Leeds City Region team at the Yorkshire Asian Business Association NPH Multicultural Fashion Ball Dinner. Great to see ethnic minority business success stories showcased and celebrate the value of difference Pervinder Kaur Jeanette Burgess Shabana Muneer Pavitar Singh Bhullar Haseenah A. Hamza Shabir Bethany Taylor Priya Jassal Maria McAreavey Katy Turner

👏 Congratulations to our fantastic Junior Committee who have been shortlisted for the Yorkshire Accountancy Awards 'team of the year' category. 🫶 From reverse mentoring, organising inspiring career development events, hosting Q&As, delivering training, running work experience with Leeds City Academy and representing the network at external industry events, they've gone 'above and beyond' to deliver and embody the network's values of being Stronger Together. This is all on top of very busy day jobs as well as studying for exams and other professional commitments. 🌟 Regardless of the outcome, they are all winners in our eyes and set the benchmark for true collaboration, team work and inclusion in the #ProfessionalServices sector in Leeds. #YAAwards

💜 Great to get together with the Stronger Together ExCo for the last meeting of the year. 💡 We reflected on the network's achievements in 2024, ongoing challenges to diversity and inclusion in the sector and discussed exciting things in the pipeline as we look ahead to 2025. 👏 Thanks to the ExCO and member firms for all your support and collaboration. Your vision, energy and passion is making a real difference in making the #professionalservices sector in Leeds more diverse and inclusive, supporting the next generation through our partnership with Leeds City Academy and providing career development events, networking opportunities and a cross-firm #mentoring programme to our network members. 🎄 Thanks to Arif Ahmad for hosting and providing the mince pies! Addleshaw Goddard BDO Deloitte DLA Piper EY-Parthenon Eversheds Sutherland Grant Thornton UK LLP KPMG Pinsent Masons PwC Squire Patton Boggs Walker Morris LLP

Today, #Sikhs in our network and across the world are celebrating the birth of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the Founder of the Sikh faith, which is the fifth largest faith group in the world. Guru Nanak (born in 1469) established Sikhi as a universal and inclusive religion that believes in one spiritual God (vesting in each and every living being), equality for all, and the freedom to follow one’s own faith. Guru Nanak lived his life by three core principles, which are the pillars of Sikhi: 🫶 Vaṇḍ Chakkō: Sharing with others, helping those in need, as well as participating as part of a community. A spirit of giving, sharing, and caring for one another is central to Sikhi. 💫 Kirat Karō: Earning/making a living honestly, without exploitation or fraud, and speaking the truth at all times. 🎇 Naam Japna: Meditating on God’s name to live a life of decency and humility. Across the Leeds City Region, people will celebrate Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s birthday with  fireworks and prayers at Gurdwaras (Sikh temples). In the Gurdwaras, the Sikh’s 11th and eternal Guru, the Guru Granth Sahib (holy scriptures), is read aloud in full. We wish everyone who is celebrating this special day our best wishes from Stronger Together. Find out more here: https://lnkd.in/ei5dYKqi #celebration  #Sikhism #GuruNanak

Attendees from our member firms came together last week for the launch of the third phase of the #StrongertogetherLCR cross-firm mentoring programme. It was great to see such open collaboration and hear how the #mentoring relationships have developed since the launch in 2022, showing a real desire to create change. By creating greater access and visibility of role models and mentors locally, we hope that this will achieve greater inclusion and equality within the #ProfessionalServices sector in our region. David Chan gave an update on the Stronger Together strategy and explained how the mentor scheme is an integral part of the network. To date, there have been 106 mentor pairings, a great success for the network! Wendy Ramshaw, who is leading the programme, gave her reflections on the second year of the programme and hints and tips on best practice. These included: ▶ Good contracting at the start is vital ▶ Be a proactive mentee and an accessible mentor ▶ Be respectful and honour your time together She introduced phase three of the programme, which will see a more purposeful matching process, greater programme supervision and the continual development of a mentoring community. The 50 attendees then had a session on the power of mentoring and discussed what a good relationship looks and common themes for mentoring led by Chris Paschali and Moneek Chahal from our Junior Committee. Thanks to Squire Patton Boggs for hosting and for the mentors and mentees for attending. If you have any questions about the programme, please contact Wendy. She will be sharing the next steps and the mentors guide shortly.   #careers #NextGeneration #development

🕯️Wishing those who celebrate a very happy #Diwali from everyone at Stronger Together. 💫 May the light of Diwali bring prosperity and joy in your family. 💡 Find out more about the #FestivalOfLights here: https://lnkd.in/eDZvf8wV #HappyDiwali #celebration #ProfessionalServices

Great to see many of the Stronger Together Leeds City Region network member firms recognised in this year's Top 75 Social Mobility Index Employers 👏 . Our career development series, outreach work experience with Leeds City Academy and mentoring programme are some of the ways we're trying to improve #SocialMobility, racial #inclusion and #diversity within the professional services sector in #Leeds. PwC, Grant Thornton UK LLP, KPMG, EY-Parthenon, Addleshaw Goddard Squire Patton Boggs, DLA Piper, Pinsent Masons