Driving Diversity in Corporate Affairs

Last week, the Taylor Bennett Foundation officially launched its Employer Partner Network and we are delighted continue to play a key role in the evolution of the foundation as a Platinum Partner. The idea for TBF was conceived by Heather McGregor, the then Managing Partner of Taylor Bennett, in response to the lack of diverse talent in corporate affairs and the recognition that while we work to appoint senior leaders, the intervention has to come far earlier.

Communications and corporate affairs remains, by most honest measures, insufficiently diverse. The talent is out there – across every background, community and postcode. What has been missing is not the people, but the pathways: the networks, the access, the early opportunities that allow exceptional individuals from underrepresented backgrounds to enter and progress.

The Taylor Bennett Foundation has spent years building those pathways. Its flagship Training Programme, its Summer Stars Internship, its mentoring and reverse mentoring work. These are the programmes that have materially changed the trajectories of more than 1,400 Black, Asian and ethnically diverse professionals in communications. That is an extraordinary record of impact.

Matthew Wall, Founder and Managing Partner of Taylor Birchwood said “As a trustee of TBF and co-founder of Taylor Birchwood, I have always believed that the best talent in communications should be visible to us and that means being active participants in creating the conditions where that talent can emerge and thrive, not passive observers waiting for the pipeline to improve.

Taylor Birchwood is an executive search firm. Our work is fundamentally about connecting talented people with the right organisations. If the pool of candidates we access, recommend and champion does not reflect the full breadth of talent available, we are not doing our job properly. Our partnership with the Taylor Bennett Foundation is one part of how we hold ourselves accountable to that standard.”

If you lead a communications team, an agency or a business with a public affairs function, and you are not yet part of the Employer Partner Network, we encourage you to look seriously at joining. The structure is flexible with three tiers to suit different organisations, and the benefits, both to your team and to the individuals whose careers you will help shape, are real.

The Foundation is stronger when more employers are at the table. This is a moment to step forward.

Published: March 2026