Lee is an openly queer man, living in London with his husband of more than 6 years. He has worked within Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI), HR, Learning & Development, and Talent Acquisition across many industries including banking, PR & advertising, infrastructure, tech, and non-profit.
He is a qualified LEAN practitioner, managing global improvement and transformation projects, and a qualified life coach, mentoring young people from the LGBTQIA+ communities with a focus on employability support.
But more than all this, Lee has a lived experience of being a member of a marginalised community. He is categorised within multiple ‘protected characteristics’ (as detailed in the 2010 Equality Act), providing him with a comprehensive understanding of the importance of intersectionality and the part that plays in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) in the workplace.
Every member of every community has their own ‘lived experience’ of the life they lead. This is no less true for members of the LGBTQIA+ communities. And these lived experiences are unique and personal and cannot be fully comprehended from a textbook.
Lee’s own, authentic voice speaks of class and social mobility, the experience of being excluded from society, bullying, and harassment, the need to hide his true self, and the mental ill-health he experienced.
Lee remembers vividly the AIDS epidemic and how it was portrayed in the media and he was in school when section 28 was passed – a law brought into legislation in 1988 by a Conservative government that stopped councils and schools “promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”.
He has seen his own community vilified as predators since his childhood and watched as society instilled fear and shame into LGBTQIA+ community members just for wanting to live their own true lives.
He marched for equality and equal marriage in 2012, and in 2017 was able to marry his same-sex partner. Their interracial relationship has brought him first-hand experience of further
discrimination against minority races. He does not claim to have walked in his husband’s shoes, but he has walked alongside him for more than 10 years and recognises his own white privilege.
Throughout his journey, Lee has met and lost great people who have impacted his life and outlook on the future. He is passionate about creating a better world for everyone, his own LGBTQIA+ communities included. So, he is starting where his own talents lay, within recruitment and the workplace as a whole.
He has created a ‘Community Voice Group’ within his business, where all communities can come and talk openly, safe in the knowledge that they will be heard and respected.
By listening to and understanding the experience of discrimination and oppression of others, Lee and his team are able to ensure their voices speak for others.
Using his vast experience of working within both commercial and not-for-profit sectors, creating and implementing successful EDI initiatives, Lee founded ‘Changing Hearts & Minds Consulting’ in 2022, to help more businesses create a safe, supportive, and fair environment for their whole workforce.
By empowering the development of allies within the workplace, and giving LGBTQIA+ community members the confidence to be their authentic selves at work.
Lee Thomas-Wragg is also a knowledgeable and motivational public speaker.
He is committed to reaching out to those most disadvantaged and marginalised in our communities and is actively seeking opportunities to do so.
Lee has pledged to always give a proportion of any profits made from speaking events to charities supporting LGBTQIA+ people.
Rate reduction and pro-bono work may also be possible in the case of charities. Please contact for further information
