Diane Lightfoot is CEO of Business Disability Forum, a not-for-profit membership organisation that supports businesses to recruit and retain disabled employees and to serve disabled customers. Business Disability Forum’s c.550 members employ over 20% of the UK workforce and range from FTSE 100 companies and central Government departments to technology, transport and construction companies, retailers, higher education providers and public services bodies.
Diane is co-Chair of the Disability Charities Consortium, a group of nine major national disability charities in the UK. She is deputy chair of the Disability Confident Business Leaders’ Group and also sits on the Institute of Coding’s Diversity & Inclusion Board, the Advisory board for the Centre for Neurodiversity Research at Work and the Steering Group for the Global Business Disability Network, hosted by the International Labor Organization. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is part of the Steering Group for the RSA Inclusive Work, Disability and Ageing Network.
Prior to joining Business Disability Forum in February 2017, Diane was Director of Policy and Communications for national disability charity United Response, where she also took on the strategic leadership of the organisation’s employment services as a whole. She is passionate about the role that good work has to play in transforming people’s lives.