Accountancy and business advisory firm BDO LLP is the latest professional services firm to join the Stronger Together network.
Stronger Together Leeds City Region was set up in 2022 to champion racial diversity, inclusion and equity in the region’s professional services sector by leaders from the largest accountancy and law firms in Leeds.
The Stronger Together network aims to promote and encourage best practice across the sector and show that diverse leadership and culture is a true driver for change that better suits an inclusive and more modern workforce. By focusing on practical and actionable solutions, alongside a commitment to equity and diversity, Stronger Together has made a positive impact since launch on connecting, sharing, learning and growing together.
Putting the need for the Stronger Together network into perspective, a recent study by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy found that the potential benefit to the UK economy from full representation of race across the labour market, was estimated to be £24bn a year, representing 1.3% of GDP.
The professional services sector in the Leeds City Region, is one of the largest outside London and the Leeds City Region is becoming more ethnically diverse according to the latest census, particularly in younger age groups.
Since it was established, the award-winning network has:
Established a partnership with Leeds City Academy to provide career development advice and insight days to year 10 pupils
Developed a mentoring programme which, to date, has seen over 100 mentoring pairings established between accountancy and law firms
Created an inspiring career development series on topics such as wellbeing, resilience, mental health and impostor phenomenon open to member firms
Won several awards including DEI Team at The Northern Powerhouse Legal 500 Awards and Mentor of the Year at The Northern Leadership Awards.
Dan Brookes, tax partner at BDO in Leeds, will join Stronger Together’s Executive Committee to focus on the strategic direction of the network and its key objectives of retention and attraction of minority ethnic talent in the Leeds professional services sector.
Natalie Jones, financial services advisory manager, will join the Stronger Together Junior Committee, working with a peer group from member firms to organise inspiring events, reverse mentor more senior colleagues, deliver training, run insight days for Leeds City Academy and represent Stronger Together at networking events.
Arif Ahmad, co-founder of Stronger Together and partner at PwC said: “I’d like to welcome BDO to Stronger Together and look forward to collaborating with them to drive forward our objective of encouraging more people from ethnic minority communities to the professional services sector.
‘’Our ambition is for the Leeds professional services sector to be fair and just, that recognises and embraces people’s different needs, situations and ambitions. An environment where the barriers that limit what people can do will be removed, and everyone will be enabled to be their best. For this to happen, we all need to take responsibility for our actions and behaviours and contribute positively to change. By expanding the network and sharing best practice among the firms, we’re optimistic about what we can achieve together.’’
He added: “We recently opened up our career development briefing on ‘impostor phenomenon’ to other professional services firms in the region, to enable them to benefit from the learnings we’re sharing in the network and keep inclusivity at the heart of everything we do. This had a great response and we are planning more events in 2025 to continue to drive the change.”
Dan Brookes 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."
