Our team

Diane Lightfoot, CEO, Business Disability Forum 

Diane is responsible for leading and shaping all aspects of Business Disability Forum’s strategy and delivery and for representing the organisation at the highest levels of business and government.

Diane is co-Chair of the Disability Charities Consortium, a group of nine major national disability charities in the UK. She is Vice chair of the Disability Confident Business Leaders’ Group and also sits on the steering board for the Lilac Review, the CMI Everyone Economy Advisory Committee 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.
Connect with Diane on LinkedIn

Lara Davis, Director of Communications and Marketing

Lara is the strategic lead for communications and marketing activity to recruit membership and to market our products, services and events. She also leads our Changing the image of disability campaign.

Lara has over 25 years’ experience in marketing communications in the public, private and not for profit sectors. Previous roles include Head of Communications for national charity Citizens Advice, and working for a health and education specialist communications consultancy. 
Connect with Lara on LinkedIn

Adrian Ward, Director of Operations

Adrian leads the teams responsible for all relationships with Business Disability Forum’s Members and Partners as well as overseeing our Advice Service, consultancy and Learning & Development services. He is an experienced disability consultant with experience of overseeing numerous disability inclusion consultancy projects with both public and private sector organisations.   

Adrian also has an extensive background in human resources and diversity and inclusion within the public sector. Before joining Business Disability Forum, Adrian led a diversity and inclusion experts team within a large Civil Service organisation specialising in all aspects of disability as well as leading on Public Sector Equality Duty work. Adrian has practical experience of developing departmental policies (including disability-specific policies) and procedures and overseeing effective implementation.

Adrian is also a qualified mediator with an extensive background in both employment and housing mediation.
Connect with Adrian on LinkedIn

Angela Matthews, Director of Public Policy and Research

Angela leads Business Disability Forum’s policy and research team and specialises in UK work, health, and disability policy.

She is an adviser to and research partner on several academic research projects related to health, disability inclusion, and inclusive employment. 

Angela regularly contributes to HR and disability ‘lifestyle’ publications. She has appeared on BBC Radio 4, speaking on topics including women’s work and care ethics, and the disability employment gap. She has given evidence at various Parliamentary Select Committee inquiries. 

Angela has professional experience in diversity and equalities management, disability and workplace adjustments, equalities data management, employee relations, and occupational health. She also holds several postgraduate research qualifications. 

Lucy Ruck, Taskforce Manager

Lucy is responsible for managing the Technology Taskforce, as well as the Customer & Service User Network, the Northern England Network and the Procurement Network.

Lucy is a regular speaker at events, including AbilityNet’s TechShare Pro, GEIS Summit for Hong Kong Social Services, AXSChat, and many more. 

Lucy has a lived experienced of disability for 30 years, after an accident that left her as a right leg, below knee amputee. 
Connect with Lucy on LinkedIn

Sarah Eason, Head of Memberships

Sarah joined BDF in 2022 as the lead for the Business Partner Team and is now Head of Memberships, overseeing the successful delivery of our Member and Partner offers, ensuring all our stakeholders are maximising the benefits we offer, better including disabled employees, customers and service users in their organisations. Sarah is also responsible for the recruitment of new Members and Partners into Business Disability Forum membership.

Sarah began her career in education, teaching for more than 15 years in mainstream and special needs settings. She has significant experience of supporting people with disabilities to be successful in employment and enabling employers to create workplaces that ‘work’ for everyone.

Natalie Leister, Head of Practice

Natalie leads Business Disability Forum’s Advice Service and oversees our internal upskilling programme, ensuring that our Member/Partner facing teams are continually improving the advice and information they provide.

She is an experienced senior leader with an extensive background spanning across operational, commercial and charity sectors in both Human resources and Diversity and Inclusion.

She has for many years led projects and teams at a senior level focused on removing barriers for people with disabilities.
Connect with Natalie on LinkedIn

Rebecca Elliott, Lead Disability Business Partner

Rebecca brings diverse experience in law, social enterprise, and welfare to work to Business Disability Forum. With a focus on employability and disability support, she is currently studying for an MSc in Strategic Human Resource Management. Outside work, she enjoys creative writing and crochet.
Connect with Rebecca on LinkedIn

Daniel Cadey, Senior Business Disability Partner

Daniel provides advice and support to several Business Disability Forum partner organisations to enable them to become disability smart. He also co-leads our Global Taskforce and co-hosts our podcast series, ‘If you don’t mind me asking‘.

Connect with Daniel on LinkedIn 

Katie Coates, Senior Disability Business Partner

Katie studied law at the University of York and has a continued interest in employment law, professional ethics, equality and human rights. In work, her passion lies in neurodiversity, accessible workplaces and disability representation and inclusion at all levels.
Connect with Katie on LinkedIn

Emily Jackson, Senior Business Disability Partner

Emily joined Business Disability Forum in 2015 and has extensive experience advising public and private sector employers on disability best practice, inclusion, and the law.

As a Senior Disability Business Partner, Emily works closely with BDF Partner organisations to enable them to achieve their strategic aims on disability inclusion and to adopt leading practice across all areas of the business.

Her key interests are workplace adjustments and supporting businesses to implement robust adjustment processes, barrier-free recruitment, policy making and The Equality Act 2010. 
Connect with Emily on LinkedIn

Sandra Coley, Senior Disability Business Partner

Sandra’s career spans the private, public and education sectors. She is an experienced consultant and has worked with organisations across a range of sectors. She also has experience in the employability and skills arena including training and coaching, managing internship and degree apprenticeship programmes, and supporting disabled people to enter, return to and remain in work. 
Connect with Sandra on LinkedIn

Robyn Challis, Senior Disability Business Partner

Robyn’s career spans the public, higher education and voluntary sectors. As well as providing strategic and operational support to universities and colleges on disability inclusion, she has over ten years’ experience of managing teams to deliver services in community and education settings, including health, advice and support services for disabled people.

She explored her interest in disabled employee experience when studying for her recent Research Masters degree.
Connect with Robyn on LinkedIn

Joel Young, Senior Disability Business Partner

Joel has extensive experience of working to improve accessibility and inclusion.

He enjoys facilitating change and supporting businesses on their inclusion journey. He does this through education and collaboration.

His expertise lies in built environment accessibility, equality law in relation to the rights of disabled people and coaching for self-advocacy.
Connect with Joel on LinkedIn

Rachel Smitheman, Senior Disability Business Partner

With over 25 years’ experience in HR & Employee Relations roles, Rachel has a good understanding of the barriers to disability inclusion that can exist within organisations and is passionate about working with our partners to identify these barriers and to remove them.

Rachel has a particular interest in mental health and neurodiversity and in addition to her Business Partner role, she is a qualified Integrative humanistic counsellor and workplace mediator.
Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn

Brooke Mauro, Senior Disability Business Partner

Brooke engages with Business Disability Forum partner organisations, from starters to veterans, to support them in achieving their disability inclusion goals with best practice advice. 

She has extensive previous work experience as a HRBP for matrixed, international conglomerates and is no stranger to overcoming organisational obstacles.

Her passion is in working with organisations to create more inclusive processes, upskilling line managers, and overcoming organisational barriers. 
Connect with Brooke on LinkedIn

Alan Collins, Disability Business Partner

Alan joined the Business Disability Forum team after many years in financial services. He also set up Ability First, a not-for-profit social enterprise supporting those with life-changing health conditions.
Connect with Alan on LinkedIn

Keith Harris, Disability Business Partner 

Keith’s role is in building and maintaining effective business relationships with a wide range of Business Disability Forum Members across the public and private sectors.
Connect with Keith on LinkedIn

Courtney Swaby, Disability Business Partner 

Courtney specialises in supporting and advising Member organisations within the finance, emergency services and law enforcement, IT, and insurance sectors.
Connect with Courtney on LinkedIn

Sasha Hailey, Disability Business Partner

As one of the Business Partners, Sasha looks after members across various sectors and at various stages of their Disability Smart journey. Supporting organisations to reach achievements such as getting a reasonable adjustment policy, having leadership talk about disability, or progressing through the Disability Confident Scheme, is what keeps her passionate about work.

In her spare time, she enjoys bird watching and cycling on the e-bike. Sasha has a degree in Sociology with a specialism in Disability Studies from Warwick University and has a background of working in finance.
Connect with Sasha on LinkedIn

Val Cox, Disability Business Partner

Val’s previous experience includes supporting individual professionals, mainly lawyers and accountants, with career planning and lifelong learning. She has coached and mentored people who were studying while working full time, or who needed adjustments due to disabilities.
Connect with Val on LinkedIn

Phil Conway, Disability Business Partner

Phil spent the first half of his career in the corporate sector, working in Sales & Marketing for IBM. He also founded and led as CEO a Social Enterprise Cool2Care, aimed at supporting families with disabled children. He has recently worked on disability inclusion commissioning programmes for Surrey County Council.  

Claire Burdett, Disability Business Partner

As Disability Business Partner, Claire collaborates with organisations to promote inclusion and accessibility. Using both her lived experience and extensive background in NHS and care, Claire guides businesses in creating supportive environments that empower employees of all abilities – together, building workplaces that embrace diversity to drive both social and business success.
Connect with Claire on LinkedIn

Georgina Wright, Advice Service Manager

George gives guidance to Business Disability Forum member and Partner organisation on all aspects of disability in the world of business.

Connect with Georgina on LinkedIn

Kier Fox, Learning and Development Manager

Kier is a TAP-certified Learning & Development professional with over 20 years’ experience designing, delivering, and scaling impactful training. He has worked across the justice and corporate sectors, both in-house and as a freelance consultant, helping organisations create CPD-accredited learning that is engaging, inclusive, and fit for purpose.
Connect with Kier on LinkedIn

David Goodchild, Membership Director 

David’s focus is on introducing organisations to the benefits of working with Business Disability Forum, illustrating our whole-organisational approach to disability inclusion.
Email David to discuss membership options

Michelle Wickenden, Member Development Manager 

Michelle joined Business Disability Forum in 2013 after working in student finance and disability management. With experience in higher education, government, and specialist disability services, she brings a strong background in supporting disabled students and implementing equality initiatives.

Sarah Bartlett, Media Relations Lead

Sarah oversees our media and press work. Sarah has also authored several resources for Business Disability Forum, such as the Inclusive Communication Toolkit.
Visit our Media Centre

Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn

Georgina Whitehead, Events Manager

George leads Business Disability Forum’s events program. With over 20 years in events and marketing, primarily in the nonprofit sector, they have organized events from small receptions to large-scale conferences. Previous roles include UCL, Action for Children, Pancreatic Cancer UK, and Age UK.

Rick Williams, Head of Consultancy

Rick is an experienced consultant and trainer with a high level of expertise in disability issues and leads our consultancy team. He’s a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). 

Jan Loveless, Senior Consultant

Jan is a registered occupational therapist with over 20 years in access and inclusive design. Her expertise spans cinemas, museums, offices, and the countryside. With a postgraduate diploma in Environmental Access, Jan offers practical advice to create welcoming environments for all.

Graeme Whippy, Senior Consultant

Graeme is a leading expert in digital accessibility and disability inclusion. With a career spanning IT, finance, and disability management, he has shaped industry standards and government policy. Recognised for his contributions, Graeme received an MBE and is a trusted advisor to organisations seeking to create inclusive workplaces