• Karamat Iqbal
• Kerstin James
• John Mclellan
• Sally Muir
• Vivianne Näslund
• Sue Ollerearnshaw
• Valerie Russell Emmott
• Alexis Walmsey
• Tony Warner

• Robin Schneider
• Rachael Ross
• Anjana Nathwani
• Freddie Alves
• Sheridan Allman
• Susan Angoy
• Patricia Chalé
• Rohan Collier
• Kate Horne

Robin Schneider (Managing Director), the consultancy's managing director, was born to a Swiss French mother and a Swiss German father, and was brought up in the UK, so he came early to cross cultural issues!

After graduating from Oxford, Robin worked in the oil industry, at Esso leading a policy group responsible for equal opportunities when the company was among the pioneers in UK practice.

Robin co-founded Schneider-Ross in 1989 as a consultancy specialising in equality and diversity. With his partner Rachael Ross he wrote the seminal textbook 'From Equality to Diversity: a Business Base for Equal Opportunities.'

As a consultant, Robin has worked with a wide range of organisations to help them develop strategies to integrate equality and diversity into their organisational culture. Increasingly, this has involved working with major clients internationally.

Rachael Ross (Director) is an experienced team and individual coach, working in the field for over 20 years. She is an accredited coach with the Coverdale Organisation, and an NLP practitioner – to Masters level.

She has always been interested in cultural differences, has an MA in Modern Languages from Cambridge University, and has lived and worked in Austria, France and Germany. She is married to a Swiss - Robin Schneider, and speaks french and german.

Her career started in HR in the oil industry and she then spent a number of years as a change consultant and coach with the Coverdale Organisation. In 1989, she co founded Schneider~Ross, the diversity practice, now regarded as one of the leading diversity consultancies in Europe.

She has published a leading book on diversity “From Equality to Diversity”, 1992, and articles for leading journals in the UK and in Europe.

She inspires leaders and teams to explore their own values - and their organisation’s, to build confidence in managing change and diversity, and to find ways of releasing their own - and their organisations’ creativity.

Her approach is influenced by client needs and learning styles – it has been described as “both challenging and supportive at the same time.”

She has worked with a variety of clients in the private and public sectors including most recently: the Equal Opportunities Commission, BOC, The Crown Estate, Pearson plc, Southampton University, Cambridge University, MOD, Scott Wilson, Taylor Wessing, and HM Revenue and Customs.

Recent appointments include, membership of a development group, chaired by Sir David Bell of the Pearson Group, which is working closely with Cambridge University on gender and communication.

She is a member of the European Coaching and Mentoring Council, a member of CIPD, and a member of RSA.


Other Languages: French & German

Anjana Nathwani (Director, Knowledge & Practice) is a Business Psychologist with extensive experience in Leadership and Organization Development. Prior to joining Schneider Ross she was Director of Learning Design at Cass Business School. Her experience in enabling leaders and organizations to manage change has proved to be invaluable in helping our clients to acknowledge the business benefits of equality and diversity.

She has led on several high profile projects and has worked with reputable clients. These include: University of Cambridge; Birmingham City University, SOAS, UBS, Lloyds TSB, Cadbury Schweppes, Aviva, Cabinet Office, Learning and Skills Council, HMRC, Law Society, Ministry of Defence, Department for Communities and Local Government, Government Equalities Office, Transport for London, The Pensions Regulator and the Pensions Ombudsman.

She led on our recent research projects: Diversity and Inclusion – A lever for solving talent pool dilemmas in India and China (this research involved members of the Global Diversity Network; as well as Merrill Lynch, J P Morgan, Bank of America and Standard Chartered Bank); and The Public Sector Equality Duties Making an Impact.

She specializes in diversity and cultural audits, policy reviews and development, building senior management commitment, employee engagement; public sector equality duties and impact assessments.

Anjana contributes at conferences periodically, including the Diversity and Inclusion Conference in Asia (2007).

She is currently authoring a book on how senior female leaders can be successful by working with their own unique attributes. She is a yoga teacher and offers life coaching and yoga therapy to cancer patients. She has a passion for trekking and enjoys holidays in the Himalayas.

Other Languages: Italian, Hindi & Gujarati

Freddie Alves (Director, Global Diversity & Inclusion) is responsible for driving the consultancy’s expanding global work and client base as well as leading on the Global Diversity Network. Freddie draws from his five years of experience of the network with Dow to build on its success to-date and its capacity to help leading multinationals benchmark and push the boundaries of best practice.

He has a wealth of global, private sector experience having worked in senior corporate diversity roles for Mobil and most recently The Dow Chemical Company. His responsibilities for mainstreaming diversity and inclusion across these organisations have given him an impressive track record of in-house consultancy across continents – most recently in continental Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. He has played key roles in helping geographical leaders to translate global vision and goals into locally relevant strategies and actions. This experience is key to the consultancy work he leads in Schneider~Ross.

Having spent the last 12 years living in The Netherlands, the U.S and Switzerland, he has now moved both his working and family life back to the UK.

Sheridan Allman, is a Senior Associate Consultant with Schneider-Ross, who has had an extensive career in the fields of education and organisational development, working in both the public sector and the private sector. Her recent clients include the University of Southampton, the Learning Skills Council, Enterprise Rent-a-Car and MFI.

Sheridan’s previous work centred on the development of corporate strategy, particularly within her last post in a Global company based out of the United States. Her speciality is the integration of diversity and inclusion into Human Resources and Organisational Development – taking Inclusion strategies into mainstream management development. Sheridan has extensive experience both the management and the delivery of training; working with employees across all levels, including Board executives. Sheridan has developed particular expertise in 'selling’ the Business Case for diversity and inclusion to senior and middle management. She has extensive experience of managing teams and coaching and mentoring across cultures within a global framework.

Sheridan is an Associate member of the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development and has a BSc (Hons) in Geography from University College Swansea and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education from Durham University. She takes great pride in her Welsh origins.

Susan Angoy specialises in the areas of corporate social responsibility; neighbourhood renewal and regeneration; and diversity issues. Her experience is both UK-based and international working with clients such as BP; Allied Domecq; International Business Leaders Forum; Department for Communities and Local Government (formerly Office of the Deputy Prime Minister); the Government Office for London; East of England Regional Development Agency; Goldsmiths University of London Centre for Urban and Community Research, and the United Nations Development Programme.

Before becoming a consultant, Susan was Chief Executive of Deptford City Challenge - a neighbourhood-based, multi-sector partnership, regeneration programme with a budget of £37.5 millions. Earlier in her career, she was a senior investigator with the Commission for Racial Equality, where she was a team leader on the Formal Investigation into the UK’s Immigration Control Procedures.

Susan was born in Guyana and educated in the United Kingdom from the age of nine. She also spent a year at a school for interpreters in Brussels, after completing secondary school. Susan’s academic background is that of an economic sociologist, specialising at post-graduate level in the Sociology of Development at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. She has lived and worked in many countries. Susan is married with one son and now lives in London. For relaxation she is passionate about salsa dancing, music and writing fiction.

Other Languages: Spanish & French

Patricia Chalé, has over twenty years' experience as an HR practitioner in a variety of organisations, both public and private in the UK and overseas. She has worked on a number of strategic high profile projects, examples include work with the Department of Labour, Government of South Africa in relation to the Labour Market Skills Development Programme shortly after the country’s accession to democracy and research for the Law Society and Black Solicitor’s Network in relation to race and gender diversity in the Legal Profession in England and Wales. She specialises in organisational development, and is an international assessor and adviser of the Investors in People Standard. Patricia is a visiting lecturer at the Westminster Business School and is a Senior Associate Tutor with the National School of Government and the Leadership Academy for Policing of the Central Police Training and Development Authority. Patricia is also a Governor of Hillcroft College, the National College for Women in the UK.

Other Languages: French & Swahili

Rohan Collier, has held several lecturing positions and has worked as a member of Scotland Yard's advisory committee on rape. She was head of equality and diversity at the Crown Prosecution Service where her responsibilities included both employment and service delivery and during this time she radically changed the organisation so that it was at the forefront of equality and diversity work with the government and beyond.

Other Languages: French

Kate Horne's, career spans training, consultancy and senior management in public, private and not-for-profit sectors. She started her career as a Youth and Community Worker in Inner London and then worked with Oxfam for over 11 years, as a Training Manager based in the UK, and subsequently managing Oxfam overseas programmes in Africa, heading up development and humanitarian aid programmes in Burundi, Angola and Mozambique for 6 years.

Since returning to the UK in 2000 she has worked on a wide range of private, public and voluntary sector consultancy projects in diversity and equality, culture change and leadership development, coaching, teambuilding and community consultation. Schneider-Ross clients include the Cabinet Office, REXAM Plc, Astra-Zeneca, O2, MFI and British Airports Authorities. She also reviews and evaluates aid programmes in developing countries. She is also a qualified Myers Briggs Practitioner.

Other Languages: French & Portuguese

Karamat Iqbal has had an interest in and commitment to equality and diversity from a very young age. Early on in his adult life, he worked in community development in a multi-cultural environment where he pioneered race and equal opportunities awareness training for professionals.

After working in community relations, Karamat spent 13 years in a community college which was seen as a leader in equality and diversity. Here in his role as Deputy Director of Equality Rights and Opportunities Management Unit, he made a significant contribution to policy development, management and training.

As an Equality and Diversity Consultant, Karamat has worked with a range of organisations in the voluntary, public and private sectors. He currently divides his time between this and as an Adviser for a large urban Local Authority where he has responsibility for 'Remodelling' staffing in schools.

Within a broad skill base, Karamat has a particular interest in religious and cultural diversity. Recently, he has retuned to writing which includes occasional columns in Birmingham Governor Focus and a guest column in The Voice newspaper.

Karamat’s qualifications include Bachelor of Education, Masters in Social Sciences (Race and Education), Certificate in Management and Certificate in Theology.

Other Languages: Urdu & Punjabi

Kerstin James has over 19 years experience in equality and diversity, of which 15 years has been in senior positions in policy development and policy management in the public sector. Her experience covers both employment and service delivery. She is an experienced trainer and facilitator and has contributed to many conferences as a speaker.

Kerstin is Swedish by origin and bilingual and has worked in both countries. She has recently trained staff in the Civil Service, London and Metropolitan Councils and the University sector to comply with new equalities legislation and undertaking equality impact assessments. Kerstin is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, has a Masters Degree in Employment Relations and Law, a Politics Degree and a Certificate in Workplace Mediation Skills.

Other Languages: Swedish

John McLellan, is a facilitator, coach, trainer, trustee and strategy consultant with experience gained across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.

He graduated as a geologist before pursuing a management career, holding senior management positions in the BBC and NFC where he has worked with and lead teams dealing with commercial development and cultural change. He has also run his own business in video and film communications.

For Schneider~Ross John has worked on a number of prestigious projects (within the MoD, Cambridge University, Scottish Widows, Lloyds TSB and Privy Council to name a few). He has worked across the full range of diversity strands in helping organisations devise communication and training programme for various types and levels of staff. Some of the work has included working with individuals and teams to better understand the needs of LGBT staff and how organisations can create a more open environment around this issue.

Other recent clients include The British Library, BT, Accenture, The BBC, The Metropolitan Police and Lloyds-TSB.

Other Languages: French

Sally Muir, began her career in nursing before moving on to counselling in family therapy. While living in Washington DC, she qualified in Systematic Training for Effective Parenting, which she has since introduced in Britain.

Now self-employed and operating in both the corporate and voluntary sectors, Sally runs workshops for clients such as BP and the BBC on family, work-life balance and diversity issues.

Vivianne Näslund is a consultant, facilitator and coach with extensive experience of cross-border mergers and acquisitions, change and diversity projects. Vivianne specialises in global leadership development, international teambuilding, executive coaching and mentoring, cross-border change and global diversity.

Recent projects have included assignments with ten global corporations (from the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Sweden) listed in the Financial Times ’Top Global 500 companies’ survey, 11 June 2005.

Her career in Europe has been through four stages: senior manager in an innovative and fast-growing medium-sized company; setting up and launching a new division for Great Universal Stores - a FTSE 100 and ‘Top Global 500’ company; founder of a start-up business and international management consultant.

A Swedish national, she is based in Britain but has also lived in France, Switzerland and Germany and has a British and German MBA.

Other Languages: French, German & Swedish

Sue Ollerearnshaw, has many years of experience in the field of employment equality. She led the Commission for Racial Equality’s employment related policy work during the 80’s and 90’s, focusing on strategic, good practice advice and initiatives with employers and employment training providers. As a senior consultant with Schneider~Ross she has led research on progress on the public duty to promote race equality - 'Towards Racial Equality' and jointly researched the effects of integrating diversity measures within wider management processes - ‘The Business of Diversity’. Her consultancy projects have included major organisations in both public and private sectors, with a recent focus on diversity audits and support for equality impact assessments. She is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD

Valerie Russell Emmott, was born in Germany to an American father and a French mother, and was raised in a half-dozen countries around the world. She has lived in the UK since 1993, not including a recent four-year stint in Brussels.

With Schneider~Ross since 2001, Valerie has worked on global diversity, corporate social responsibility and organisational culture change programmes for such clients as Rexam, O2, Imperial College, Lloyds TSB and the Learning and Skills Council.

An accomplished facilitator, she is presently focused on the inter-linked areas of culture, faith and belief. She is certified in multifaith diversity and anti-discrimination, and is bringing this work to clients in the public and HE/FE sectors.

Her previous career included work for Cable and Wireless plc and British Telecom. Valerie currently serves on the committee of the Bristol Inter Faith Group, and manages community cohesion projects for Radio Salaam Shalom.

Valerie has an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA from Yale University. An American by origin, she has lived around the world, in the UK for the past ten years. She is currently based in Bristol, with her English husband and two sons.

Other Languages: French & Spanish

Alexis Walmsey, joined Schneider~Ross in 1998 after a varied career which spanned the Arts, publishing, telecomms and IT.

As Research Consultant Alexis leads on research and analysis for key client projects. For instance, she has been a key part of our consultancy teams working on prestigious research assignments: 'The Business of Diversity' and the CRE report on the first year of the "public duty" called 'Towards Racial Equality.' In addition, Alexis has led on many client surveys - for instance for Barclays, Lloyds TSB, and Cranfield University. Currently she is part of the Global Diversity Network Benchmarking team and is also developing the organisation's capabilities with cost effective survey products through the use of the internet.

With two teenage children, one of them profoundly disabled, she has a very personal interest in diversity - and in particular issues relating to disability. She is also a Trustee on the Board of the national charity Working Families. She enjoys writing and has contributed to Positive Parenting's specialist manual for professionals working with the parents of newly diagnosed disabled children and is a contributor to the newsletter published by Working Families as part of their 'Waving Not Drowning' initiative for working parents of children with a disability.

Tony Warner, is a highly regarded diversity trainer with experience in the public and voluntary sectors. He has delivered training extensively in the police and criminal justice sectors. Other commitments include membership of the NHS south-east London race equality network and of '100 Black Men of London.

For Schneider~Ross Tony has led major programmes for Enterprise-Rent-A-Car and Southampton University. As part of both of these contracts he has been transferring his expertise to itnernal trainers so that they are equipped to cascade Schneider~Ross programmes further down the organisation and support line mangers in the process of change.