Yvonne Howard 

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” – Maya Angelou

Yvonne is a Diversity and Inclusion Specialist; researcher, facilitator and mentor who, for over 20 years, equips companies to harness the business and social benefits of diverse and inclusive teams.

Yvonne is passionate about enabling organisations, teams and individuals to be the best they can. Yvonne’s training as an Architect informs her desire to diversify the places where impactful decisions are taken in the construction industry, which led Yvonne to become a co-founder of the WiC Moving on Up programme.

Yvonne has extensive experience in the construction, engineering, transportation and built environment sectors, as well as local government and the private sector, working independently and as Associate with diversity consultancy EW Group. Yvonne was the lead consultant for the Building an Inclusive Culture programme at British Land and headed up the Inclusive Cultures Management programme at RSA Insurance Group. Yvonne has worked with other prominent clients including Westfield, Ocado Technology, Planet Organic, HS2 and Highways England. As a Diversity Specialist for Crossrail, Yvonne influenced the piloting of WiC’s employment programme and subsequently supported WiC in project management, coaching and diversity training.

Elsewhere, Yvonne has expertly delivered workshops as part of a diversity mentoring programme for Women in Rail to increase the representation of women in senior roles across the sector, and at the BBC to address chronic under-representation of Black Asian and marginalised ethnic staff at senior grades.

As the interim Director of Group Equality and Inclusion, Yvonne helped Transport for London attain the Opportunity Now Gold standard for improvements in gender equality and  received the prestigious Women’s Transportation Award for her efforts. Yvonne also increased TfL’s position from 59th to 6th in the Stonewall LGBT Workforce Equality Index.

Talking about working on the Moving on Up programme, Yvonne says, “I am delighted to be a facilitator on the second MOU programme. I am renowned for my enthusiastic engaging style; creating spaces where people feel safe and comfortable to be themselves.”

For details on our Moving on Up programme, visit our MOU page.