British LGBT Awards: Out shadow business secretary Angela Eagle praises nominated businesses

Openly gay shadow business secretary Angela Eagle has praised the commitment to diversity by the top LGBTQ+ businesses shortlisted for British LGBT Awards.

Eagle said the nominated businesses and corporate individuals contributed to a more diverse City and helped boost opportunities for LGBT employees. The British LGBT Awards will take place on 13 May and celebrate celebrities, sports personalities and businesses who work towards a more accepting society.

"The British LGBT Awards shine a light on the individuals and companies who are doing great things to promote diversity and show that being lesbian, gay or bisexual is not a barrier to success," Eagle said. "Many of those shortlisted have demonstrated a track record of promoting equality and diversity in the workplace. I congratulate all of those on the shortlist and look forward to meeting the winners on 13 May."

Gay and straight celebrities including Adele, Zayn Malik, Stephen Fry, Sam Smith and many others have been nominated this year, and the organisation announced many UK businesses shortlisted in the categories corporate straight ally, employer of the year, corporate rising star, inspirational role model and network group.

Banks such as Barclays and JP Morgan as well as financial institutions PwC and KPMG are among the shortlisted LGBT businesses and individuals.

CORPORATE STRAIGHT ALLY

Paul Polman, Unilever

Lisa Crawley, Worldpay

Aongus Hegarty, Dell

Kevin Ellis, PwC

Penny Mordaunt, Minister for the Armed Forces

Vincent Neate, KPMG

Simon Eaves, Accenture

General James Everard, British Army

Rt Hon. the Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC MP, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations, UK Parliament

Martin Coyd OBE, Lendlease

EMPLOYER OF THE YEAR

Barclays

Accenture

Clifford Chance

Virgin Companies

ASDA

Goldman Sachs

IBM

CITI

CORPORATE RISING STAR

Sarah Fennell, HSBC

Rafael Campos Valdez, TSB

Alessandro Commisso, Lush

Aritha Wickramasinghe, K&L Gates

Andrew Barratt, Unilever (Former Ogilvy)

Matt Scarff, ITV

Caroline Shrader, Fujitsu

Christopher Moody, BP

Morgana Bailey, State Street Corporation

INSPIRATIONAL ROLE MODEL

Kevin Dallas, Worldpay

Geoff Godwin, AIG

Lee Marshall, Church of England

Amy Stanning, Barclays

Richard Beaven, Swinton Insurance

Flight Lieutenant Ayla Holdom, RAF

Marianne Roling, Microsoft

Mark Anderson, Virgin Holidays

Simon Blake, NUS

Susan Silbermann, Pfizer

Gavin Wills, CEO Goldman Sachs

NETWORK GROUP

J.P. Morgan PRIDE UK Business Resource Group (BRG), JP Morgan

Rainbow Network, Lloyds banking group

Out at Tesco, Tesco

YJLL, JLL

LGBT Pride Employee network, UBS

FLAGG, FCO's LGBT Staff Network, FCO

Bloomberg

TFL, TFL

Pride At Work, Thomson Reuters

Archway, Network Rail

GLEE, PWC