MONDAY 21 APRIL - SUNDAY 27 APRIL 2025
Celebrating Lesbian Visibility Week at the
London Stock Exchange - New York
What a way to celebrate!
VENUE: London Stock Exchange, 28 Liberty Street, New York, NY 10005
DATE: Thursday 27 April 2023
An opportunity to celebrate Lesbian Visibility Week (24 April - 30 April 2023) hosted by London Stock Exchange in the heart of New York. Join our incredible speakers as they discuss the importance of lesbian visibility in todays society. This event is in partnership with GLAAD and DIVA.
14:00 Event opens: Networking
15:00 Keynote Speech: Sarah Kate Ellis - President and CEO of GLAAD
15:30 Panel discussion: Hosted by Linda Riley - Founder Lesbian Visibility Week and Publisher of DIVA magazine
Panelists include:
Nicola Butler - Owner and Managing Director of NoteWorthy
Iasia Brown - Producer at Xbox Game Studios Publishing
Julia Hoggett - CEO of London Stock Exchange Group
17:30 Panel Discussion: Hosted by Phyll Opoku Gyimah - Executive Director of Kaleidoscope Trust | Co-Founder of UK Black Pride
Panelists include:
Linda Riley - Founder Lesbian Visibility Week and Publisher of DIVA magazine
Darra Gordon - Deputy President and COO of GLAAD
Other panelists to be confirmed
18:30 - Closing Remarks - Julia Hoggett - CEO of London Stock Exchange Group
19:00: Event closes
This event is by invitation only, if you would like to attend please email linda@diva-magazine.com
Sarah Kate Ellis
President and CEO of GLAAD
In short order, Ellis refocused GLAAD’s crucial advocacy to accelerate acceptance of the LGBTQ community through a variety of compelling and effective initiatives, campaigns, and programs.
A powerful communicator, Ellis has used GLAAD’s position as the world’s leading media advocacy organization to demand fair and accurate coverage of the LGBTQ community. Ellis also commissioned GLAAD's annual Accelerating Acceptance report, providing a window into national sentiment towards the LGBTQ community. In 2018, Ellis launched the GLAAD Media Institute (GMI), which focuses on research into LGBTQ representation and acceptance, consulting on LGBTQ storylines in media and Hollywood, and training activists on LGBTQ media advocacy and storytelling that creates change. Over the past few years alone, the GLAAD Media Institute has trained over 10,000 people and consulted on hundreds of media projects. Ellis is also the Executive Producer of the GLAAD Media Awards, which is the most visible LGBTQ awards show in the world. The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBTQ community and ultimately raise the bar for LGBTQ inclusion across all forms of media.
Under her leadership, Ellis has evolved GLAAD from a media watchdog organization to one of the most powerful cultural change agents across industries. At a time when LGBTQ issues were being largely left out of the mainstream conversation, Ellis, GLAAD, One Iowa, and The Advocate co-hosted the first Presidential Candidate Forum on LGBTQ issues during the 2020 election cycle in September 2019. This was the first time an LGBTQ-focused Presidential forum had taken place since 2007. In December 2019, Ellis & GLAAD also worked through the media and behind-the-scenes with The Hallmark Channel to reinstate TV ads which were pulled from air for featuring a same-sex couple. In response to the unique and disproportionate challenges facing LGBTQ people during the pandemic, Ellis executive produced “Together in Pride: You are Not Alone,” a digital event which highlighted the LGBTQ response to COVID-19 and raised critical funds for local LGBTQ centers providing life-saving services.
Linda Riley
Founder of Lesbian Visibility Week and Publisher of DIVA magazine
Linda began her career in publishing over 20 years ago as joint publisher of both g3 and Out in the City magazine, and started working in diversity related events a decade later. She has become a powerhouse in the diversity and inclusion sector, starting initiatives such as the Global Diversity List, British and European Diversity Awards, the Pride Power List and many more.
Linda has been publisher of DIVA magazine, Europe’s leading brand for LGBTQI women and non binary people; she is the founder of Lesbian Visibility Week.
Linda is a former Board Director of US based LGBT campaign group GLAAD (2013 - 2019) and Patron of LGBT homelessness charity akt. Currently, she is a Patron of Diversity Role Models, a LGBT anti-bullying charity. Linda is also a House of Stonewall Golden Champion for Stonewall Housing.
In November 2017, Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, Dawn Butler MP, appointed Linda as the Opposition Labour Party’s LGBT Diversity Lead.
Linda won 'Trans Ally of the Year' at the Trans in the City Awards in 2021 and DIVA Magazine was awarded the 'Trans Inclusive Organisation of the Year' in 2022. She is also a former Stonewall Award winner and Business Icon of the Year from the Icon Awards 2017.
Phyll Opoku Gyimah
Executive Director of Kaleidoscope Trust | Co-Founder of UK Black Pride
Widely known as Lady Phyll, partly due to her decision to reject an MBE to protest Britain’s role in formulating anti-LGBTQ penal codes across its empire, Phyll has over 20 years of experience as an LGBT+ rights activist and anti-racism campaigner. She spent a decade advocating for the rights of workers within the largest civil service union as a lead negotiator on behalf of Civil Service workers.
Initially working as Head of Political Campaigns, she moved into the role of Head of Equality and Learning at Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Trade Union.
Phyll is the co-founder and nucleus of the award-winning celebration and protest that is UK Black Pride, Europes largest pride celebration for LGBT+ people of colour. A community builder and organiser, Phyll is also a columnist and a public speaker, with a focus on intersectional matters of race, gender, sexual orientation and class.
Darra Gordon
Deputy President and COO of GLAAD
Darra Gordon is a nonprofit executive who leads transformative business strategies and develops innovative solutions to move organizations forward. She has worked in the nonprofit field for over 20 years and dedicated her career to organizations that advance social justice.
Darra currently serves as the Deputy President and Chief Operating Officer at GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization. In these roles, Darra oversees the organization’s day-to-day operations including the Fundraising and Development, HR, IT and Finance departments. Darra joined GLAAD as COO in 2018 and developed the organization during a time of rapid growth which saw GLAAD more than double its annual operating budget and fundraising goals. She created GLAAD’s current three year strategic plan and expanded GLAAD’s capacity and programs centered in diversity, equity, and inclusion.
She previously spent over 15 years at Hetrick-Martin Institute (HMI), the nation’s oldest and largest LGBTQ youth service organization, where she achieved national expansion for the organization. Before HMI, Darra was at the Pearl Theatre Company, a classical repertory company, and at Literacy Inc. (LINC), an organization dedicated to helping children become stronger readers. Darra’s work has won her accolades, including the BMW Woman of Xcellence award, the Stonewall Honors for LGBTQ leadership, and the outstanding alumni award at her alma mater, Lycoming College.
Darra also currently serves as the Treasurer of the Board of Directors at Black Trans Femmes in the Arts (BTFA).
Darra received her MS in Nonprofit Management from the Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment at the New School University, and her BA in Philosophy and Psychology from Lycoming College in Pennsylvania.
Darra lives in Pelham, NY with her wife Nicole, their three children, and their two dogs, Jasper and Pepper.
Julia Hoggett
CEO of London Stock Exchange Group
Julia Hoggett joined LSE as CEO in April 2021. Previously, she was director of market oversight at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), overseeing the conduct of market participants. Julia joined the FCA as the head of wholesale banking supervision, responsible for the conduct supervision of the investment banking industry in the U.K.
Prior to this, Julia was at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as a managing director running various fixed income origination businesses in EMEA for bank liquidity, short-term funding and the green bond market. Julia was previously a board member and CEO of DEPFA ACS BANK in Ireland and ran the group’s global funding programme. She began her career at JPMorgan in debt capital markets focused first on emerging markets and then on the sovereign, supranational and agency sector.
Julia holds a degree in social and political sciences from Cambridge University and undertook a research scholarship at Kings College, Cambridge University, on public policy in East Africa. Julia was included in Financial News’ 100 Most Influential Women in Europe’s Financial Markets (2010, 2011, 2012 and 2021) and the OUTstanding Top 50 (2013) and Top 100 list (2014). Julia has also been an active speaker on diversity and inclusion in the City for two decades.
Nicola Butler
Owner and Managing Director of NoteWorthy
Originally from Cambridgeshire and with 25 years experience in managing high-end live events, Nicola is a true expert in her field and is ideally talented to lead the range of extraordinary experiences delivered by the NoteWorthy team.
Nicola’s clients benefit from her in-depth knowledge of the UK, Ireland, Paris and Normandy. She personally designs luxury travel itineraries, introducing guests to her friends and contacts, from going behind the scenes during Changing of the Guards through to helicoptering guests to private English estates and everything in between.
Her leading position in the travel industry as the go to travel specialist has seen her recognised by Travel + Leisure Magazine as an ‘A-Lister’ and Condé Nast Traveler Top ‘Travel Specialist for Great Britain & Ireland’ since 2014.
“Nicola’s clients are blown away by how personal NoteWorthy make their experiences and how tailored to their particular interests each are.”
NoteWorthy’s guests have generated £.5M per year to charities and organisations such as The Iveagh Trust, The Guards Museum through to her favoured charities covering dogs, mental health and conservation.
In September 2021, Nicola was instrumental in bringing together London’s preeminent five-star hotels and the capital’s most exclusive experiences to celebrate the re-opening of the UK from the Pandemic. 50 of the top US Travel Advisors enjoyed special access, private performances and a meeting with HRH Duke of Wessex, all in order to regenerate the tourism sector. View highlights of the weekend here.
Before joining NoteWorthy, Nic worked with the country’s finest venues and event providers, including the Athenaeum Hotel, Royal Ascot, RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Churchill War Rooms, the London 2012 Olympics and has arranged gigs for A-list musicians such as Rod Stewart.
Nicola became the proud owner of NoteWorthy in 2014.