Richard Pickard | CEO, Inclusive Search

“Equality, purpose and mission are important to me. I want to give back more than I take from life.

With 20+ years experience personally delivering exceptional international recruitment solutions, both on a contingent & retained search basis, within the Professional Services, Financial Services, eCommerce, SaaS sectors. Exciting and engaging teams with empathetic leadership, launching new business units for international recruitment organisations. Having served as a Board Director for 10+ years, I created a business with a clear purpose & mission to represent a broad talent pool of diverse candidates.

Inclusive Search works with clients who value, reward, respect & celebrate everyone’s diversity, and who wish to be proactive in recruiting, retaining & developing high-performing diverse talent. There is an overwhelming business case for gender equality, with approximately 70% of candidates indicating that an organisation’s commitment to DE&I is an important factor when choosing an employer. Businesses with diversity have a greater balance of voices enabling them to create innovative solutions and achieve better commercial results. Most successful companies now view equality, diversity & inclusion as essential to their business performance and growth. Also…surely it’s just the right thing to do.

I am actively involved in creating leadership dialogue around equity and allyship, and also advising & mentoring candidates.

I am the author of the ‘Exceptional Female Role Models’ interview series – championing the achievements and excellence of inspirational females trailblazing in business. I won the LinkedIn ‘Best Talent Voice, UK’ award for 2021. I was listed in the ‘Top 50 Trailblazers in Gender Equality 2021’. I was a winner of the ‘Men for Gender Balance Award’ in 2022, and a Finalist for the Allyship Award in 2023. I am also a Forward Ladies Advocate for Change in Gender Equality.”