Rob O’Neil OBE | Director, Krystal Alliance
Rob was born in Paddington, London [UK] and grew up in the Borough of Brent. Rob joined the Ministry of Justice [[MoJ] – then Lord Chancellors Department [LCD] – in Oct 1983 – starting at Willesden County Court in North London.
Rob progressed to Deputy Court Manager before joining the MoJ’s South Eastern I.T. Team. In 1998 Rob landed his dream job with MoJ’s Corporate HR as a Development Trainer. Rob studied L&D at the Civil Service College for two years, gaining a Certificate in Training Practice [CTP] as a member of CIPD and is now an accredited Cultural Intelligence [CQ] facilitator.
Rob was a founding member of the MoJ’s BAME Staff network in 2001, namely P.R.O.U.D. Later in that same year, Rob became the first elected Chair of the Civil Service Race Equality Network [CSREN] – known today as CSRF – the Civil Service Race Forum.
Rob progressed his civil service career at the MoJ in HR and as a founding member of the MoJ’s Employee Engagement Team he led the design, recruitment and launch of the pioneering Engagement Champions Network in 2008. Rob was responsible for the development of Employee Engagement Champions [EECs] across the MoJ which he grew to over x1000 people across the entire MoJ’s; Courts, Tribunals and Legal Aid Agency, before working with other Govn’t departments to introduce their EEC’s, notably; HMRC, DWP and MoD.
In the summer of 2015 Rob led the MoJ’s Diversity & Inclusion Team where he led the delivery of key priorities, including the Department’s response to the Civil Service Talent Action Plan [T.A.P.] and renegotiating contracts with all Diversity Staff Networks.
In April 2016 Rob was included in the ‘New View 50’ which recognises influential Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) professionals in the public sector. In May 2016 Rob was chosen to lead the MoJ’s Race Project – an inward facing programme of work aimed at supporting the MoJ’s published Diversity & Inclusion objectives and progressing race equality.
In September 2016 Rob was elected Chair of the Civil Service Race Forum an umbrella network of BAME Staff Networks across the civil service. Rob led the expansion of CSRF to include 30+ Government departments, connecting 6,000+ minority ethnic civil servants across all levels. Rob ended his tenure as Chair of CSRF in 2018 and continues to support the CSRF as an external advisor. Rob chaired the MoJ’s Diverse Leaders Taskforce in support of the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy until March 2019 and after 36yrs with the MoJ departed in April 2019 to support the Department for Education [DfE] with Embedding Culture Change.
Rob has been a Trustee with RELATE for twelve years and also volunteers as the Social Media Director with the Reach Society @ReachSociety10
Rob was awarded an OBE in the 2018 New Year’s Honours list for his ‘Services to Race Equality in the workplace and the community’ and received his gong from the late Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in May 2018. Rob was also the inaugural winner of Investing in Ethnicity’s Workplace Hero Award in Nov 2018.
After two years at the DfE as Head of Culture Change and a total of 38yrs with the civil service, Rob departed the public sector to launch his own consultancy Krystal Alliance [KA] supporting organisations across all sectors to be more inclusive.
In October 2021 Rob was included in HR Magazine’s list of ’50 Most Influential Thinkers’ and in June 2022 Rob made the d&I Leaders 425+ international ‘Inspirational Leaders’ list.
Later in 2022 Rob co-wrote his first book ‘The Key to Inclusion’ – published by Kogan Page.