Two busy working mums have built and launched an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion start-up in their spare time while homeschooling their young families during the lockdown.

The Global Equality Collective (GEC) helps organisations break ground in gender equality, diversity and inclusion by combining their own data with a comprehensive framework and leadership training. The GEC has secured six-figure funding, developed an app and created an online community of 15k individuals all committed to equality in the workplace.

‘We started with gender equality – it was what we knew as females – and found that gender is still a main, core characteristic of us all,’ said Cat Wildman, co-founder of the Global Equality Collective. ‘From there, we explored the nine characteristics of The Equality Act (2010) – hence ‘Gender Equality and Inclusion’.’

Nic Ponsford, co-founder of the GEC added: ‘During our intensive research, the feedback from leaders was that they couldn’t tackle diversity and inclusion themselves because they didn’t feel like experts.

‘We turned this idea on its head. The GEC adds a solid layer of leadership training on top of their existing expertise, which enables them to look at the data we give them about their own specific situation and close gaps.’

Features and benefits of the GEC include:

• An affordable app with 2 simple check-box assessments and a suite of e-learning resources.
• A framework and leadership training that removes the need for external experts.
• 3-years of research with 3 leading UK universities.
• 100+ subject experts and 15K individuals in the GEC Collective.
• Empowers leaders with the information, data and education they need to break new ground.

For more information on the GEC App, visit thegec.org/app

About the Global Equality Collective (GEC):

Cat Wildman and Nic Ponsford met on Twitter in late 2017 with a mutual interest in achieving equality in the workplace. With Cat’s 15 years-experience in platform design and product development and Nic’s 20 years of knowledge of designing teacher and leadership training, they realised the need for a framework that businesses could use to achieve diversity, equality, and inclusion.

In their spare time, whilst working remotely and with three children each to care for, Nic and Cat founded a start-up, secured 6-figure funding, and built an online community of over 15k to launch an online app for Gender Equality and Inclusion.