Centrica named early adopter for disability inclusion scheme Generation Valuable

Charlane Robinson, Head of Communications, the Valuable 500

E: Charlane.Robinson@thevaluable500.com

Centrica has been named among the early adopters at the launch of ‘Generation Valuable’, a programme launched by The Valuable 500 that will serve as a unique leadership opportunity for people with disabilities to build the future of the corporate C-Suite, driving disability inclusion through systematic change and revolutionising the boardrooms of tomorrow.

Generation Valuable will identify and build a community of disabled talent who importantly share their experiences upward to inform the C-suite of today about how to make businesses more inclusive. Each participant will be paired with a mentor at C-Suite level within their organisation and will explore each of the Valuable 500’s transformation pillars over the course of a year. 

Generation Valuable will foster new perspectives, deepen understandings, cultivate growth and attack the challenges that rising disabled talent faces once they have achieved middle management. The first cohort will consist of 75 rising stars with at least 5 years of management experience, the announcement of which will coincide with International Day for Persons with Disabilities in December.

The first cohort will represent 15% of the Valuable 500 membership as it is estimated that there are 15% of people living with a disability worldwide.

Caroline Casey, Founder, the Valuable 500 commented, “The talent and the insight of the younger generation never fails to motivate me. This initiative proves that there is an array of disabled talent within businesses, and that they are more than capable of occupying positions of power and leadership. Enabling disabled talent to flourish and reach their full potential by shattering glass ceilings is a game changer. The Valuable 500 is striving to radically change the awful results of research conducted by Tortoise Media that found that ‘no FTSE company had a senior leader or above who identified as having a disability.’ We know that cannot possibly be true - the fact that no one is comfortable identifying as disabled is part of the systematic problem that Generation Valuable is aiming to dismantle.”

Chris O’Shea, Centrica CEO commented, “Diversity and Inclusion strategies don’t work when they’re led from the top by people who don’t understand what it means to be part of an underrepresented group – to be successful diverse voices and representation from across the organisation are needed. So, it’s hugely important to the way we operate at Centrica, and to me personally, that everybody has a voice and is heard.

“I’m excited and proud to be part of the ‘Generation Valuable’ Programme, in partnership with the Valuable 500. It’s truly a first-of-its-kind and will create development opportunities and elevate the voices of people who have disabilities, have lived experience, or care for someone with a disability."

Imogen Fletcher, co-chair of Centrica’s Divers-ability network, said, “The generation valuable mentoring scheme enhances and complements the work we are doing at Centrica towards our diversity and inclusion goals. Highlighting the voice of people in under-represented groups is important in order that we can better represent the communities we serve.”

The Valuable 500 has confirmed the first 27 members to join their first cohort. The complete list of early adopters includes:

• Alstom
• ATOS
• AXA Group
• Boston Consulting Group
• Centrica
• Channel 4
• Clifford Chance
• Coles Group
• Deloitte
• Enel
• EY
• Fidelity International
• HSBC
• ISS/AS
• ITV
• L’Oréal
• Macquarie Group
• Mahindra
• Nielsen
• MSD
• Omnicom Group
• P&G
• Reach PLC
• Roche
• Springer Nature
• TD Bank Group 
• Telefonica