GCD&I: New Chair, Vice Chair and Board Members

General Counsel for Diversity & Inclusion (GCD&I) is delighted to announce the appointment of a new Chair, Vice Chair and Board members.

Richard Price, Legal and Corporate Affairs Director at Anglo American, takes over as Chair from Donny Ching, former Legal Director at Shell.

We would like to take the opportunity to express a huge thank you to Donny for his leadership over the last couple of years. Donny will continue as a member of the GCD&I Board.

Caroline Cox, Chief Legal Governance and External Affairs Officer at BHP, is also taking on a new role as Vice Chair of the initiative.

Both Richard and Caroline are founding members of the GCD&I and have been actively involved in driving the initiative forward since its inception.

We are delighted to confirm also that the following Signatories will be joining the Board in addition to our existing Board members:

• Raj Roy, General Counsel and Company Secretary, Centrica
• Anne-Marie Poliquin, EVP Legal & Compliance, Pernod Ricard
• Louise Waldek, Chief Legal & Risk Officer, and Company Secretary, IMI

Richard Price, the new Chair of GCD&I said: “I am delighted to build on my contribution to the GCD&I as the newly appointed Chair. I look forward to advancing the important work we do to drive meaningful and positive change across the legal profession. I would also like to thank Donny for his leadership and commitment during his time as Chair and look forward to his continued participation on the GCD&I Board. Finally, congratulations to Caroline Cox who is taking on a new role as Vice Chair. I look forward to continuing to work alongside Caroline as we welcome our new Board members Raj Roy, Anne-Marie Poliquin and Louise Waldek.”

Caroline Cox, the new Vice Chair said: “It is an honour to continue on this Board and to play a part in the GCD&I’s work to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in the legal profession. Through partnership and collaboration we can drive change for a better future in which everyone – no matter their gender, background or identity – are free from discrimination and have access to opportunity.  Congratulations to Richard, Raj, Anne-Marie and Louise on their appointments and a big thank you to Donny for his leadership and contribution to the initiative as Chair for the last two years.”

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Background to GCD&I

• General Counsel for Diversity and Inclusion (GCD&I) is an initiative which is owned and led by General Counsel and the In-House Community.
• The General Counsel Statement in Support of Diversity and Inclusion was launched in early 2019, driven by General Counsel in the largest companies in Europe. There are currently over 130 signatories from a broad spectrum of companies and jurisdictions.
• The Objective of GCD&I is to promote Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion across the legal sector, including through defining and sharing best practice, identifying KPIs and Metrics to measure success, and encouraging in-house legal teams to take steps which support greater DE&I within legal firms.
• GCD&I is committed to a collaborative model to drive change and is inviting law firms, executive search firms and others in the legal ecosystem to partner with the initiative.
• The intention is also to work with other diversity programmes in the legal sector to generate greater impact and avoid duplicating efforts.

Goals and initiatives

• We are committed to achieving greater diversity, equity and inclusion in the
• This applies within our organisations and in-house legal teams, as well as our law
• We recognise that we have a role to play in supporting and facilitating improved diversity within our law firms. Simple decisions we make, from who we call when we have a new matter to how we resource matters, can facilitate change, or conversely add to the
• We want to work collaboratively with our law firms on this initiative – for example, sharing lessons of what has worked and what hasn’t in our own organisations, and identify systemic issues hindering progress and new ways of working together that can address
• By partnering with our law firms and others in the legal ecosystem, we believe we can drive a faster pace of change towards improved DE&I.

 GCD&I Board

• Richard Price, General Counsel and Company Secretary, Anglo American (Chair)
• Caroline Cox, Chief Legal, Governance & External Affairs Officer, BHP (Vice Chair)
• Maaike de Bie, Group General Counsel and Company Secretary, Vodafone
• Donny Ching, formerly Legal Director, Shell
• Nassib Abou-Khalil, formerly Chief Legal Officer, Nokia
• Matthew Lepore, Group General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, BASF
• Tom Shropshire, General Counsel and Company Secretary, Diageo
• Anne-Marie Poliquin, Group General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer, Pernod Ricard
• Raj Roy, General Counsel and Company Secretary, Centrica
• Louise Waldek, Chief Legal & Risk Officer, and Company Secretary, IMI

For more background to GCD&I and a list of signatories to the initiative see:  www.gcdandi.com

Enquires to Mary Mullally, Secretary, GCD&I: here