Simon Fanshawe OBEBroadcaster, presenter, speaker, consultant and non-executive director.

Simon Fanshawe OBE is a diversity consultant, broadcaster and author. He is the co-founder of Diversity by Design which supports organisations to truly diversify their senior people.

He is currently on the Board of Powerful Women, is Chairman of Hexagon Housing Association and the current Rector of Edinburgh University.

He was previously Chairman of Sussex University, a non-exec director of Housing & Care 21, a Governor of the Museum of London and on the Board of Brighton Dome & Festival.

He has long been involved in campaigns for equality and positive social change and has served on the Board of companies and organisations in the private and charity sectors for over thirty-five years.

He was a one of the six co-founders of Stonewall and of the Kaleidoscope Trust.

His latest book “The Power of Difference” was published in December 2021 by Kogan Page.  It is the Chartered Institute Management’s Book of 2023. He was voted the second Most Influential Thinker in 2022 by HR Magazine and inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2023. 

In 2024 he co-authored (with Matilda Gosling) the report “Flying Flags and Ticking Boxes. What Went Wrong With EDI. And How Leaders Can Fix It”

He was awarded an OBE in 2013 for services to Higher Education and made an Honorary Doctor of the University of Sussex for services to diversity and human rights.

He lives in Brighton with his husband and they have neither children nor dogs. When not celebrating difference, he is cooking.