our people

Christopher Coore
National and ethnic origin British / English / Caribbean

I started my career in London, in 1987, training to become a nurse. After completing my basic professional qualifications I went on to specialize in two areas of medicine: both technical areas: cardiology and accident and emergency. My interest in nursing also led me to Saudia Arabia where I worked for two years running an accident and emergency department.

During my time in London I spent two years studying law at the Centre of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). I continued to develop my interest in the wider business of the healthcare industry and joined the pharmaceutical industry. Working for two different companies, I put my practical expertise to good use, working in business development and training.

However, throughout my career as a nurse in the NHS and as a business executive in the pharmaceutical industry, it has been clear to me that diversity and equality is often overlooked, ignored or misunderstood as an opportunity for individuals and organizations to grow and develop.

In 2002 I set up Cymbiosis Consultancy Ltd. Cymbiosis Consultancy has developed and become a successful and innovative company. I am committed to the ethical increased development of Cymbiosis Consultancy. This is reflected in the ethics which underpin the principles of participatory action research. This is our preferred approach to the embedding of diversity and equality values within any organization, and much of our experience of participatory action research has come from implementing organizational change as part of an integrated approach to their sustainable development.

Rosie Rutherford
National and ethnic origin: British/ Scottish

I completed my honours law degree at Edinburgh University in 1982. After completing my degree I went on to join the Bank of Scotland on their graduate programme then after completing my exams I moved into the business world, swiftly followed by the parenting world! On returning to work I stayed in the commercial sector and worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 14 years, in sales, marketing and training for a variety of companies.

The challenges and opportunities of diversity and equality within the corporate world and health inequalities within the healthcare environment, have always been apparent in all the roles that I have delivered in.

This motivated me to find an alternative way to developing the opportunities, and managing the challenges which diversity and equality present for corporations, public services and the individual. I began working for Cymbiosis in early 2005.

Rosemary Crawley 
National and Ethnic Origin – British/ English/ African American.

I reached adulthood in the 1960s after growing up as a black (mixed-race) child in a white English family and community. It was the time when immigration from the Caribbean was reaching its peak and immigration from the Indian sub-continent was continuing to develop. Bangladesh was still East Pakistan and Idi Amin had yet to expel Ugandan Asians. My early career was as a nurse and midwife, first in Oxford and then in Birmingham. Youth and optimism made it an exciting and hopeful epoch when it was still possible to imagine a diverse but cohesive society in which people of so many different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds could be equally valued and equally treated. Of course I am describing it using twenty-first century language in which words like diverse and cohesive are common currency although they were never heard back in the ‘60s. I am not sure what words I would have used then, but knew that I felt distinctly uncomfortable with the ‘melting-pot‘ philosophy which was the basis of ‘the flower people‘s‘ view of the future.

Then came Enoch Powell, the Smethwick by-election, rising unemployment and social and economic inequality in which race and ethnicity began to be identified as significant factors. During these years and still in Birmingham I switched careers to the social housing sector, specialising in housing and support for single parents, many of whom came from African Caribbean or mixed race backgrounds. It was the 1970s and 80s and despite growing divisions, there was still a good deal of hope and optimism around for the development of vibrant multi-ethnic and multicultural communities. After all, look what was happening in the USA. Civil Rights had been achieved, the philosophy and practice of affirmative action was developing and the message that ‘black is beautiful‘ reached out across the world.

Yet still things did not get much better. Yes, more and more black and Asian people were achieving success within the approved White Eurocentric model, but still there was an expanding litany of difficulties. Some ethnic groups were not doing so well in education, others were experiencing high levels of ill health, both mental and physical, young black men‘s involvement within the criminal justice system escalated and so on. I became increasingly concerned about what was happening around me and how it would impact on the future for the new generation of British born black and mixed race young people including my own three sons. Eventually, whilst studying for a Masters‘ Degree in Social Science at Birmingham University I made my third career move, this time into the field of equality and diversity. My involvement here has moved through training and development to research and commentary and that is where I find myself now. I am able to look back over those years from a perspective of experience and some understanding, but still continuing to learn and work with evolving dilemmas and philosophies.