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I've said many times I'm just lucky
that, first, I live in a country
and I work for a company that allows me
to be honest about being gay, being Portuguese, being bald.
I'm Antonio Simoes.
I'm the Head of the UK Bank and Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management
for the rest of Europe.
I'm also the Chair of the UK Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
Brian, good morning. Hi. Antonio.
I wanted to meet you after the Shine Awards.
Hi. How are you? Good morning. Hello. Good morning. How are you?
I'm very passionate about diversity and inclusion.
We should allow everybody to be the best they can be.
We need to create an inclusive environment where they can be the best.
It's about meritocracy.
The idea is, regardless of your gender, of your race, of your creed,
you should be allowed to be the best you can and be rewarded for good work.
Caroline's one of my business specialists.
Also gone through a lot of change this year as well.
I've been lucky in my career
that I've never felt discriminated in any way.
So, as an out gay man, I've always been very welcomed
and I've always been allowed to be the best I can in my job.
Having said that, every now and then,
I get the "What does the wife do?" question
and I need to say, "Actually, my husband does so and so."
Over time I've said, "Enough of that."
Now I say, "My husband will kill me if I don't go home in time for dinner."
So, people kind of get that into their minds.
The important message is that you should just not assume something about someone.
I'm visiting Oxford, I'm keen
to see both the Commercial teams and the Retail teams.
It's important to look at connectivity between the different businesses.
Hi. Nice to meet you.
It feels like a wedding! I'm actually saying hi to everybody!
- Hi. - Hello.
I've always been very open about my partner; my husband and my life,
but I've never made a big deal out of it
and I haven't been that visible
and more recently I've felt that I have a responsibility to be visible
because I lead 50,000 people across the business
and it's important for them to know that I'm comfortable
about myself as an individual.
I'll give more of a UK perspective. Chris will give a global perspective.
A lot of gay men choose not to be out in society,
but if they do choose to be out,
we should allow them as a company to feel good in the company
and to perform to the best of their abilities.
Some familiar faces. Hi.
Hi. How are you?
I fundamentally think that diversity is a good thing,
but the case for it is overwhelming.
Think about it externally.
If we promote the best people,
they will be able to serve our customers better
and that's how we should think about this.
Our customers themselves are diverse.
We're in 80 countries,
we have 54-million customers,
we have eight official languages,
so we are diverse as a bank.
If we are going to be the world's leading international bank,
the agenda of diversity and inclusion
needs to be a key part of what we do.