Joanne Lockwood is an inspirational transgender woman, passionate about championing transgender awareness, diversity and inclusion. A specialist in inclusion and belonging, Joanne has founded her own company with the vision to make the world a more equal, inclusive and diverse place. Now booked for a range of corporate events, Joanne is sought to deliver keynotes and workshops on diversity and inclusion, specifically touching on culture change, employee engagement and experience.
Widely regarded as an authority on the subjects of diversity and inclusion, Joanne is the founder and CEO of SEE Change Happen. SEE Change Happen is a consulting firm that focuses on diversity, inclusion and equality, providing advice on such topics to both employers and employees. Also an Advisory Friend of the Institute of Equality & Diversity Professionals, Joanne is renowned for her work with policies for the inclusion of the LGBT+ community and believes that no matter who you are, you deserve to be treated with respect.
From a young age, Joanne felt as though she had been born in the wrong body. Despite these feelings, Joanne hid her true identity and lived for many years as a male. After getting married and having children, Joanne plucked up the courage to tell her wife the way she truly felt inside and successfully transitioned to female in 2017. Since transitioning, Joanne has left behind her 34-year career in IT to become a speaker and found her own business. Joanne is also currently a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce and a Subject Matter Expert at the School of Health Sciences, located at Southampton University.
Working to the mantra of ‘Smile, Engage and Educate’, Joanne has built a reputation as a leading transgender, diversity and inclusion advocate, something that allowed her to contribute to The Making of Me programme on Channel 4. Also a supporter of the charity Chrysalis, who work to the motto of Gender Identity Matters, Joanne is shaping the future into a more equal and inclusive one for all. A member of the Rotary Club and The Professional Speaking Association, Joanne is a seasoned speaker and the perfect choice to have a transformative impact on all audience members in attendance.
How to hire Joanne Lockwood
Contact the Champions Speakers Agency to provisionally enquire about hiring Joanne Lockwood for your next event, today. To get in touch, simply call an official booking agent on 0207 1010 553 or email us at [email protected] for more information.
** We do not accept requests for autographs, signed merchandise, fan mail, birthday messages or any other non-commercial contact with the speakers or acts. Each speaker on the website may not have necessarily worked with Champions in the past but are known to perform such engagements within the industry.
Joanne's official speaking topics are listed below:
- Culture change
- Employee engagement and experience
- Building an inclusive employee lifecycle
Official Feedback from In-Person & Virtual Events
Feedback from In-Person Events:
"It was a great session with a lot of engagement and positive feedback from staff. Joanne was great, very down to earth, honest, open and just the right amount of challenge and humour" - Sarah, Inclusion & Diversity Director, Molson Coors
"Joanne has played a huge part in the execution of SBG’s first Inclusion strategy. A key focus for us in 2020 was devolving accountability to everyone in the organisation and we began with educating and supporting our Senior Leaders. Joanne delivered ‘Powerful Allyship’ and ‘Your Journey to Conscious Inclusion’ to our Heads of Department through to our Executive team. Her tone, style and expertise put our leaders at ease when discussing a complex and challenging topic and provided a safe space for our leaders to explore their own thoughts and experiences resulting in changed mind‐sets and positive actions. Joanne has also worked with us to deliver org‐wide educational initiatives, featuring on our internal ‘Let’s Talk About being LGBT’ panel where we faced into uncomfortable conversations on LGBT inclusion with an open floor for questions from the business. Not only have we had phenomenal feedback, our latest quarterly inclusion survey has shown clear quantitative progress on some of our inclusion measures indicating both our leadership team and line managers are taking positive and visible action on inclusion." - Holly, Inclusion & Engagement Lead, Sky Betting & Gaming
"Joanne joined the lululemon EMEA collective for an inclusion talk based in storytelling and how to be a better ally. Each attendee was blown away by the courage Joanne showed, she so powerfully told us about the difficulties she navigated in so many aspects of her life but with such passion to live into who she truly was. We learned new information about trans community and how to act as allies in the workplace. The conversation was engaging, impactful and provoked so much insight within our team. We have had outstanding feedback and it has allowed us to continue to find access point to discuss inclusive environments and how to create them in our work spaces. Thank you Joanne for your time and sharing your story with us." - Nicole, Lulumon Europe
"Jo is a true expert on inclusion. She's strategic and knowledgeable and has been incredibly supportive in helping us build towards a truly inclusive culture." - Katie, CC Group
"Joanne delivered an awareness session for colleagues which was both inspiring and thought provoking. Her no nonsense discussion of transgender issues, terminology and impact are I think, an absolute must for any business looking to engage colleagues on transgender and wider diversity and Inclusion matters. I am looking forward to identifying other opportunities to work with Joanne." - Jane, Aster Housing Group
"Joanne delivered a keynote speech at Talent Acquisition Live, Amsterdam in 2020. She is able to deliver a speech with her own unique experiences in her own special way. Joanne understands inclusion like no other and is able to talk about this with passion." - Bas, Talent Acquisition Professional
"Joanne has collaborated with us on a number of events and most recently at our Better Allies: Supporting LGBTQ+ colleagues at Work event. Joanne is a confident speaker and panelist with wide ranging experience and fantastic insight. She is able to adapt her style to the type of event she is speaking at, be it formal or informal. At our most recent event Joanne was skilled at answering audience questions and kept the audience fully engaged throughout the discussion." - Oliver, Head of Marketing & Events at BAME Recruitment
"We were honoured to have Joanne participate in Levi’s inaugural D&I day. Great communication skills and professionalism throughout. Planning the event with her was so easy - she just understood what we were trying to do. Her discussion was fearless and honest and thought-provoking and real - a moment that those attending will never forget and I know I learned much from. I really hope we can work together again. Thanks Joanne." - Ann, Levi Strauss & Co
"We had the pleasure of meeting Joanne when she came to HarperCollins to share her inspirational story. The story Joanne shared was very honest and moving. It really helped us to think about ways to support transgender and gender diverse individuals. I would definitely recommend Joanne as an inspirational speaker on transgender awareness and inclusion." - Chrystella, HarperCollins
"Jo Lockwood recently spoke at our Be The Difference Inclusion Event for almost 200+ MTC staff members at County Hall. Jo’s energy, passion, endurance and connection with the audience was beyond impressive. Her message was relatable and kept the audience’s attention for the entire presentation. She was the perfect choice for an influential speaker for our group. From the moment she came into the room to the moment she left the conference her focus was on our attendees and her professionalism did not go unnoticed. Our attendees left her presentation energised and excited about her message and her performance. We have already received a tremendous amount of positive feedback on Jo’s presentation." - Hend Halim, MTC
"I saw Joanne deliver a very thought-provoking and moving talk at Association. If you want to shake up your the recent annual conference of the Professional Speaking thinking about diversity and inclusion I would recommend that you book Joanne. Refreshing, challenging and inspiring." - Graham, Professional Speaking Association
"We asked Joanne to deliver an input at our Surrey and Sussex Mentoring CPD day 2019. Her presentation was incredibly well received by delegates, the positive feedback we received has been absolutely overwhelming. Joanne is personable, professional and has an incredible ability to share her story in an honest and informative way which encouraged delegates to open up and really listen to the important messages she was delivering. Joanne also provided a number of practical tools for attendees to take away and think about and equipped them with skills to be better mentors. It was a pleasure to liaise with Joanne from the start and we are already looking at ways to work together again as her presentation and messages were so impactive. Thank you very much Joanne!" - Cecilia, Sussex & Surrey Police
"I was fortunate enough to be able to listen to Joanne speak at a local CIPD event last week on supporting Transgender Awareness and Inclusion. It was such an inspiring event that was thought provoking, humbling, emotional and entertaining - all in an hour! There were so many points Joanne shared that really resonated with me and, I’ll be honest, I have been thinking about them a lot since the event. To my HR colleagues, if you are looking for someone to bring a fresh perspective on your people policies and embracing diversity, I would definitely recommend you have a chat with Joanne to see how she may be able to help you. Thank you Joanne for encouraging me to think differently about Inclusion and what this truly means." - Jo, CIPD
"We just had a wonderful session with Joanne! Please pass along our sincere thank you to her." - MiQ Digital
