Shelley Green

Qualifications include: Applied Human Communication Degree, Manchester Metropolitan University; Diversity and Inclusion Management, Cásper Líbero University- Brazil; Measuring Social Impact and Sales & Negotiating, London School of Social Entrepreneurs; Introduction to Nonviolent Communication, Brazilian Institute of NVC.

Experience: A descendant of Jewish Lithuanian refugees, Shelley grew up absorbing the influence of her mother’s tireless dedication to working with Holocaust survivors at the Association for Jewish Refugees. The first 10 years of Shelley’s career were spent in the dynamic and high-pressure marketing and communications industry in the UK, with leading brands such as Experian, Orange and ITV Digital. She also had 5 minutes of Dragons Den fame when jointly setting up a start-up health drink business “Green & Kerley’s Açai”.

However, Shelley eventually grew disillusioned with the rat race and wanted a change. She decided to move to Brazil, the world’s 8th most socially unequal country. Adapting to a new life in Salvador in the north-eastern state of Bahia in Brazil was completely transformative for Shelley. Whilst providing tuition and translation services to often high profile private and public sector clients, she also began working on a variety of local social and cultural projects. Her first-hand experiences of conservatism, patriarchy and racism in Brazil, coupled with her family background made D&I a very natural area for her career progression. Since her move to Salvador Shelley has gained wide experience of working across cultures, in complex and challenging environments, where racism, sexism and homophobia are prevalent, bias is explicit and microaggressions are frequent. This has given Shelley a deeper understanding of social inequality, racism, cultural awareness, privilege, hidden power dynamics and microaggressions. Her commitment to drive the transformational processes of making organisations more representative and inclusive is supported by her belief in people and their capacity for positive change.

In addition to designing and delivering D&I workshops, Shelley also works with diversity data mapping tools, and through her extensive global network of D&I professionals, Shelley also helps organisations find experts with the right skills and experience to help them with their D&I assessment, strategy and training needs.