- Zoe Adjonyoh – Co-Founder of Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen (Chef at Zoe's Ghana Kitchen and author of Zoe's Ghana Kitchen Cookbook)
- Pierre Gaubert – Co-Founder of myGwork (a network for LGBT+ professionals and graduates)
- Christania – Chief-in-Editor of AZ Magazine (a platform for QTIBPOC to showcase their talents)
- Lukasz Konieczka – Co-Founder and Executive Director at Mosaic LGBT+ Young Persons’ Trust (a charity providing activities, programmes and services to empower LGBT+ youth)
- Christopher Clegg – Founder and Creative Director at TuckShop Productions Ltd (a drag management and production company)
Join us at the Generator on Wednesday 24th February at 4pm as we celebrate LGBT+ History Month for the first time! We are hosting a Panel event with 5 fantastic LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs.
These amazing 5 panellists will be joining us to talk about their own experience when setting up their enterprise, the debate on 'the Pink Pound' and LGBTQ+ business issues, culture and history.
To register for this event, please see the link at the end of this article.
Meet your panellists!
Lukasz Konieczka
Lukasz studied social work and psychology before he came to UK in 2006 however, his social work qualification wasn’t recognised in UK, so he took up a position of Head of Activities in a nursing home. Soon he realised however that he was drawn to work with his own community, so he applied for a position for a project manager of Mosaic Project in Brent Council’s Youth Services.
Lukasz requalified into youth work and stayed in post until 2016 when he was made redundant due to central government cuts. He decided to set up Mosaic as a charity: Mosaic LGBT Youth Centre which rebranded to Mosaic LGBT+ Young Persons’ Trust in 2020.
It’s now the biggest LGBT+ young person’s organisation in London delivering outstanding services to young LGBT+ community that aim to support, educate and inspire young persons and those around them. Mosaic Trust won Ben Cohen’s Stand-Up Foundation Charity of the Year 2019 Award as well as ‘Future Activists’ Award from Pride in London.
Mosaic Trusts provides accessible activities, programmes and services that aim to empower community members, provide essential resources, advocate for young LGBT+ rights, and embrace, promote and endorse the diversity of young persons.
To find out more about Mosaic Trust, please click here.
Christania
Christania is the Editor-in-Chief of AZ Magazine, a publication for LGBTQ+ Black and PoC people. She was also the host of Qmmunity Season 1 - a podcast exploring what it means to be LGBTQ+.
Within the LGBTQ+ community, Black people and people of colour (QTIBPOC), QTIBPOC are often under-represented and in many cases not represented at all. AZ Magazine wanted to create a platform that not only allows QTIBPOC to showcase their talents, but also allows us to address the issues that we face in our communities. In 2015, AZ Magazine was created as an answer to this and our aim is to create a voice for those who have felt excluded from the wider LGBTQ+ community.
To find out more about AZ Magazine, please click here.
Pierre Gaubert
Pierre Gaubert is the co-founder and CEO at myGwork -The Business Community for LGBT+ professionals, graduates, inclusive employers and anyone who believes in workplace equality.
Pierre is from the South of France; he holds a bachelor’s degree in Law from Lyon II University and a master’s in management from The London School of Economics. Pierre co-founded myGwork together with his twin brother after Pierre suffered homophobic comments during his first job.
myGwork wants to empower the LGBT+ community by offering our individual members a safe space where they can connect with inclusive employers, find jobs, mentors, professional events and news.
myGwork is an award-winning company. Its’ founders won the Attitude Award Young LGBT+ Entrepreneur of the Year and the organisation was listed in the Top 5 startups with Pride by Geek Times.
To find out more about myGwork, please click here.
Zoe Adjonyoh
Zoe Adjonyoh is on a mission to bring African food to the masses. She was named one of “London’s hottest chefs” by Time Out and most recently has been included as one of ‘The 44 Best Female Chefs in the World’ by Hachette Cuisine France. Along with her world-renowned supper clubs, Zoe launched the UK’s first contemporary West African casual dining restaurant in Brixton in 2015-2018. Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen is the epitome of social, relaxed and affordable dining – where guests gather to enjoy Ghanaian favourites, notable for their heartiness and spice, alongside Zoe’s contemporary West African creations. In 2020 Zoe is launching her latest food concept ‘Sankofa’ with her wife Sara Held. We have played with modern West African Cuisine and adapted and influenced how and what people consider Ghanaian and West African food to be, making tiny footprints on the road to an African Food Revolution. Zoe’s stunning debut cookbook “Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen” is published by Octopus Books and is OUT NOW!
As a mixed-race, Black lesbian from a working-class immigrant background who works at the intersections of food, culture, identity, and politics, Zoe is driven to create change in the food landscape.
Zoe hopes for an equal balance in the representation of global cuisines. She wants to see Jollof as readily accessible as ‘Curry’ in supermarkets and in the minds of diners. Africa remains the final frontier in relatively unexplored gastronomy, and she continues to push innovation in this area through her R&D Consultancy & Private Dining Concept, Sankofa.
Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen is a social impact business and as they grow, at least 50% of their workforce will be from marginalised communities, and they aim to send 10% of our gross profits from the online shop to causes we care about, such as BLM.
To find out more about Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen, and to visit her online shop, please click here.
Christopher Clegg
Headed up by West End theatre producer Christopher D. Clegg, TUCKSHOP is an entertainment company like no other.
They are the UK’s ONLY Drag management and production company and have made a huge impact on the entertainment scene in a very short time. TUCKSHOP work in large scale theatre production, club and event promotion, running, tours, TV Production, merchandising and artist representation all centred around the ever-expanding commercial world of DRAG.
With the huge rise in drag popularity over the last ten years, TUCKSHOP is at the forefront of UK Drag culture, originating in bars and clubs around London and coming hot off the heels of Chris's fifteen years’ experience in the West End as a producer, theatre manager, and marketing expert, and as a drag performer himself!
TUCKSHOP have produced DEATHDROP on the West End, with superstars Courtney Act and Monet X Change, Gals Aloud in sold out engagements in London and on a UK Tour, run regular nights in bars across London, started #TheCrown to search for new drag talent, have two TV projects in development, and so much more in just two short years...and this is only the beginning!
To find out more about TUCKSHOP, please click here.
