Diversity and Ability

Diversity and Ability was a social enterprise founded in 2011, operating as a UK limited company pledged to use profits to further its social mission of supporting disabled people. The company provided one-to-one support sessions for disabled students at UK universities and later expanded into disability consultancy services.

I joined as a founding member and quickly established myself as IT Director, a role that encompassed two distinct but complementary responsibilities: infrastructure management and software engineering leadership.

Infrastructure and Operations

As IT Director, I was responsible for the complete technical infrastructure supporting the organisation. This included maintaining reliable email systems, ensuring our WordPress website remained operational, and managing hardware provisioning for all staff members. I successfully guided the company through Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation, demonstrating our commitment to robust cybersecurity practices.

Software Engineering Team Leadership

For many years, I was the sole software engineer, personally developing internal tools and customer-facing solutions. As the company grew, I built and led a dedicated software engineering team responsible for creating both internal productivity tools and B2C SaaS products. Our key developments included AXS Passport and Pistachio, which served our expanding client base.

Data Protection Excellence

Given the sensitive nature of our data, extensive personal and special category information relating to physical and mental health, I recognised the critical importance of highest standards of data protection practices. I initially qualified as a Data Protection Officer under the previous Data Protection Act, ensuring compliance from the earliest stages of the company’s growth.

With the introduction of GDPR, I recruited and built a specialist data protection team to handle the increased regulatory requirements. Whilst GDPR prevented me from continuing as DPO due to my director role, I continued to lead this team, maintaining our gold-standard compliance approach. This proactive stance on data protection was essential given the highly sensitive nature of the personal data we processed.