Chris McCoy
Prior to working at VisitScotland Chris worked in the Oxford practice of Pearn Kandola, Business Psychologists as a consultant diversity specialist. Whilst at Pearn Kandola, she worked for a range of clients both in the public and private sector. She previously had a career in the Civil Service spanning 29 years, working in five government departments, including DWP, CSA and the Cabinet Office, and latterly was the Head of Diversity & Equality for Defra for 7 years.
Chris worked as Private Secretary (PS) to the then DWP Secretary of State Alistair Darling who had responsibility for Diversity & Equality within his portfolio, before being appointed as PS to the late Rt. Hon Robin Cook, Leader of the House of Commons. She has wide-ranging experience of working with colleagues in the Cabinet Office and the No 10 Policy Unit, in particular on the “Equalities Review”. Chris has extensive expertise in the field of diversity. She has designed and delivered diversity training and e-learning diversity material, and has been responsible for advising Ministers in DWP and Defra on diversity & equality issues. While at Defra, she delivered a diversity strategy for the department to support the Cabinet Office’s 10 point plan to increase diversity representation at senior level in the Civil Service. She also sat on the Women and Work Commission (WWC) working group chaired by Ruth Kelly. Chris designed an innovative mentoring project helping to increase the number of women being promoted into the Senior Civil Service, and this was used as an example of good practice within the WWC report.
Chris is a trained Equal Opportunities Investigator for the Civil Service and also a trained mediator, having worked in this area for 15 years she investigated Equal Opportunities complaints for DWP, CSA and Defra, as well as training HR managers in discrimination law. Chris was an active member of Defra’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) staff network, and was among one of the few senior managers who was “out” at work, and was the LGBT Board Champion for the Department.
Chris is now working as Equality & Diversity manager for VisitScotland, implementing a business focused diversity strategy enabling VisitScotland to meet it legal obligations and fulfill its corporate business objective of enhancing the visitor experience in Scotland. Chris’ most recent project, working in partnership with the Scottish Government’s Tourism team, is the Accessible Tourism Project.
