For the past three years, OVO Energy has partnered with the Aleto Foundation, working together to create opportunities for young people from underrepresented backgrounds.
At the heart of this partnership is Alessandro 'Alex' Storer, Head of Inclusion & Belonging at OVO Energy. With a rich career spanning human rights law, diplomacy, and diversity initiatives, Alex leads OVO's mission to foster a truly inclusive environment.
In this Q&A, he reflects on his career, the challenges in the field of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the meaningful impact of OVO’s collaboration with Aleto.
The interview provides insight into how OVO is actively working to make diversity and inclusion a core part of its culture while highlighting success stories from the partnership with Aleto.
Read the Q&A below to discover how this partnership has not only changed lives but also continues to shape the future of the energy industry.
Tell us about your career journey and current role as Head of Inclusion & Belonging at OVO.
My journey started somewhat outside the "traditional" D&I space: After studying international and human rights law, I started my career as a diplomat. My drive was a deep desire to make the world a little bit more just and fairer, especially for those who experience oppression and marginalisation. Then I realised that I could affect more visible change if I operated at a smaller scale, so, instead of trying to change the world, I decided I would change workplaces, in the hope that exposing more people to conversations about fairness, equity and justice would have a positive effect on how they chose to behave outside of work too. And just like that, after years working on human rights projects in Jerusalem, Brussels and Tunisia, I moved to London in 2012 and got my first role as an in-house "D&I" function (we called it Equality Improvement) at Mind, the mental health charity. I then moved to the Law Society, opened my consultancy, and eventually decided to join OVO on their exciting journey to make zero carbon living possible for everyone (and I make sure when we say "everyone" we mean that!) My role as 'Head of Inclusion and Belonging' is very varied. At its core, it's about supporting meaningful initiatives with our people to build a true sense of belonging. These can range from co-creating better, more inclusive recruitment processes to delivering training, organising events to celebrate our diverse communities, and producing content to keep us all engaged. But what I love most is the relationships we build with external partners that help us accelerate our impact. And, of course, the Aleto Foundation is one of my favourites!
What do you see as the biggest current challenge in diversity, equity and inclusion?
There are many. Media backlash is one of them. Headlines like "DEI must DIE" have sparked very toxic conversations and pushed some companies to dial down their efforts for fear of being criticised as "woke". I know this can be a sensitive topic but we must face it and have honest dialogue in the workplace. Ultimately, for me, the focus has to be on creating spaces where everyone can thrive, and to do that, we must look at each colleague as an individual; we must understand their lived experience, identity, needs, and expectations. That is a very hard thing to do, especially in big companies. For me, this speaks to the "inclusion" bit of the equation, and it can be the way to address the backlash because DEI means everyone. The other challenge is that many business leaders can be impatient and only focus on short-term results, especially around diversity representation (e.g. increased % of women or ethnic minorities in the company), and completely fail to understand the longer-term systemic changes needed. Because of this, the D&I team are often asked to focus on things like recruitment, when they should be focusing on wider cultural and behavioural change.
Tell us the reasons why OVO decided to work with Aleto.
When we started to structure our Belonging strategy four years ago, it became clear that our community wasn't as diverse as it needed to be, especially around ethnicity, particularly when it came to Black representation. We did a lot of desk research at the time to look at external partners who could help us address this issue by authentically connecting us with ethnically diverse young people and inspiring them to consider a career with us. Aleto Foundation was head and shoulders above the rest, not only because of its proven track record but especially because Aleto's leadership team truly reflects the communities we wanted to reach.
Our partnership has now been running for 3 years - are there any success stories or programme highlights you would be willing to share?
Of course, our biggest success stories are Sam and Soore. Two amazing young people who came through one of our Aleto x OVO programmes and then joined us in our product spaces, and they are growing and making a real difference. Soore has been named one of the 30 under 30 making a difference in the Energy industry and has launched Energyz Black, to attract more Black talent to our sector.
How do you envision OVO's ongoing collaboration with Aleto in the future and what impact would you like to see from our joint efforts?
We want to continue building on our amazing relationship and see what more we can do to engage with young people from diverse backgrounds to inspire them to pursue a career in our industry. We'd also love to help Aleto expand in Scotland to replicate in our Glasgow base the success we've had in London and Bristol.
