Tom Crawford has 25 year’s experience working within the corporate world. As a previous senior executive HR Director and consultant, Tom understands the importance of a culture and an employee experience where people feel they belong and can thrive.

Tom Crawford has come out twice in his life. Once as a young, nervous gay man at the start of his career and then much later as a senior executive struggling with bipolar disorder. Both events forced him to come to terms with who he was, in a world that was not ready to accept either. Tom has found his experience of coming out with bipolar by far the more challenging to deal with as many consciously and unconsciously write off those who live with a lifelong mental health condition.

Tom says “we don’t see CEO’s or leaders of countries openly make it there with a chronic mental health diagnosis. Or if they are successful, they’re not able to tell us about their mental health condition”. In a bid to prevent lip service being paid to the realities of mental health, Tom wrote Breaking The Glass Floor, a very raw account of his condition and how it interacted (or didn’t) with the cut and thrust of corporate life.

As a successful culture and leadership advisor, Tom talks practically about how organisations must evolve to create mentally positive work environments; the kind which reduce stigma and drive performance. Tom’s powerful story touches on two key issues, bringing light to topics that impact many people and those around us.