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Federico Podeschi - Chief Executive Officer

Federico Podeschi was born in the Republic of San Marino and moved to the UK in 1997.  He is a social entrepreneur, Chief Executive Officer of the LGBT Excellence Centre Wales, and president of LGBT San Marino. His work is focused on developing sustainable models for delivering equality and human rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. Federico is a Marketing graduate and has over ten years experience in the equality and diversity arena. Federico was nominated Honorary Consul to San Marino in Wales in 2008 and was invited by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown to celebrate LGBT History Month in February 2009. In February 2010, Federico was selected by the British Council for the Transatlantic 2020 programme, a network for action which brings together young influencers from business, civil society, the arts, science and media to revitalise transatlantic and global links for the future. In April 2011, Federico was nominated for the Leading Wales Awards and was one of three finalists for the Voluntary / Not-for-profit Sector.

Robert Hutton - Business Development Manager

Robert joined the LGBT Excellence Centre in 2011.  He is responsible for the Rainbow Mark, Training in LGBT issues, Partnership working, funding and planning although he also has ideas for many other projects.   He became a qualified psychiatric Nurse soon after leaving school:  a job that has taught him skills that he’s applied pretty much everywhere he’s worked.  As a career change he then spent 11 years living and working in Japan teaching English, training teachers and designing curriculums.  Before coming to the Excellence Centre he was working in an English Language School in Cardiff as a Director of Studies.  He has a Diploma and Certificate in TEFL. 

He is very happy to be working in the area of LGBT as he has always had a highly developed sense of justice, hates unfairness, and is proud to now be working for equality, dignity, respect and human rights.

Norena Shopland - Heritage Manager

Norena is working on a project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund to research the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Wales. This history has never been undertaken and the Excellence Centre, in partnership with the National Museum of Wales, is redressing this omission which sees 10% of the Welsh population being neglected. Norena has had extensive experience working within the heritage sector, having worked for some of the largest museums in Britain, and has a BSc and MA from University College London. She has written three books as well as numerous articles and a TV documentary for S4C. Norena had also worked for several LGBT organizations and has run an oral history project in association with the British Library. Other areas which Norena is responsible for within the ECW are for arts and culture projects and recently ran a writing group sponsored by Academi. Norena is Welsh and yn dysgu Cymraeg.

Sorraya Kalami - Casework Manager

Sorraya is the Centre’s Casework Manager and is responsible for co-ordinating the support services offered by the Excellence Centre and its volunteers.  She is able to provide advice and advocacy in a variety of areas including housing, employment, education, domestic violence, hate crime and many other areas of support.  Over the past ten years Sorraya has pursued a career within the area of law, in both employment and academia, achieving her LL.B degree from the University of Glamorgan, and Post Graduate Diploma in Bar Vocational Studies from Cardiff University.   Sorraya has always been a supporter of Equality and Human Rights across all equality strands; enjoying many voluntary roles supporting both the BME community and Asylum groups in Wales.  She continues to be pro-active in campaigning for equality and challenging discrimination at all levels.