Chair: Octavian Starr
Octavian Starr delivers trans and gender diverse training through facilitating workshops and providing one-to-one support for companies. He has delivered training for GIRES for a number of organisations across both the public and private sectors. He has 12 years of experience supporting vulnerable LGBT+ people and training both in the UK and the US. For nearly eight years, Octavian worked as a Senior Housing Support Officer at Stonewall, where he helped the residents of supported housing between the ages of 16 and 25. He is passionate about encouraging and supporting diversity and opportunities for trans and gender diverse people across all sectors.
Email: octavian.starr@gires.org.uk
Treasurer: Mary Deans BSc
Mary Deans, GIRES Secretary and Treasurer, lives in North West London. She has been a Chief Engineer for many years working on several major projects. She is involved with several Trans groups in and around London.
Email: mary.deans@gires.org.uk
Secretary: Faye Booth
Faye is a researcher and content creator in the education sector. She worked for over 20 years as a primary school teacher, during which time she led on PSHE, Relationships and Health Education, and Diversity, Equality and Inclusion. Having joined the GIRES team as a volunteer in 2024, Faye is dedicated to improving the experiences of trans and gender diverse people through the power of research and education.
Email: faye.booth@gires.org.uk
Bernard Reed OBE, MA, MBA
Bernard has a long history as an ally of gender diverse people. He, along with his wife Terry helped their gender diverse daughter to win a landmark sex discrimination case in 1997. Then, with a group of gender diverse activists, they established GIRES. Bernard is a member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and has presented papers at professional conferences internationally.
They received WPATH’s 2016 Education Award and have also received awards in the Pink List, and Attitude magazine, as well as from the National Trans Youth Network.
Bernard and Terry served respectively on the NHS England Clinical Reference Groups that develop the specifications for gender identity services for young people and adults and have contributed to the new Prison Service Instruction on caring for detained gender diverse people. They were each awarded the OBE in 2010 in recognition of their services to GIRES.
Email: bernard.reed@gires.org.uk
Michael Arhin-Acquaah
Michael Arhin-Acquaah graduated from London South Bank University with a 1st Class BSc in Psychology. Over the past decade, he has been avidly working towards increasing the support of autistic and/or transgender children, young people, and adults. Michael uses his own experiences as a mixed race and autistic young person throughout his extensive contributions as a GIDS stakeholder. He is leading the development of the GIRES Autism Resource Directory.
Email: Michael.Arhin_Acquaah@gires.org.uk
Shaan Surat R Knan, MA
Shaan Knan is a London-based diversity consultant, educator and heritage professional. He was the Project Manager for the GIRES Legacy of Kindness: Telling the Story of GIRES. This project documented, showcased and shared the rich history of the UK transgender and gender diverse charity GIRES. The project has been made possible by a grant from the Lottery Heritage Fund. GIRES collaborated on this project with a wide range of local and national organisations, including The Bishopsgate Archive, Goldsmiths University and LGBT+ History Month.
Shaan is the author of ‘A Roadmap to Inclusion’ GIRES resource supporting trans and gender diverse people of faith.
Email: shaan.knan@gires.org.uk
Cat Burton
“In 1972, British Airways had a woman pilot, but they didn’t know it and, at the time, neither did I” This is how Cat Burton reconciles her 44 year career as an airline pilot with her transition in 2014, with the full support and help of her employer.
Cat was born in 1952 and progressed from Air Cadet to senior long-haul airline captain in the firm belief that transition would be a career breaker but sees her final years as her best ever. She was British Airways Flight Operations Diversity Champion and their most senior woman pilot when she retired in 2017 and is now an Independent Aviation and Diversity Consultant and a flying instructor at Cardiff International Airport.
Email: cat.burton@gires.org.uk