A Conversation with Mark Fletcher, Chief Exec of Manchester Pride

Mark Fletcher has been the CEO of Manchester Pride for 8 years, spending a total of nearly 18 years working his way up from a freelance consultancy role helping them with event sponsorship. The organisation has seen incredible growth in terms of event scale, team numbers, revenue and impact during his leadership. The flagship Manchester Pride Festival itself is now on the map as one of the most significant globally, attracting hundreds of thousands of participants over the August bank holiday weekend.

This growth, and the changes that have come with it, have not been without controversy, though. Mark has navigated some of the toughest times in the charity’s history more recently including the cancellation of events due to covid, a community consultation amidst significant negativity from the media and parts of the LGBTQ+ community, and a tough decision to not hold the “MCR Pride Live” music festival event that previously attracted the likes of Ariana Grande and Yungblud.

The charity is more than just the annual weekend celebrations, though, they run Superbia – a year round arts and culture programme, Youth Pride MCR – a youth community group, a yearly conference, provide funding to local charities and grassroots organisations, the All Equals Charter – supporting organisations with intersectional inclusivity, and campaign for equality for LGBTQ+ people.

In this LGBTQ+ leaders and directors event Mark speaks about his leadership journey, share learnings from his successes, talk openly about dealing with the challenges and controversies the organisation has faced, and how he and his team have navigated these in conversation with Matt Haworth, Co-Founder of Pride in Leadership.