The National Diversity Awards is an awards ceremony which honours positive role models, entrepreneurs and community organisations across several different strands within the equality and diversity sector. It is held annually in various venues across the United Kingdom. Founded by CEO, Paul Sesay, the National Diversity Awards launched in 2012. The National Diversity Awards 2019 took place at The Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool on 20 September 2019. Award strands and categories The awards are honoured to individuals, charities and community organisations across five different strands: Age; Disability; Gender; LGBT; and Race, Faith and Religion. The National Diversity Award categories include the Positive Role Model Award, the Community Organisation award, the Entrepreneur of Excellence Award, the Diverse Company award and Lifetime Achiever award. Both the Positive Role Model Award and the Community Organisation Award are split into 5 individual categories, each representing an individual strand of diversity including Age, Disability, Gender, LGBT, Race/Faith/Religion. The Community Organisation category also has an additional multi-strand award. The Entrepreneur of Excellence award "recognises individuals who have best demonstrated managerial expertise in assembling resources, creating an organisation, decision making under uncertainty, being forward looking, and creatively solving problems." In addition to this, the Diverse Company award is an individual honour which recognises a company’s commitment to encouraging "people from the most deprived areas to further their careers" The prestigious Lifetime Achiever award recognises a person’s "significant, innovative and cumulatively outstanding contributions to enhancing the practice of equality and diversity, devoting a major portion of their professional career to the cause." Nominations and judges Nominations for the National Diversity Awards typically run between February and June of each year, with the awards being held annually in September. The National Diversity Awards are judged each year by esteemed and highly experienced diversity professionals across the United Kingdom. Judges include Carol Jordan Head of Planning at ITV News, Manisha Mehrotra of Bloomberg LP, Former international Paralympian Ade Adepitan, Comedian and TV Presenter Alex Brooker, Writer, Director & Actor Jake Graf, and Writer, Activist and TV Presenter Katie Piper. Judges participate in an annual evaluation of all nominees with their shortlist being announced in July and their official award category winners being announced annually at the National Diversity Awards ceremony. Hosts 2012 saw the launch of the National Diversity Awards and was hosted by Irish television presenter and winner of the second series of Big Brother, Brian Dowling. In 2013,