Dear Friends,

I’m writing to share with you some news about an important change that my colleague Matt Cooperrider is going through.

I have known Matt for many years, and Matt has always been one of the most dedicated and talented folks I’ve had the pleasure of working with. Needless to say, it was a surprise when Matt told me a few years ago that Matt was transgender, and intended to eventually begin living life as a woman.

I learned that, outside of work, Matt was already living full time as a person named “Hailey”, and has been making her own preparations for this transition for many years. Through this period, I have seen Hailey grow both personally and professionally, as a direct result of being able to express herself more fully. Needless to say, I am thrilled to finally be able to welcome Hailey fully into the team, and provide her the opportunity to realise her full potential.

Therefore, please consider this message as official confirmation of this change. From now on, please refer to Matt as “Hailey”, and use the pronouns she/her/hers. At the same time, please don’t worry too much about “getting it right”. We are all now going through our own transition, and need to be forgiving as these things take time.

If you have any further questions, or would like to speak with me directly, do not hesitate to get in touch. Furthermore, if you would like to get in touch with Hailey, she is happy to have a chat. If you’d like to learn more about transgender issues on your own, the GLAAD resource page on transgender is a good place to start: http://www.glaad.org/transgender

Over the coming week, we’ll be updating our records and social media profiles, so please bear with us as we get everything up to date. To begin with, please address all messages intended for Hailey to hailey.cooperrider@collabforge.com or @imhaileycoop on twitter.

In the meantime, please feel free to share this letter with anyone you know that needs to be aware of this change.

Kind Regards,

Mark Elliott

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