Leslie Manasseh is Deputy General Secretary of Connect. Leslie was previously Director of Organisation and has worked for Connect and the predecessor organisation, the Society of Telecom Executives (STE) since 1986.

Leslie has been responsible for developing strategies to build membership, designing new services to increase members’ employability and introducing a more focused communications strategy which included re-launching the union as Connect in 2000.

As DGS Leslie is responsible for co-ordinating the union’s organising, bargaining and legal work. He is also leading the union’s skills agenda. Leslie was awarded the MBE in 2003 and is a member of the TUC General Council and its Race-Relations Committee. He represents the TUC on the government’s task force on ethnic minorities in the labour market and on the liaison committee with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.