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“It’s a South London Thing.” Sandie Okoro OBE explains how her upbringing taught her not to accept 'no' Sandie Okoro
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rowing up in South London used to have a stigma attached to it - contrasted with the kudos of being North London born and bred. Add to that being in a minority group, perhaps from a poor family and the doors to life’s greatest opportunities can be pretty firmly shut in your face. But it's a South London thing not to accept no for an answer. Michael Ebenezer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jnr was born in Croydon and grew up in South Norwood. He grew up with his single parent Ghanaian mum and three siblings. At school he was always on the verge of getting expelled; he was basically written off as a badly behaved boy. Against the odds, he got 13 GCSEs and five A levels. He went on to become one of the world’s most famous music stars. Today he goes by the name Stormzy. Determined that others will not be told no and discouraged, he set up the Stormzy Scholarship programme at Cambridge University. The awards are offered to black students from low income and/or disadvantaged backgrounds. They cover tuition fees and a significant contribution towards living costs for up to four years of study. 36 new Stormzy Scholarships will be awarded to UK black students over next three years, totalling 81 over eight years (2018-26).
role models for success. There were not that many women at the top of the legal profession - but there were a lot of women leaders in the world. There was a lot of change happening; people were fighting to stop apartheid, there were moves towards equal pay. Yes, it was a traditional time but it was embarking on a moment of transformation.” Sandie’s secondary school was an all-girls one where they were taught that as girls they could do anything they wanted to do. And so Sandie did. She studied Law and Politics at the University of Birmingham (at the same time as Nazir Afzal - it was obviously a good year for future eminent lawyers). After Bar School, Sandie was admitted as a barrister but quickly realised she did not come from the “right kind of background” that would allow her to carry on at the Bar so she requalified as a solicitor. This coincided with the 1986 ‘Big Bang’ in the City and she got a job as an in-house lawyer at Schroders working in Asset Management. The City and the finance sector more through circumstance than choice - became the backdrop of her working life.
To list her achievements would take up more space than this entire It could be said Sandie Okoro is the Stormzy of the legal world. At article but the condensed highlights include; her current day job as the top of her profession, Sandie also works endlessly to help others Group General Counsel at Standard Chartered. Before this, Sandie achieve greatness through their own merits irrespective of their race, was General Counsel and Senior Vice President, and Vice President gender or class. Sandie may not be a for Compliance, at the World Bank Group. household name or a rapper but, just She is an Honorary Bencher of Middle like her South London neighbour, she Temple and has been named one of the “I think the Arts hold up a is one not to take no for an answer Upstanding 100 Leading Ethnic Minority mirror to society” even when, on paper, everything was Executives (2016), Top 20 Global General against her. Counsel (2019) by the Financial Times and was recognised as Britain’s 5th most Sandie grew up in Balham with her influential person of African and African Nigerian father and Trinidadian mother. At nine, she became pretty Caribbean heritage by Powerlist (2018). She runs marathons and is obsessed with a legal TV series called ‘Crown Court’ and it totally a mum of two. She has also just been honoured with an OBE for her captured her imagination. contribution to diversity in international finance. Interestingly when “I wanted to be in that courtroom - probably as the judge.” asked what she considers her greatest achievement to be so far, it is not from the list above that she talks. Her schoolteacher informed her that this was not possible as little black girls from Balham did not become judges. This had the effect “I have done a lot of ad hoc mentoring, talking to young lawyers of spurring Sandie on rather than deterring her. who need some guidance and direction. Watching the successes Fortunately, whilst her primary school may have not been the most they have had has given me much more pleasure than any of my supportive, nothing could have been further from the truth when it own successes. The power to inspire is something very special”. came to Sandie’s family and her secondary school. Sandie obviously inspires. But who in her life was her inspiration? Sandie’s mum and dad - as with most immigrant parents prioritised education above all else and, her mum in particular, “Without doubt, my mum. She could be challenging but she had encouraged her daughter to have her own career and to never so much energy. She never allowed me to think there was anything depend on a man for money, a way of thinking that was somewhat I could not do. Self-doubt was not an option. She was forward atypical of the time. thinking, had her own career - and wanted that for me. Even though we did not have much money when I was growing up, somehow “A legal career did not feel like I was reaching for the stars but at my mum always found money for me to go on the school trips, the the same time it did not seem easily achievable. At the time I was plays - she never wanted to hold me back from experiencing an growing up, women, especially women of colour, were not seen as adventure. I learned my resilience from her”. 20 | LegalWomen
