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PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
7
Mahari Hay
Making A Difference to the Lives of Others
What does an average working day look like for you?
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It’s always key to remember we are superheroes outside of work and are not defined by what we deliver in our jobs. My day usually starts at 6:00am and I’m up and headed to the gym before getting to the office – it sounds cliché but I do feel better when I work out in the morning! I’m in the office for 8am because I like to structure my day (emails and diary check) before meetings kick off around 8:30am/ 9:00am. The mornings are a mixture of focus time, face to face collaboration sessions and of course virtual meetings… nothing beats face to face meetings though especially if you’re a people person like myself. As we move over into the afternoon, I have a great team and I sometimes I walk out for lunch with a few colleagues just to get away from the computer screen. I find taking that time to refuel and have lunch is highly beneficial and gives you that boost for what majority of the times is a busy afternoon. My day runs on again with project work, meetings and focus time and usually finishes about 6pm (school run dependant, of course) There is no place like home – so I always look forward to getting indoors,
I am very big on family and spend as people from a hearts and minds much time with them as possible, plus perspective has been crucial to my own my Mrs (Nikki) is an unbelievable cook career journey. so I reap the benefits of that daily come dinner time and then I close off the day Challenges you have faced with a nice bit of Netflix or watching in your role and getting to football if the season has started.
your position.
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What is the inspiration for Life is full of challenges but how you bounce back and overcome those this career path?
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What things do you enjoy What advice do you have about your job? for others who want to
challenges is the bigger story. I’ve been in The Financial Sector is a highly the Financial sector for over 18 years and complex and dynamic sector that has the biggest hurdles were, others being always played a huge impact on unable to spot the potential you have, society. and then nurturing that talent in order for you to progress. When I was growing up, it was difficult to have conversations about money I had to take ownership of my own because my family did the best we development and career goals by could to provide for each other. I came actively seeking out the help of my peers from very humble beginnings and and senior leaders that could help guide gaining access to money from financial me. I would set out clear objectives institutions was something we needed ahead of any conversations because not more education on in order to thrive everyone has the time so you want to be not just as a family but as a community. ready for any conversation at any given time. I was very good at being purposeful The lack of knowledge about finance in what I wanted, and at the same time and obtaining access to cash for was able to demonstrate how I would personal and business ventures is what add value to any role or opportunity that drove my passion for wanting to build a presented itself. All these attributes career in Finance. I wanted to be a role combined with a willingness to be kind model for my community in order to and personable with those I worked with provide the key financial information to all played a key role in me obtaining the those that needed it. senior role I am in today.
One thing I love about my job is the exposure it gives me to collaborate follow a similar path? I would say do it – be bold in your with other people. Connecting with
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decision making and prepare to be a steps that would put me in a position that change maker. Three words: ENGAGE, would help me to influence those around EXCITE & EXECUTE me which ultimately created opportunities and opened doors. I want to 1 – Be engaging, think about how you lead a division that is geared towards will add value to whatever career path driving the change we want to see for you choose to follow. more Black professionals to thrive and prosper. 2 - Once you have them engaged, how will you excite your new world? Ideas, What would you be doing new ways of working and other exciting if you didn't enter this concepts.
profession? What would 3 – Have a call to action for everything and always execute on your promises have been your Plan B? and deliverables.
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That’s easy!
What are your ambitions I am naturally a creative and enjoy cinematography so I would 100% be a for the future? film director. Check out my films on and I have always had an ambition to lead. LinkedIn maharihay.com Throughout my career I have taken
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Professor Dr Funke Abimbola MBE
Professor Foluke Adebisi
Corporate Lawyer, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Leader, Healthcare Executive, Non Executive Director, Speaker & Podcast Host
Professor of Law, The University of Bristol Law School & Member Board Of Trustees, Black South West Network
Born in Nigeria and from a family of medical professionals, Funke is and currently operating in the UK, having trained as a solicitor.
With a background in legal practice and NGO work, Foluke is the UK's 61st Black Professor whose scholarship focuses on decolonial thought in legal education and its intersection with a history of changing ideas of the 'human.'
This multi award winning professional is a fierce advocate for diversity across UK society and was notably awarded a Point of Light Volunteers award by the Prime Minister in 2016 and an MBE in 2017 for services to diversity in the legal profession and to young people.
She is also the founder and Director of Forever Africa Conference and Events FACE.
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Kenny AnnanJonathan Founder, The Mailroom & Trnsmission, Creative Director, Crystal Palace Football Club Having founded sports marketing & management agency, The Mailroom in 2017 as well as and production company/media outlet Trnsmission, Kenny has been appointed as the football clubs first Creative Director with responsibility for brand partnerships and collections. This is not his first rodeo as he has worked with sports personalities before. He is expected to launch their first collection in September.
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Kenny Imafidon Co-Founder, Clearview Research, Author, That Peckham Boy & Social Commentator Kenny currently serves as the Managing Director of ClearView Research, an agency that specialises in research, strategy, and engagement projects focused on diverse and underrepresented communities. Kenny has worked on projects across the world, with global businesses, with international charities and large philanthropic foundations. In 2023 he released his book, That Peckham Boy that chronicles his journey from incarceration to being an inspiration to many.
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Denise Myers CEO, Evenfields & Founder, the Black Talent Awards Denise is committed to raising awareness and celebrating the achievements of Black Talent in the UK. She sees it as very important in showcasing role models, raising the aspirations of emerging talent and increasing social mobility. Making no apology for celebrating black talent, she is doing so against a backdrop of 41.6% of young Black adults being unemployed compared to 12.4% of their white counterparts. She is on a mission to change this statistic, one job offer and career choice at a time.
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Dr Tessy Ojo CBE Chief Executive, The Diana Foundation Leading a charity legacy to Diana, Princess of Wales’ Tessy shares the belief in the power that young people have to change the world, with the right support. With over twenty years in third sector leadership and in-depth knowledge of working with young people and across The British establishments, Tessy has played a founding role in the building and sustainability of the charity, including a 360 degree turnaround of the charity’s business operations in 2011, which led to it’s growth and expansion. In January 2019, Tessy became the very first British National to be honoured with The Prestigious Martin Luther King Award in Atlanta, at an event marking the 90th Birthday of Martin Luther King.
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Dr Leigh-Anne Pinnock Singer, Actress, Racial Equality Activist & Founder, The Black Fund After a very successful career in music group Little Mix, where they were described by Forbes as one of the most successful European acts, Leigh-Anne is now a solo artist signed to Warner Records. She made her acting debut in 2021 in the film Boxing Day, the first festive romantic comedy led by a Black cast. That same year she founded a charity, The Black Fund, to support charities that provide support to the Black cmmunity. In July 2023, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Buckinghamshire New University in honour of her racial equality campaigning.
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Dr Tru Powell CEO, MBCC Awards & Co-Founder & CEO, Black Business Magazine The Multicultural Business & Community Champion Awards (MBCC Awards) was founded to celebrate unsung heroes and champion diversity in the UK. The annual awards ceremony welcomes up 800 attendees. In June 2023, Black Business Magazine, the UK's premium online and print publication for Black business was launched by Tru and his team to uplift and empower the Black community. He is also a director of Aston Performing Arts Academy, a community interest organisation that exists to empower young people through performing and creative arts, impacting over 3000 young people in the Midlands.
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Adjani Salmon
Justice Williams Writer, Director & Actor MBE
Adjani is a Jamaican born creative who, after graduating with an MA Directing from the MetFilm School blessed us with TV series, Dreaming Whilst Black, which resonated with many Black Brits for accurately and hilariously showcasing many of our corporate experiences. The series was so good that it won the Royal Television Society 2022 Breakthrough Award, 2022 BAFTA Craft Award for Emerging Talent: Fiction & the Screen International Star of Tomorrow: Filmmaker award.
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Co-Founder & Editor in Chief, Black Business Magazine As a multi-award-winning entrepreneur and business strategist, Justice has supported over 3000 individuals, championing female founders from diverse backgrounds to address inequality in business. With her experience and expertise in editorial and business management, she brings a unique perspective to ensure the success and impact of Black Business Magazine.
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Alford Dalrymple Gardner is one of the few living passengers to have travelled on the Empire Windrush. He is one of 10 whose portrait was commissioned by King Charles, and appears in the BBC's Windrush: Portraits of a Generation special. Now published for the first time, Finding Home is his stirring life story. Alford's story traverses both the uplifting highs and intolerant lows that West Indian migrants of his generation encountered upon travelling to Britain to forge out a life. In the context of a supposedly 'postImperial' Britain where the lives of West Indian migrants hang precariously on the whims of the Home Office, Alford's heartening testimony is a celebration of those who endured hardships so that generations to come could call this place home.
Two days after his eighteenth birthday, Kenny Imafidon was charged with the murder of a seventeen-year-old boy in south-east London. The middle child of a single mother with ambitions for her children, Kenny grew up near an estate in Peckham where deprivation and hopelessness were rife, and gang culture flourished in his community. Kenny faced a minimum of thirty years behind bars - longer than the life he had lived. A candid and unfiltered take on some of the most challenging topics that define our times, That Peckham Boy is a personal manifesto exploring what it means to be young, Black and poor in the city. It is shaped by Kenny's difficult childhood, his transformative time in prison, and the people and conversations that took him from being on trial for murder into the company of some of the most successful people in the world.
Samuel Kasumu was the most senior black advisor in Boris Johnson's government, until he left in April 2021. Throughout his time in Whitehall, Samuel became increasingly aware that he was an outsider - that his own experiences, assumptions and language were so different to many of those he found himself surrounded by in Downing Street. In The Power of The Outsider Samuel considers who outsiders are, why they are not talked about enough and how it can be a source of strength that leads them to become high achievers. He argues that the success of many great people can be explained by their outsider status. Samuel shows how outsiders are more likely to be trailblazers and break barriers, how they have a greater sense of perspective and progress and how our differences can be a force for good.
The Sunday Times bestseller, Making It is an inspirational memoir about beating the odds and turning things around even when it all seems hopeless, by Jay Blades, the beloved star of hit BBC One show The Repair Shop. In his book, Making It, Jay Blades shares the details of his life, from his childhood growing up sheltered and innocent on a council estate in Hackney, to his adolescence when he was introduced to violent racism at secondary school, to being brutalized by police as a teen, to finally becoming the presenter of the hit primetime show The Repair Shop. Jay reflects on strength, weakness and what it means to be a man. An expert at giving a second life to cherished items, Jay’s positivity, pragmatism and kindness shine through these pages and show that with care and love, anything can be mended.
Reclaiming the Jewel of Africa is a call to action to Nigeria’s leaders, to its professional class and to its people to grasp the opportunity for change, so that they might create long-term growth, improve their lot and deal with the many woes that need to be tackled, of which one of the greatest is the extent of poverty in the country and continent. Olusegun Aganga’s vision is both humane and based on fundamental principles of economics, which is his expertise. He writes with the authority of a long-time practitioner having been in banking and in Nigerian politics. This is more than just a personal reminiscence, it is also a very practical handbook for change. He indicates what needs to be done with the economy, the state organisations, the religious institutions, with education, healthcare, law and order & more.
The Space Between Black And White is a tale of love, comradeship, and identity crises, Esua's rise to the first Black woman president of Leicester University Students' Union and Queen Mother of her village, is inspiring, honest, and full of heart. Raised in 1950s South London and Norfolk with a white, working-class family, Esua Jane Goldsmith's education in racial politics was immediate and personal. From Britain and Scandinavia to Italy and Tanzania, she tackled inequality wherever she saw it, establishing an inspiring legacy in the Women's lib and Black Power movements. Plagued by questions of her heritage and the inability to locate all pieces of herself, she embarks on a journey to Ghana to find the father who may have the answers.
Black Women's hair is a topic that has been at the centre of contemporary conversation for some time. This informative book explores the rich cultural history of Black Womens' Afros, weaving in anecdotal tales from Black women along the way. Exploring the ways in which Black women's natural hair is often politicised and judged, A Quick Ting On: The Black Girl Afro chronicles the ways in which the styling of Black Women's hair has influenced popular culture and intersected with Black expression. Complete with intimate interviews and real-life stories about natural hair journeys and the hunt for hair products, A Quick Ting On The Black Girl Afro is a powerful exploration into the Black Woman's Afro - celebrating the versatility and diversity of Black women's natural hair.
Afrobeats is a fast-growing genre, one that has carved out a distinct and powerful Black identity rooted within the African continent. The first book of its kind, A Quick Ting On: Afrobeats chronicles the social and cultural development of the eponymous music genre, tracing its rich history from the African continent all the way to the musical centre of the Western world. This exciting new book takes a unique look at the music of the African diaspora and their children, delving into how Afrobeats and its sub-genres have provided new articulations of Black identity and pride. It remembers the Afrobeats pioneers and memorable cultural moments, as well as investigating the impact of African migration, travel and modernisation on the genre. This book provides an insightful look at Afrobeats becoming what it is today.
Stanley J. Browne is an actor, and he has been an actor all his life. Born into a Jamaican family in a London suburb, he began rehearsing for the role of survivor from an early age. From birth he knew nothing but a home filled with love and the vibrancy of a Caribbean culture, but this changes when his mother is diagnosed with schizophrenia. An intelligent and sensitive child, Stanley begins a descent into crime, heroin addiction and gang life. It is only when he is sent to a young offender’s institution that he slowly begins to turn his life around. Set against a backdrop of 1970s poverty and racism, Little Big Man is a powerful story of generational trauma, and one man’s determination to heal the wounds of the past. Most of all, it is a book about the universal desire for love, belonging, and the search to find an authentic voice through the redemptive power of creativity and recovery.
Please Don't Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes is written in Phoebe Robinson's unforgettable voice and with her unparalleled wit. Her latest collection, laced with spot-on pop culture references, takes on a wide range of topics. From the values she learned from her parents (including, but not limited to, advice on not bringing outside germs onto your clean bed) to her and her boyfriend, lovingly known as British Baekoff, deciding to have a childfree union, to the way the Black Lives Matter movement took center stage in America, and, finally, the continual struggle to love her 4C hair, each essay is packed with humor and humanity. By turns insightful, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartfelt, this book is not only a brilliant look at our current cultural moment, but a collection that will stay with you for years to come.
(People Who Lift as They Climb)
by
Richard Adeshiyan
NETWORKING
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owards the end of my short film ‘Finding Sherpas’, acknowledging ‘people who lift as they climb’, I pronounce: “You don’t go looking for Sherpas, you do not find them on trees, they are people who come into your life when you least expect it, but you need to have the ability and skill to recognise that you are in front of someone who can take you to the next level and to the summit of your career.”
That proved a light bulb moment, because I realised on reflection that I had been blessed with numerous Sherpas in my life and the name was the perfect metaphor for those people who had helped in the navigation of my own life and career journey.
Although there are far too many Sherpas to mention, I highlight several people in the film who were instrumental in helping me negotiate the different stages of my The film was shot in March 2020, just life and career ascent. days before the official lock down, and was the culmination of a journey that had been hatched ten years earlier after watching a television documentary on the Mount Everest.
A Lightbulb Moment The interviewee was the legendary British climber Sir Chris Bonington, who led the British expedition which successful summitted Everest in 1975 and repeated the feat ten years later. Bonington recalled that momentous occasion and talked glowingly about his lead Sherpa, Nepalese mountaineer Pertemba Sherpa, declaring that without his knowledge, skill and tenacity, the team could not have reached the summit.
You don't go looking for Sherpas... they are people who come into your life when you least expect it.
The Tales of My Sherpas democratic elections. Notably, my very first Sherpas were husband and wife Bill and Edith Earl, the house parents of the residential children’s home where I grew up for over a decade. These two Sherpas would equip me with invaluable tools for life and I learned that humility, empathy and generosity of spirit, cost nothing. My first career Sherpa was Sharon Ali, who was Deputy Editor of The Voice newspaper when I made the call in the summer of 1983. That call would ultimately change the trajectory of my life and her advice helped me gain a crucial foothold on the first rung of my journalism career. Although, I had no plans or aspirations to become a journalist, the combination of selfeducation and a voracious appetite for reading books, garnered from early childhood, would be the twin sparks that would ignite the beginnings of my career journey.
My journey would be punctuated with a variety of Sherpas who would guide me through a career that would take in sports, music and foreign affairs. The latter would introduce me to my African Sherpa, Mathatha Tsedu, the Political Editor of The Sowetan newspaper, the country’s biggest selling paper. Mathatha graciously hosted me at his Johannesburg home in April 1994, and was the curator of many memorable ‘Mount Everest’ moments, whilst reporting on South Africa’s historic
Ten years later a random meeting with US journalist, author and publisher Janis Kearney, would truly define the ‘Finding Sherpas’ concept. My frequent visits to America during the 1990s had given me a unique insight into what exceptional looked like. That was confirmed meeting outstanding historical Sherpas in Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks and legendary tennis star Arthur Ashe in Detroit in 1992. I would get to meet the mercurial entrepreneur John H. Johnson, the founder and publisher of Ebony and Jet Magazines, in Chicago several years later. My introduction to Janis by a friend at an Islington coffee house in 2004, followed in that impressive tradition, and that afternoon I would hear her remarkable story, growing up as one of eighteen children born to sharecroppers in the Arkansas Delta. Janis defied her humble beginnings becoming a history maker in 1995, when she was appointed the first ever White House presidential diarist by President Bill Clinton. I was privileged to secure the UK publicity role for her memoir Cotton Field of Dreams, with the former US President contributing the foreword. A year later, Janis would confirm her Sherpa credentials, when I was invited to the 2006 launch of her book, Conversations, William Jefferson Clinton from Hope to Harlem, held at Clinton’s Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas. Clinton would launch the book and Janis would officially introduce me to the 42nd President of the United States.
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