TOP 100 BAME LEADERS IN BUSINESS 2018 | SPEAKER'S HOUSE, HOUSE OF COMMONS

A celebration of British black, Asian and minority ethnic talent.

It just so happened that on the day we launched our Top 100 BAME Leaders in Business 2018 index, Theresa May announced her plans to introduce ethnic pay gap reporting. Raj Tulsiani concludes Green Park's BAME 100 launch event with a powerful speech about the need for the UK to celebrate and cultivate our black, Asian and minority ethnic talent to succeed in post-Brexit Britain. He also explores how pay gap reporting could really make a difference as he closes the evening's speeches on Thursday the 11th of October, 2018 at the Speaker's Room of the House of Commons.

DIVERSITY AT OUR CORE

Businesses worldwide are stepping up their commitment to diversity. A more diverse workforce improves company culture, boosts innovation, and enhances financial performance.

However, it is not enough to bring diversity into the workplace DNA and expect to reap the real benefits of a diverse workforce, without nurturing inclusivity.

Our Diversity, Inclusion, Culture & Ethics consultancy helps organisations to build knowledge, strengthen internal capabilities and lend support to develop a diverse and inclusive workplace culture. For over a decade, Green Park has mapped and cultivated trusted networks of diverse talent who not only enrich our candidate pools but act as sounding boards on best practice and organisational reputation.

Watch the video for the keynote speech from Green Park's Partner and Head of the Diversity, Inclusion, Culture & Ethics Practice , Jo Heath at our 2018 TOP 100 BAME LEADERS IN BUSINESS event held on Thursday, 11th October 2018 at the State Rooms, Speaker’s House, House of Commons.

ABOUT JO HEATH
Jo is an Equality Law Improvement Professional and a Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) auditor, working in this field for over 20 years. She has worked with global organisations in the private, public, and third sectors carrying out complex inclusion audits and cultural impact assessments. Her clients have included Linklaters LLP, HSBC, Santander, Ernst & Young, Office for National Statistics, The Home Office, Amnesty International, BT Group, Vodafone, Hays Recruitment, EDF Energy, Yorkshire Water and Harvey Nash.

She advises on all equality legislation related issues and designs and delivers a range of cultural initiatives, leadership programmes and diversity and inclusion solutions for businesses.

Before joining Green Park, Jo was an integral part of EY’s commercial (D&I) consultancy team, leading on the commercial practice and was the architect of the methodology of the National Equality Standard (NES) and audit process. She managed the EY cultural audit team and has trained all NES auditors, thereby ensuring quality and consistency of the NES brand.

Jo leads a number of “inspiring women” panels, empowering women to advance their careers and is the European representative for the Global Women Fast Forward initiative. She also supports domestic violence, hate crime and anti-social behaviour teams in London to engage and develop successful intervention programmes and was instrumental in the design of Mayoral Gold Standard for Equality and Diversity and the Mayor’s Diversity in Procurement Standard.

"The Top 100 BAME Leaders in Business is an important event for Green Park, but I think what lies behind it, is important for everybody. Every big investor looking at companies these days is asking the questions: Have you got a diverse team, opinion, perspective around the table? Because
if you haven’t, we don’t think we can trust you to make the right decisions!

It’s also the case that the cost of great talent is going up– and if organisations want to get the best talent from the widest pool, and in the process bringing down the cost, they need to look in places they haven’t looked before. And this is why we are publishing this list.

It’s time that folks stopped excusing their own failures by claiming that qualified diverse talent cannot be found. Our Top 100 list has been assured by people who, on a daily basis, have to select board members to lead some of the UK’s most successful corporations. You can trust that this pool of talented leaders is worth considering for board positions, and it is precisely for this reason we have placed our list in the public domain. In a sense, we are putting a commercial asset
at everybody’s disposal.

Green Park wants to be the firm that says you don’t need to make excuses. Here are one hundred board ready diverse leaders, at the very least, that you ought to consider for your executive team because it is in the interest of your company as well as in the interest of diversity and inclusion.

ABOUT TREVOR PHILLIPS
Trevor Phillips is Chairman of the Board at Green Park, having served as Non-Executive Director advising the Board since April 2017.

Trevor brings a breadth of strategic business leadership and a proven track record of accomplishments across multiple industries. The founding Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and the first elected Chair of the Greater London Authority, Trevor’s expertise in diversity and inclusion complements Green Park’s core business values.

A writer and broadcaster, Trevor is also co-founder of Webber Phillips Ltd a leading data analytics provider and has served as President of the Partnership Council of the John Lewis Partnership. Additionally, Trevor is currently Chair of Index on Censorship, the international campaigning and publishing group promoting freedom of expression, and a Senior Fellow at the influential think-tank Policy Exchange. A former ITV executive, he remains active in the creative industries, writing regularly for several national newspapers and serving as a board member of London’s Barbican Centre and of Headlong Theatre. Trevor has been the recipient of several honorary doctorates, an OBE and was awarded the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur by the French Government.

NATASHA ADAMS
Chief People Officer | Tesco Group
Natasha is an experienced HR professional with 20 years’ experience at Tesco, enjoying a varied career with people at the heart of them.

Starting in a store Natasha has worked across a number of People/HR roles, from regional based generalist HR to functional leadership roles, always enjoying the pace and people retail environments bring. Her first directorship role was as Customer Service Director for the UK, enjoying operations so much she went on to be an Operations Director for retail support.

Natasha has recently been promoted from People Director for UK & ROI to the Chief People Officer for Tesco Group. A huge opportunity at an exciting time for Tesco and the retail industry.

As a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development, learning and having a curious mind is important for Natasha, as well as staying connected through a number of HR leader’s networks and forums.

KAREN BLACKETT
Country Manager | WPP UK
Chairwoman | MediaCom UK

Karen is a proven business leader with a track record in creating vibrant cultures, energising teams and consistently delivering business growth and success. She is currently UK country manager for WPP, the world’s largest marketing services group, and Chairwoman of MediaCom, the largest media agency in the UK.

Karen champions diversity and equality of opportunity throughout the advertising industry. In 2012 Karen launched the first ever government backed apprentice scheme for the sector.

In June 2014, Karen received an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday honours and in 2015 Karen was the first business woman to be named Britain’s Most Influential Black person in the Power List.

Karen is an external advisor to the UK Government Civil Service and a Business Ambassador to the Department of International Trade. Karen sits on the board for Creative England, is a Council Member for the Creative Industries Federation, and Chancellor of the University of Portsmouth.

AMEE CHANDE
Non-Executive Director | BBA Aviation PLC

Amee Chande is a senior executive and non-executive director. She was most recently the Managing Director for Global Strategy at Alibaba Group. Prior to joining Alibaba, Ms. Chande held MD/CEO roles at NutriCentre, a health and wellness subsidiary of Tesco, Staples UK business, and Marketside, a division of Wal-Mart.

She began her career as a strategy consultant with McKinsey & Company where she spent over five years advising a broad range of retail and consumer goods companies. Ms. Chande sits on the board of BBA PLC, and is on the advisory board of Living Bridge, an award-winning Private Equity Firm, and British Petroleum. She volunteers actively with the Girl Guides, and is a member of the board of the Kensington & Chelsea Foundation.

SIR KENNETH OLISA OBE
Chairman | Restoration Partners

Ken is Founder and Chairman of Restoration Partners, the boutique technology merchant bank and architects of Inogesis formerly known as The Virtual Technology Cluster model.

He is currently Chairman of Interswitch (Africa’s largest e-payments company). He is a former Director of Thomson Reuters, a former Deputy Chair at the Institute of Directors and Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC).

Ken is a Freeman of the City of London, Liveryman and Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, Patron of Thames Reach (for which he received an OBE in 2010), and Chairman of charity Shaw Trust. He was an original member of the Postal Services Commission (PostComm) and the Independent Parliamentary Standard Authority (IPSA) and is the Founder and Chairman of the Aleto Foundation. He is a past Sunday Times Not for Profit Non-Executive Director of the Year and was named Number 1 in the 2016 Powerlist’s roster of the UK’s Most Influential Black People. In 2015, Her Majesty the Queen appointed Ken as Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant for Greater London and he was knighted in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List for services to business and philanthropy.

DAVID TYLER
Chairman | J Sainsbury PLC

David’s executive career from 1974 to 2006 was spent in financial and general management in Unilever, NatWest, Christie’s and GUS. Since 2007, he has had a Non-Executive career. He is currently the Chairman of two listed companies: J. Sainsbury PLC (since 2009) and Hammerson PLC (since 2013). He has also been the chairman of a private-equity owned company, Domestic & General Group Limited, since 2015.

He has in the past been Chairman of 3i Quoted Private Equity PLC and of Logica PLC, and a NED at Experian PLC, Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC and Burberry Group PLC. He is the CoChair of The Parker Review Committee on ethnic diversity on UK Boards. He has also been Chairman of Hampstead Theatre since 2012. He has an MA in Economics from Cambridge University, and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and a Member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers.

Green Park's #BAME100 is a celebration of UK-based ethnic minority talent and their achievements. Launching on October the 11th of October at the House of Commons, the Top 100 BAME Leaders in Business index recognises the contributions and achievements of ethnic minority talent, banishing the old rhetoric that diverse talent just doesn’t exist.