Afua Kyei is a British financial executive and has been the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Bank of England since 2019. [1] [2] She was formerly the Finance Director at Barclays Bank LLC. [1] In January 2023, Kyei was listed among the 100 most reputable Africans. [3] Kyei was included as one of the most influential black people in the UK on the 2024 Powerlist . [4] [5]
Kyei earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from Somerville College, Oxford. [2] She then became a junior researcher in organic chemistry at Princeton University. [2]
Samuel Esson Jonah is a Ghanaian businessman and the current chancellor of the University of Cape Coast. He is the executive chairman of Jonah Capital, an equity fund based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Jonah was previously president of AngloGold Ashanti and shared the strategic leadership of the company with its CEO, Bobby Godsell.
Sir Mohammed Fathi Ahmed Ibrahim is a Sudanese-British billionaire businessman. He worked for several telecommunications companies, before founding Celtel, which when sold had over 24 million mobile phone subscribers in 14 African countries. After selling Celtel in 2005 for $3.4 billion, he set up the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to encourage better governance in Africa, as well as creating the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, to evaluate nations' performance. He is also a member of the Africa regional advisory board of London Business School.
Shirley Joy Thompson is an English composer, conductor, and violinist of Jamaican descent. Her output as a composer encompasses symphonies, ballets, operas, concertos, and other works for ensembles, as well as music for TV, film, and theatre. Her New Nation Rising, A 21st Century Symphony was composed in 2002 and debuted in 2004. Also an academic, she is currently Professor of Music at the University of Westminster. In the 2019 New Year Honours she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to Music.
Nathaniel Peat is a social entrepreneur and international motivational speaker. At age 25, he founded the nonprofit organization The Safety Box, which uses grassroots methods to interrupt violent behaviour, build entrepreneurship and foster achievement in young people using alternative curriculum in British schools. He is a regular television and radio commentator on youth and education.
Afua Hirsch is a British writer and broadcaster. She has worked as a journalist for The Guardian newspaper, and was the Social Affairs and Education Editor for Sky News from 2014 until 2017. She is the author of the 2018 book Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging, receiving a Jerwood Award while writing it.
Chinyere Adah "Chi-Chi" Nwanoku is a British double bassist and professor of Historical Double Bass Studies at the Royal Academy of Music. Nwanoku was a founder member and principal bassist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, a position she held for 30 years.
Dame Sharon Michele White, Lady Chote, is a British businesswoman. She is the current Chair of the John Lewis Partnership, having previously held a variety of roles in the Civil Service.
Thomas Segun Ilube is a British entrepreneur and educational philanthropist and chair of the Rugby Football Union making him the first black chair of a major sport in England. He was ranked first in the Powerlist 2017, an annual listing of the UK's 100 most powerful people with African or Afro-Caribbean heritage.
Dr. Ken Kwaku is an international investment and corporate governance expert. In 2013 he was nominated together with the late President of Ghana, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills for the Africa Achievers Award. This recognition stemmed from his track record in the area of business development and the unearthing of leadership potentials across Africa. He is Ghana's Honorary Consular to Tanzania and a special adviser to the former president, H.E. Benjamin Mkapa.
Laura Serrant, is a British nurse and academic. She is currently Regional Head of Nursing for North East and Yorkshire at Health Education England and Professor of at Manchester Metropolitan University where she was previously Head of Department.
Vanessa Kingori is chief business officer at Condé Nast Britain and Vogue European business advisor. She is also British Vogue's Publishing Director. Prior to that, Kingori was the publisher of British GQ across all platforms. She has worked for media publishing house Condé Nast UK for over a decade.
Ric Lewis is a British businessman. He is a founding partner of Tristan Capital Partners, a British property investment firm, and its predecessor, Curzon Global Partners (1998–2008). He is also the founder and chairman of a registered charity, The Black Heart Foundation. He ranked first in the Powerlist 2019, an annual list of the UK's most influential people with African or Afro-Caribbean heritage.
Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent OBE is England's first Chief Midwifery Officer and Professor of Midwifery at King's College London and London South Bank University.
The Powerlist is a list of the 100 most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage in the United Kingdom. The list is updated annually and has been published in book format by Powerful Media since 2007. The Powerlist is not limited to British-born citizens and includes immigrants to the UK.
The 2019 Powerlist rankings were released in October 2018 and saw Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. included in the list for the first time, and named Ric Lewis as the most influential individual
The 13th annual Powerlist was judged by a panel chaired by Dame Linda Dobbs and published in October 2019; sponsored by J.P. Morgan & Co., pwc, linklaters and The Executive Leadership Council.
Jacky Wright is a Senior Partner and Chief Technology and Platform Officer of McKinsey & Company.
Jacqueline (Jacqui) McKenzie is a British human rights lawyer specialising in migration, asylum and refugee law. Her legal career encompasses practice in the areas of civil liberties, crime and immigration with solicitors Birnberg Peirce and Partners, and since 2010 running her own immigration consultancy, McKenzie Beute and Pope (MBP), having previously spent more than a decade in senior local government roles with responsibility for equalities, community development, communications and urban development. She joined human rights law firm Leigh Day as a partner in 2021. She is the founder of the Organisation of Migration Advice and Research, which works pro bono with refugees and women who have been trafficked to the UK. McKenzie has won recognition for her work seeking justice for victims of the Windrush scandal that initially gained notoriety in 2018. She was named one of the top 10 most influential black Britons in the Powerlist 2022.
The 14th annual Powerlist, which names the 100 most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage in the United Kingdom, was judged by an independent panel and published in November 2020, sponsored by JP Morgan & Co, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Linklaters, Refinitiv, Herman Miller, Facebook and The Executive Leadership Council. The 2021 Powerlist came in a year in which public debate on racial injustice had increased, with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and global protests against police brutality. Therefore, chief executive Michael Eboda decided that the 14th Powerlist would honour those who have used their voice to advocate against racial injustice. Furthermore, the rankings highlighted the work of healthcare professionals during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which also resulted in the awards being held virtually on 17 November 2020, hosted by Kwame Kwei-Armah.
Yvonne Greenstreet is a British biotechnology executive. She is chief operating officer of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, and on January 1, 2022 will become Alnylam's CEO. She will be one of a small number of Black women leading a drug company.
