SUPPORTERS

Rosie Harris is a dynamic front runner. , in spite of growing up in the care system, Rosie determined to go beyond a social services statistic and went into media sales and publishing. She is the first woman of colour to be founder and owner of a fashion, beauty and lifestyle print and on-line publication in Wales (called ‘Style of the City’’), with cover stories featuring  celebrities including Catherine Zeta Jones, 

Starting her own life in foster care, Rosie is dedicated to improving the lives of children in care and also actively promotes diversity, working with Senedd the Welsh parliament to ensure young people are given the right platforms and equal opportunities to gain careers in media. 

http://www.styleofthecitymag.co.uk

Simon Leslie co-founded Ink, the world’s leading travel media company. As a successful entrepreneur and businessman, he has helped to mentor and build multiple companies and has also given talks at many top universities on the subject of sales.With thousands of stories and experiences from three decades of success and failure he helps entrepreneurs to change the game, improve their performance, get to their full potential & build out their vision.
After weathering the toughest storms and learning from the hardest of challenges, such as the crashes of the 80’s, 11/9, -08, -12 & Covid-19, He now dedicates himself to teaching these valuable lessons to the new generations of entrepreneurs.

Dr Doirean Wilson, DProf.Practice, MA HRM, PG.Cert FE, FRSA, FCIPD, Snr.FHEA, Fellow SPES Institute, is currently an HRM Snr Lecturer (Practice) at Middlesex University, Chair of the University’s Race Network and is reputedly the first black female academic in the UK to lead an executive MBA programme. A mother, accomplished artist, multi-award winning cultural diversity exponent and author of and contributor to over 50 publications, Doirean is also a member of the preeminent Academy of Management, US, diversity and inclusion theme committee as advisor. A much sought after Key Note Speaker and advisor to academic institutions, the public and private sector and governments. 

Professor Patrick Vernon OBE FrHistS is a British social commentator, film maker and cultural historian of Jamaican heritage, who works in the voluntary and public sector across social care services including mental health, public health, regeneration and employment. An expert on African and Caribbean genealogy in the UK., he runs his own social enterprise promoting the history of diverse communities and is founder of 100 Great Black Britains.Patrick is a Clore Fellow and received an OBE for "services to the Reduction of Health Inequalities for Ethnic Minorities” and was featured in Vogue Magazine Sept. 2020 as a notable activist wanting to make a change to the world over. 

Dawn James is an award winning glass artist. Awarded by the V&A the world's leading museum of art, design and performance. Her commitment to developing her art form and unique style, captures the essence of her imagination as it embodies her love for reflecting the art and culture of peoples from across the world.Dawn’s art takes you on a wonderful journey of glass work in different forms and her exhibits include sculptured pieces that express the beauty of black women.You can find Dawn deeply involved in community projects for organisations like The Curve in Kensington & Chelsea, conducting workshops for traumatised and disadvantaged people.

Elaine has had a long and varied career in education working on equality issues. Over a period of 50 years she worked as a teacher championing equality and campaigning for change from an exclusive curriculum to one embracing all pupils. Elaine was invited to train Ofsted inspectors in the very concepts and issues for which she was vilified in the 70 's and had been tirelessly pushing for over the years.

We are keen that this veteran educator can use her wealth of experience as a backdrop to those responsible for current and future Equality Diversity and Inclusion to mould policy in education and the public sector at large and to avoid the mistakes of the past.

Denise is an accomplished journalist, editor, publishing strategist and former contributor to The Good Schools Guide.  Denise has been instrumental in the successful crafting and direction of numerous publications with a passion for empowering people to get their thoughts out of their head and into books. Her editing talent attracted the attention of  Marie Claire Magazine and she was invited to Paris to speak to their global editors on how digitisation of publications were affecting magazine content. Denise consults with discretion to a diverse range of people from entrepreneurs to C suite executives and is in demand for her skill in the publishing process.

Stephen Akinsanya has been in private practice as a criminal barrister for 27 years and is a member of Great James Street Chambers in London and founder of “Life of Focus”  - a mentoring and motivational speaking platform as well as host of the community talk show “Life in focus” on LCBN TV network. 

His youth work began almost 15 years ago as a Sunday school teacher at Croydon Community Church which fuelled his belief that, ‘Every young person has a gift waiting to be unearthed’. His passion to mentor youth has intensified through his involvement as a defence barrister representing young people, many aged 12 to 21 charged with murder and manslaughter.  

Cheryl is a Cosmetic Scientist, Founder of The Black Beauty and Fashion Awards (BBFA), Social entrepreneur, and Product and Brand Development Consultant. Raised in Glasgow as one of the few black families, Cheryl was aware of her difference in hair texture and skin colour and the lack of variety in beauty products available to her. After working for major companies inc. Barry M cosmetics, QVC, she decided to start her own beauty business and in 2017 launched the BBFA at the Houses of Parliament to celebrate excellence, champion and promote product development and manufacturing and wider distribution of products for Black and Mixed heritage consumers in the Diaspora.