Chair of Trustees, Aleto Foundation.

“Do Well, Do Good”

Sir Kenneth Olisa OBE, the Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London to King Charles III

Ken is Founder and Chairman of boutique technology merchant bank, Restoration Partners.

Ken’s technology career spans over 40 years commencing with IBM and then as a senior

executive at Wang Laboratories working in the UK, Belgium and the USA.  

He has considerable public company Board-level experience on both sides of the Atlantic.

The first British-born black man to be appointed as a Director of a FTSE 100 company (Reuters) he has also served on the Boards of Open Text, Thomson Reuters, Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation and several AIM-listed businesses. Today he chairs a portfolio of high potential technology businesses including Inogesis (home to the Virtual Technology Cluster), Interswitch (Nigeria’s leading payments company) and Proxymity – (digital investor communications platform) Interswitch.

Ken is equally committed to public service and has been an NHS Trust Director, an inaugural member of regulators, Postal Service Commission and IPSA (Independent Parliamentary Standard Authority); and a Governor of the Peabody Trust. He is the founder of the Aleto Foundation; President of Thames Reach (for which he received an OBE in 2010); Chairman of Shaw Trust; and President of London Youth.  In 2015 Her Majesty the Queen, appointed him as her Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London. He was knighted in 2018 for services to business and philanthropy and in 2021 he was appointed High Bailiff and Searcher of the Sanctuary at Westminster Abbey and a Trustee of the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund. On

January 1 st 2022, Ken becomes Chair of BusinessLDN (formerly known as London First.)

He captures his motivations in his official motto – ‘Do well. Do good.”

“My coaching draws on diverse, global experiences ranging from positions in

large multinationals to small boutiques, as well as running my own firm and

working in the new ‘gig’ economy.”

I particularly enjoy coaching CEOs (including succession candidates), people navigating challenging reputational issues, and people moving into boards for the first time. I often work with clients in the energy transition, telecoms and financial services industries. I am always learning more as a coach and mentor and I’m completing an advanced coaching qualification (EMCC Senior Practitioner/ICF PCC level). My style is thoughtful, supportive, honest and caring.

I’ve made some big changes over the course of my life, so I know what it feels like to be uncertain and become ‘inexpert’ again in a new context. I try to help my clients understand the big picture and what they can control or influence, and support them practically and emotionally as they progress towards the next chapter of their lives.

I draw on experiences I’ve had as a consultant – I lived in the USA for five years and then as a partner led a UK rewards practice working for clients in a variety of sectors – and subsequently in senior HR roles for major FTSE companies living and working internationally. For the last decade I have focused again on advisory work – setting up my own firm – and coaching, alongside some trustee positions. I have been a full time partner at Stork & May since 2018. It’s a real privilege to work here with such high quality clients and colleagues.

EDUCATION

• MA Classics, Christ Church, Oxford University

• Ashridge Business School – Leadership Process and Faculty

• Accredited Hogan Assessor

• Academy of Executive Coaching Advanced Practitioner Diploma (candidate 2023)

EXPERIENCE

• Accenture

• Metapraxis

• Towers Perrin

• Shell

• Barclays

• Disraeli Group Ltd

• Charity Trustee at Aleto Foundation

• Past Trustee at Demos and Lead International

• Advisory Board Member for Metalogue

• Development Board Member for Book Aid International

Aleto Trustee

Syreeta Brown is currently Group Chief People & Communications Officer at Virgin Money UK PLC reporting directly to the CEO and is a member of the Executive Leadership Team.  She was appointed to the role November 2021.  Prior to joining Virgin Money Syreeta was a Managing Director at the US Global bank, Citi, and led the HR function for the Global Functions and Operations and Technology business in Europe, Middle East and Africa region.  In this role Syreeta was responsible for the People Strategy and HR practices regionally for 20,000.    

Syreeta joined Citi in November 2010 as EMEA Regional Head of Talent Acquisition, a role she held for three years before assuming the Global Head of Talent Acquisition (TA) Strategy role in 2013 responsible for Citi’s enterprise-wide TA operating infrastructure and strategy covering on average 60,000 hires annually.  This remit covered TA recruitment processes and systems / technical infrastructure, global attraction and engagement strategies to help define Citi’s strategy for sourcing talent and developing the Citi Employee Value Proposition.  In this role Syreeta led the creation of Citigroup’s first ever Global Talent Acquisition function which managed over 2.5 million applications annually.   

Prior to joining Citi Syreeta was a HR Director at British Telecom Group PLC having joined as a graduate.  She worked across various businesses in her 12 years there in a number of roles across the HR generalist and Centre of Excellence space (Performance Management, Resourcing and Talent Management).  

Syreeta has been a Board Trustee for the Access All Areas Theatre (2016-2019) – a theatre company for learning disabled artists based in Hackney, London and sits on the ‘Panel of Influential Women’ run by the Advanced Boardroom Excellence Group led by Helen Pitcher OBE, based in London which is focused on the development of senior executives.  Syreeta has been recognised for 20 years of service to Human Resources by CIPD and was named Financial Services Leader of the year at 2018 Black British Business Awards.   She was also included in the UK Powerlist 2022 and named as an Involve Empower Role Model 2022.  In 2023 Syreeta was included in the UK Powerlist top 10 most influential Black British people.  Syreeta is an advisory Board member for the Black Talent charter initiative in the UK led by Harry Matovu KC, a Board Trustee of the ALETO foundation chaired by Sir Ken Olisa, Vice Chair of the Change the Race Ratio Campaign chaired by Sir Trevor Phillips and a Mentor on the Moving Ahead / 30% Club’s Executive Accelerator Program.   Syreeta actively advocates for and supports Parents who have children with Special Needs focusing on Autism.   

My name is Will England and I am an entrepreneurial, heart-inspired leader, with 20 years’ experience in the design, development and commercialisation of new consumer products. My current role is as Head of an R&D Discovery department, leading a talented group of 29 scientists and engineers to build the future Heated inhalation Products pipeline within BAT’s New Categories organization.

I have a deep passion for the innovation of consumer-centric technology that comes from my background as a Chartered Mechanical Engineer. I cut my career teeth in the automotive industry optimizing manufacturing processes for Jaguar and Land Rover engine subframes, then went on to develop building management systems for Honeywell on the Heathrow Terminal 5 project before moving into developing new bottled and canned Pepsi and Robinsons juice products with Britvic Soft Drinks. Since joining BAT in 2010, I have been a central technical R&D lead throughout the bumpy but amazing ride to launch our Glo Tobacco Heated Product category, growing it from scratch into the £2Billion category it is today.

In December 2020 I was proud to be presented with an Inspirational Leadership Award in recognition of my inclusive leadership of the fantastic R&D team that overcame an extremely technically challenging program to launch BAT’s first induction heated Glo THP Device, which then went on to become the most successful launch in BAT’s 120 year history.

My life Ikigai is that I love bringing teams of people together to do difficult things that require mastery.

Bio tbc.