Sir Ken Olisa OBE – Do well, do good: Why it doesn't matter where you start from, it's where you aim to get to that makes the difference
Michael is joined today by Sir Ken Olisa, the business leader, philanthropist and Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London. But if you think today’s story is one of a gilded life you’d be wrong. Of his own childhood Ken has spoken of “a world of outside toilets and bomb sites as playgrounds," leading him to note that it doesn’t matter where you start from, it is where you aim to get to that makes the difference. Realising his ambition as the founder of two merchant banks focused on the technology sector – – one of which, Interregnum, he floated at the height of the dotcom boom in 2000 – saw Sir Ken becoming the first British-born Black man to serve on the board of a major UK public company and, later, being named by The Powerlist as the most powerful Black Briton. It is an influence he puts to good use today as the founder of the Aleto Foundation, a charity and leadership programme supporting the future leaders of tomorrow.