[Music]
[Applause]
earlier this year there was a film which
was released in the cinemas and it was
called hidden figures can I just have a
show of hands for those of you that have
seen it okay so just a few so hopefully
I won’t give you too many spoilers but
the film is about three African American
or black women who work at NASA and they
serve as the brains or the kind of like
the engineering room behind one of the
greatest space operations in the US
history
the launch of actually putting a man
into space
the film was based roughly around the
1960s so it was at this particular time
you can imagine putting someone into
space for the first time was actually
quite an incredible achievement and it
actually did help to restore the us’s
confidence and really accelerate them in
the space race for many years to come
the movie it really gripped me because
although it was supposed to be a
depiction of the u.s. in the 1960s I sat
here watching it in 2017 actually
resonating with a loss of the challenges
that were faced by the three main
characters in the film they were
intelligent they were contributors to a
worldwide recognized organization and
institution they were women they were
black but why I thought was quite
interesting was that prior to their
story being told they were invisible I’d
actually never heard of them then the
question occurred to me what if anything
has changed in the way we deal with
diversity and women of color in the UK
today I suppose if I give you a bit of
historical context as to where I come
from my grandparents were two of
many individuals who came to London from
the Caribbean on a boat which was called
the wind rush and because of their
desire for adventure
and looking for new opportunities for
not just them but also their extended
family I was fortunate to have had the
experience of being born in London but
also having part of my culture and
heritage which was Jamaican now having
lived in Jamaica Jamaica for quite a few
years and then coming to primary school
in London this obviously had huge
advantages first and foremost to my
surprise everyone wanted to be Jamaican
it was quite interesting to actually
because for those of my friends that
were Nigerian and Gani and they really
were quick to deny that they were from
Africa and certainly in my case was only
helped for being Jamaican by films like
Cool Runnings and definitely from the
likes of people like Usain Bolt
I mean his infamous lightning bolt
everyone recognized if you decided to
strike a pose but what became
interesting when I got older and then I
decided to go back and visit Jamaica I
was too English for my fellow Jamaicans
and then when I was in London in a
corporate environment I was too Jamaican
for my fellow Englishmen and so the
question then became where did I fit
like the characters in the film where
just mentioned I was just like them
intelligent a contributor a woman who’s
black Jamaican in ancestry yet English
by birth but in the brutal corporate
world I was still invisible and a hidden
figure in order to find where I could
fit I looked to find a place where I
could feel included and really just meet
people who would just like me
and so when I started my career there
are a number of initiatives that I
decided would be quite useful to take
part in and I still do mentoring
women’s networks the be more diversity
networks because to me it made sense I’m
a woman and black but when I went to
these initiatives I wasn’t just a woman
who was black I was a multitude in a
myriad of things and so the one thing
that I realized was that diversity
networks at their core they’re a really
great way to facilitate the creation of
a safe space for a number of individuals
to really feel at home
but when diversity initiatives they fail
or when the invisible candidates that
you have they still remain invisible
diversity in their initiatives they work
best when all people are recognized for
their differences their importance and
they actually feel valued equally
because it’s only when we have those
components together that we can really
drive and accelerate forward a
philosopher once said the I cannot say
to the hand I don’t need you and the
head cannot say to the feet I don’t need
you but on the contrary there should be
no division in the body because all body
parts should have equal concern for each
other going back to the film there’s a
rather powerful scene of one of the
women who was incredibly gifted but in
order for her to become a certified NASA
engineer she actually had to go to
school to gain some additional
qualifications and given the time period
that the film was set in it was actually
important for her to go to a judge to
actually have access granted for her to
be able to go back to school now what
was particularly interesting for me was
actually how she petitioned and
positioned her case in front of this
church he was the most unlikeliest of
allies that she could have ever had he
came from a background that she did not
come from he was a white privilege meal
in a position of authority and she was
quite the opposite but what was amazing
was that this was the same person who
was the most unlikeliest of candidates
who facilitated her journey and the same
is very much true today in 2017 can I
have a show of hands if you can think of
somebody who has actually helped to
facilitate you to be where you are today
anyone yeah all of us and I think it’s
important for us to realize that our
allies in the people that can really
accelerate and help push us forward they
don’t necessarily have to be people in
positions of authority actually we can
find allies in the most unlikely of
places in the film there’s also another
scene where one of the astronauts is
about to go up to space and he receives
a phone call and the phone call goes
along the lines of oh we think that
there might be a bit of an issue with
the calculation so we might have to
abort the mission and so he then tells
the command center that actually there’s
a person I remember from before who
solved a few problems you need to bring
her in the room and she needs to check
everything over and so this lady who
goes by the name of Catherine Johnson
she runs from one side of the compound
to the other and although most people
would have looked at her contribution to
be small ie she was just checking a
calculation with the analogy that we
just heard over the human body every
single individual they play a vital part
she bought with her not just herself and
her brilliant mind but actually it was
her experiences of being taught a
completely outdated and archaic method
of maths which was ultimately
responsible for putting in hand into
space and so what we see is that
organisations institutions were the
public or private
they will always fail to accelerate
when their best minds are not in the
room a great mind can really entreaty
come from absolutely anywhere regardless
of background color gender but the
honest question I have to ask is do
people really believe it and if so why
do we continue to sit on a goldmine of
talent in our organizations when really
certain people should be in our
boardrooms interestingly in recent news
there was an organization who made the
decision to remove the use of any form
of diversity initiatives and they
decided to opt to create something which
was called an inclusion council because
their view is that they wanted to make
sure that the very people that were
excluded they wanted to make sure that
they were a part of actually making some
key decisions and actually the people
that were heading up these inclusion
councils were middle-class white men now
whether or not you agree or disagree
with the view of what they’ve done well
I think we can agree on is that it is
essential for us to work together as
allies as a whole in order to highlight
and to propel hidden figures in each and
every single one of our organizations so
why are we talking about diversity in
2017 if we look around the room I think
it’s safe to say that we are a complete
mixture and diverse group of people but
actually when we look at the number of
political challenges that we are
actually facing today both at home with
brexit overseas when we need to look at
how we actually move the UK forward I’d
actually like to propose to you that
rather than actually looking at our
bottom line how we can actually grow our
GDP or any other number of things we
should first remember the fundamental
truth that groundbreaking and innovative
ideas and concepts are formed they are
articulated and they are executed from
people that’s accelerate our future in
the lives of our children and those
around us like the judge in the film who
made a decision to go against societal
norms his decision inspired and impacted
the lives of millions just because he
said yes so I’m sure that you’ve
gathered from the number of film
analogies that I’ve made that I’m quite
an avid film fan and so what can you do
to help no homework would be complete
without setting some form of movie and
so I’d really recommend that you
actually watched the film hidden figures
and also there’s another suggestion I
put there which is called queen of
katway not only will you leave inspired
at the contributions of these great
individuals but it might make you
realize that actually great things can
be found in the most unlikely list of
places the second is that next month is
actually Black History Month I’d really
encourage you to all go to an event near
by to learn about those who have
contributed and those who continue to
contribute to society the third is to
teach your children the way that they
should go so that when they are older
they will not depart from your teachings
and the fourth be like the judge who was
the key facilitator for someone who was
the advocate who pushed someone’s case
because he helped to make someone who
was invisible visible and they
accelerated the space race in a way that
was unlike anything we’ve ever seen
before Obama stole this quote from
Nelson Mandela I can’t blame him really
is quite a good quote and he said no one
is born hating another person because of
the color of his skin or his background
or his religion and I think that
especially with where we are in today’s
day and age it is something that we
should never forget
I have been truly privileged to have
been nominated for and received numerous
awards and when I’ve invited my
colleagues to come and to celebrate
because it’s really a team effort the
first thing that I marked is why is it
that you’ve received a women’s award or
a black award and I’ve taken them back
to the office and I’ve said to them can
you please point out another person who
might sit on this floor who is a woman
he was black he was at a senior level in
this organization who does what I do and
then they concede and then they say okay
fair enough you might be one of a few
and actually I have to correct them and
tell them I’m actually one of many from
being the first person in my family to
have been educated past GCSE level to
graduating from university I now stand
before you as a vice president of a
footsy institution which to me was an
impossible feat and it’s a real
privilege to be able to work for an
organization which promotes the
diversity of individuals and their
communities now while I think it’s
important for us to continue to tell the
stories of the past like that of my
grandparents or even those of the three
women in this particular film who went
on to do great things I think it’s
really important for us not to mark the
end with a period but actually with a
comma because we had to continue to
write and to tell our own stories
because we have so much work to do still
we all know and we recognize the
importance of diversity the frequently
quoted notion from every single
corporate organization is that we must
encourage diversity of thoughts and
experience to better reflect our clients
our communities and the very people that
we serve and encouraging engagement and
integration through our diversity
initiatives it freely does help us to do
that
it is because of the existence of such
networks and because of key allies in
the most unlikely of places because
those individuals are passionate about
accelerating their communities their
businesses and their financial
institutions that I myself am no longer
a hidden figure who is invisible but I
am very much visible when we think about
the theme for today which is accelerate
the one thing I really hope you take
aways that the focus above everything
above our bottom line is our people
people are the cornerstone of innovation
people are the cornerstone of
acceleration thank you
[Music]
[Applause]
[Applause]
earlier this year there was a film which
was released in the cinemas and it was
called hidden figures can I just have a
show of hands for those of you that have
seen it okay so just a few so hopefully
I won’t give you too many spoilers but
the film is about three African American
or black women who work at NASA and they
serve as the brains or the kind of like
the engineering room behind one of the
greatest space operations in the US
history
the launch of actually putting a man
into space
the film was based roughly around the
1960s so it was at this particular time
you can imagine putting someone into
space for the first time was actually
quite an incredible achievement and it
actually did help to restore the us’s
confidence and really accelerate them in
the space race for many years to come
the movie it really gripped me because
although it was supposed to be a
depiction of the u.s. in the 1960s I sat
here watching it in 2017 actually
resonating with a loss of the challenges
that were faced by the three main
characters in the film they were
intelligent they were contributors to a
worldwide recognized organization and
institution they were women they were
black but why I thought was quite
interesting was that prior to their
story being told they were invisible I’d
actually never heard of them then the
question occurred to me what if anything
has changed in the way we deal with
diversity and women of color in the UK
today I suppose if I give you a bit of
historical context as to where I come
from my grandparents were two of
many individuals who came to London from
the Caribbean on a boat which was called
the wind rush and because of their
desire for adventure
and looking for new opportunities for
not just them but also their extended
family I was fortunate to have had the
experience of being born in London but
also having part of my culture and
heritage which was Jamaican now having
lived in Jamaica Jamaica for quite a few
years and then coming to primary school
in London this obviously had huge
advantages first and foremost to my
surprise everyone wanted to be Jamaican
it was quite interesting to actually
because for those of my friends that
were Nigerian and Gani and they really
were quick to deny that they were from
Africa and certainly in my case was only
helped for being Jamaican by films like
Cool Runnings and definitely from the
likes of people like Usain Bolt
I mean his infamous lightning bolt
everyone recognized if you decided to
strike a pose but what became
interesting when I got older and then I
decided to go back and visit Jamaica I
was too English for my fellow Jamaicans
and then when I was in London in a
corporate environment I was too Jamaican
for my fellow Englishmen and so the
question then became where did I fit
like the characters in the film where
just mentioned I was just like them
intelligent a contributor a woman who’s
black Jamaican in ancestry yet English
by birth but in the brutal corporate
world I was still invisible and a hidden
figure in order to find where I could
fit I looked to find a place where I
could feel included and really just meet
people who would just like me
and so when I started my career there
are a number of initiatives that I
decided would be quite useful to take
part in and I still do mentoring
women’s networks the be more diversity
networks because to me it made sense I’m
a woman and black but when I went to
these initiatives I wasn’t just a woman
who was black I was a multitude in a
myriad of things and so the one thing
that I realized was that diversity
networks at their core they’re a really
great way to facilitate the creation of
a safe space for a number of individuals
to really feel at home
but when diversity initiatives they fail
or when the invisible candidates that
you have they still remain invisible
diversity in their initiatives they work
best when all people are recognized for
their differences their importance and
they actually feel valued equally
because it’s only when we have those
components together that we can really
drive and accelerate forward a
philosopher once said the I cannot say
to the hand I don’t need you and the
head cannot say to the feet I don’t need
you but on the contrary there should be
no division in the body because all body
parts should have equal concern for each
other going back to the film there’s a
rather powerful scene of one of the
women who was incredibly gifted but in
order for her to become a certified NASA
engineer she actually had to go to
school to gain some additional
qualifications and given the time period
that the film was set in it was actually
important for her to go to a judge to
actually have access granted for her to
be able to go back to school now what
was particularly interesting for me was
actually how she petitioned and
positioned her case in front of this
church he was the most unlikeliest of
allies that she could have ever had he
came from a background that she did not
come from he was a white privilege meal
in a position of authority and she was
quite the opposite but what was amazing
was that this was the same person who
was the most unlikeliest of candidates
who facilitated her journey and the same
is very much true today in 2017 can I
have a show of hands if you can think of
somebody who has actually helped to
facilitate you to be where you are today
anyone yeah all of us and I think it’s
important for us to realize that our
allies in the people that can really
accelerate and help push us forward they
don’t necessarily have to be people in
positions of authority actually we can
find allies in the most unlikely of
places in the film there’s also another
scene where one of the astronauts is
about to go up to space and he receives
a phone call and the phone call goes
along the lines of oh we think that
there might be a bit of an issue with
the calculation so we might have to
abort the mission and so he then tells
the command center that actually there’s
a person I remember from before who
solved a few problems you need to bring
her in the room and she needs to check
everything over and so this lady who
goes by the name of Catherine Johnson
she runs from one side of the compound
to the other and although most people
would have looked at her contribution to
be small ie she was just checking a
calculation with the analogy that we
just heard over the human body every
single individual they play a vital part
she bought with her not just herself and
her brilliant mind but actually it was
her experiences of being taught a
completely outdated and archaic method
of maths which was ultimately
responsible for putting in hand into
space and so what we see is that
organisations institutions were the
public or private
they will always fail to accelerate
when their best minds are not in the
room a great mind can really entreaty
come from absolutely anywhere regardless
of background color gender but the
honest question I have to ask is do
people really believe it and if so why
do we continue to sit on a goldmine of
talent in our organizations when really
certain people should be in our
boardrooms interestingly in recent news
there was an organization who made the
decision to remove the use of any form
of diversity initiatives and they
decided to opt to create something which
was called an inclusion council because
their view is that they wanted to make
sure that the very people that were
excluded they wanted to make sure that
they were a part of actually making some
key decisions and actually the people
that were heading up these inclusion
councils were middle-class white men now
whether or not you agree or disagree
with the view of what they’ve done well
I think we can agree on is that it is
essential for us to work together as
allies as a whole in order to highlight
and to propel hidden figures in each and
every single one of our organizations so
why are we talking about diversity in
2017 if we look around the room I think
it’s safe to say that we are a complete
mixture and diverse group of people but
actually when we look at the number of
political challenges that we are
actually facing today both at home with
brexit overseas when we need to look at
how we actually move the UK forward I’d
actually like to propose to you that
rather than actually looking at our
bottom line how we can actually grow our
GDP or any other number of things we
should first remember the fundamental
truth that groundbreaking and innovative
ideas and concepts are formed they are
articulated and they are executed from
people that’s accelerate our future in
the lives of our children and those
around us like the judge in the film who
made a decision to go against societal
norms his decision inspired and impacted
the lives of millions just because he
said yes so I’m sure that you’ve
gathered from the number of film
analogies that I’ve made that I’m quite
an avid film fan and so what can you do
to help no homework would be complete
without setting some form of movie and
so I’d really recommend that you
actually watched the film hidden figures
and also there’s another suggestion I
put there which is called queen of
katway not only will you leave inspired
at the contributions of these great
individuals but it might make you
realize that actually great things can
be found in the most unlikely list of
places the second is that next month is
actually Black History Month I’d really
encourage you to all go to an event near
by to learn about those who have
contributed and those who continue to
contribute to society the third is to
teach your children the way that they
should go so that when they are older
they will not depart from your teachings
and the fourth be like the judge who was
the key facilitator for someone who was
the advocate who pushed someone’s case
because he helped to make someone who
was invisible visible and they
accelerated the space race in a way that
was unlike anything we’ve ever seen
before Obama stole this quote from
Nelson Mandela I can’t blame him really
is quite a good quote and he said no one
is born hating another person because of
the color of his skin or his background
or his religion and I think that
especially with where we are in today’s
day and age it is something that we
should never forget
I have been truly privileged to have
been nominated for and received numerous
awards and when I’ve invited my
colleagues to come and to celebrate
because it’s really a team effort the
first thing that I marked is why is it
that you’ve received a women’s award or
a black award and I’ve taken them back
to the office and I’ve said to them can
you please point out another person who
might sit on this floor who is a woman
he was black he was at a senior level in
this organization who does what I do and
then they concede and then they say okay
fair enough you might be one of a few
and actually I have to correct them and
tell them I’m actually one of many from
being the first person in my family to
have been educated past GCSE level to
graduating from university I now stand
before you as a vice president of a
footsy institution which to me was an
impossible feat and it’s a real
privilege to be able to work for an
organization which promotes the
diversity of individuals and their
communities now while I think it’s
important for us to continue to tell the
stories of the past like that of my
grandparents or even those of the three
women in this particular film who went
on to do great things I think it’s
really important for us not to mark the
end with a period but actually with a
comma because we had to continue to
write and to tell our own stories
because we have so much work to do still
we all know and we recognize the
importance of diversity the frequently
quoted notion from every single
corporate organization is that we must
encourage diversity of thoughts and
experience to better reflect our clients
our communities and the very people that
we serve and encouraging engagement and
integration through our diversity
initiatives it freely does help us to do
that
it is because of the existence of such
networks and because of key allies in
the most unlikely of places because
those individuals are passionate about
accelerating their communities their
businesses and their financial
institutions that I myself am no longer
a hidden figure who is invisible but I
am very much visible when we think about
the theme for today which is accelerate
the one thing I really hope you take
aways that the focus above everything
above our bottom line is our people
people are the cornerstone of innovation
people are the cornerstone of
acceleration thank you
[Music]
[Applause]
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