Black History Month is a chance for the world to share and celebrate the impact of Black heritage and culture. However, culture isn’t all in the past. It is a living, breathing thing that exists in all of us. For this reason, we’ve decided to celebrate Black History Month 2022 by highlighting the contributions of modern-day Black entrepreneurs.
Jay-Ann Lopez
CEO and Founder of Black Girl Gamers
Jay-Ann is the CEO and Founder of Black Girl Gamers: an online ‘safe space’ that heightens the visibility of Black women in Gaming. The platform hosts over 6000 women and has partnered with multiple organisations to advocate for Diversity and Inclusion. Jay-Ann has received several awards for her work with BGG, and has consulted with leading businesses such as Twitter, Unilever, Wellcome Collection, Facebook and Microsoft on how companies can improve in dominant gaming culture.
Jay-Ann is also the Co-Founder of Curlture: a platform with over 50,000 followers that empowers and enables women to embrace their natural hair. You can find out more about her here: https://www.jay-annlopez.com/
Marvyn Harrison
Founder of Dope Black Dads and Belovd Agency
Marvyn Harrison founded Dope Black to combat the challenges faced by the Black community every day. It strives to improve the strength and durability of homes and shared community spaces.
The idea came to Harrison after he sent a WhatsApp message to a group of friends on Father’s Day 2018. The message simply said he appreciated the work they did as fathers. The responses were overwhelmingly positive, and showed Harrison that there was a need for community support and communication.
The organisation has now grown far beyond a single WhatsApp group. It has over 250,000 members in the UK, USA, and South Africa. Its popularity means that it now includes six connected communities: DB Dads, DB Mums, DB Men, DB Women, DB Queers, and DB Disabled. Together, these communities work tirelessly to tackle political disenfranchisement, socio-economic underperformance, spiritual alignment, aggressive law and order practices, and financial literacy. To find out more, visit: https://dopeblack.org/
Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE
Founder of Stemettes
Imafidon is the founder of Stemettes: an organisation that encourages young people to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths. It was founded to combat the lack of women and non-binary people in STEM.
Imafidon’s own experiences had a lot to do with Stemette’s conception. When she studied Maths and Computer Science at Oxford University, she was one of only three girls on the course. She later discovered that this disparity was common: women and non-binary people were severely underrepresented in STEM areas.
To date, over 50,000 young people have attended Stemette events, with an impressive 95% of attendees declaring an increased interest in working in STEM. To find out more about Imafidon’s work with Stemettes, visit: https://stemettes.org/
Ashleigh Ainsley
Co-Founder of Colorintech
Ainsley is a notable name in technology. After beginning his career at Google, he founded a number of successful start-ups, such as Qubit and the Founders Forum Group. His portfolio is impressive: he has worked for Downing Street and the World Economic Forum, and with companies such as Facebook and Microsoft.
Ainsley founded Colorintech in 2016, to help ethnic minorities enter the UK tech workforce. He — and Colorintech — believe that a more inclusive industry will improve products and innovation.
Colorintech boasts a community of over 30,000 professionals, all seeking to make Europe the most inclusive tech hub in the world. To find out more, visit: https://www.colorintech.org/
Dr Tunde Okewale MBE
Founder of Urban Lawyers
Okewale is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers and the founder of Urban Lawyers: a charity designed to make the law more accessible to marginalised groups in society. The charity focuses on improving social mobility and diversity in a profession that is traditionally limited.
As well as providing mentoring and networking opportunities, Urban Lawyers educates young people from underrepresented backgrounds about their legal rights. To find out more about Okewale’s work, visit: https://urbanlawyers.co.uk/
Discover more Black entrepreneurs
The entrepreneurs in this article are a small fraction of the talent in the UK and overseas. There are also people like Courtney Daniella: a 22-year-old spokesperson for academic equality. Daniella is just starting an influential and successful career, and is already credited with contributing to the 50% rise in Black applicants to Cambridge University in 2018 and 2019.
Then there are Black entrepreneurs like Swiss: a well-known musician and a former member of So Solid Crew. Although Swiss already has an established career, he has recently redirected his energies to found Black Pound Day. BPD is an initiative to increase the visibility of Black businesses and address the economic inequalities that affect them.
You can read about more Black entrepreneurs here, or — better yet — get involved with their initiatives!
Black History Month 2022
The theme for this year’s Black History Month is ‘Time to Change: Action not Words’. It highlights the importance of making tangible change to combat racial bias within organisations and businesses.
This is something that Kirkwood Consulting is passionate about — every day of the year. Our team is made up from diverse individuals, and this diversity has been a catalyst in empowering us to work with organisations to identify BAME talent and future leaders. We strive to create opportunities that increase social mobility and inclusion.
To find out more about us, visit: https://www.kirkwoodconsulting.co.uk/
Alternatively, visit Black History Month’s site: https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/
