Martin Ephson has been active in business and an equal opportunities employer in the UK for over 40 years. He co founded high profile branded consumer businesses Farrow & Ball and Fermoie. Winning the Queens Award for Enterprise in 2004 and in 2018 was awarded an OBE for services to design and manufacturing.

Martin has also been involved in educational charity work for over 20 years in both Ghana and the UK.

David Adetayo Olusoga OBE is a British-Nigerian historian, broadcaster, and BAFTA award-winning presenter and film-maker. David was also the Creative Director of Uplands Television.

David is a Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester. David is an expert on military history, empire, race and slavery, and the University of Manchester described him as “one of the UK’s foremost historians”.

In 2019 David was awarded an OBE for his services to history and community integration. He is often listed as one of the 100 most powerful Black Britons in the Powerlist.

Melrose Stewart is a honorary lecturer in the School of Sports, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Birmingham, a TEDx speaker and a Chartered Physiotherapist. Mel received an MBE in 2020 for her services to physiotherapy.

In 2017, Mel was an expert on the Channel 4 television programme, ‘Old people’s Home for 4-Year-Olds’, bringing her expertise on healthy ageing. She aims to counteract the negative stereotypes and rhetoric surrounding getting old.

Mel sees the fight for equity and justice as a fundamental part of her activities. Besides, she was a founder member of the BAME Network of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.

Richard is a Professor of Musculoskeletal Science and is co-founder of the Centre for Human Development, Stem Cells & Regeneration and Founder – CSO and Director Renovo’s Biologics Limited.

Richard leads a multidisciplinary research group focused on developing strategies to repair bone & cartilage with translation through to patient benefit a personal key driver. He has trained 50 MD/Ph.D. students to completion, over the last 20 years, and believes in the power of education.

The Foundation is the brainchild of Richard – he has been fortunate to have experienced the advantages provided by education. Richard believes passionately finance should not be a barrier to education or opportunity and, critically, the need to ensure disadvantaged Black British students can attend our universities.

Ajay is ranked the UK’s 9th Most Outstanding Future Leader. She is an award-winning diversity & inclusion champion, education activist and public speaker.

Amalgamating her passion for social justice and fair access and progression in higher education, Ajay is an Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Officer in the UK Civil Service and board member at the Office for Students for the Teaching Excellence Framework. As a member of a national committee with expertise in learning and teaching, she assesses and rates Universities and colleges in England for excellence.

Prior to this, Ajay was the Director & Chair of Board of Trustees of a 16,000-strong membership-led charity with c. £1.2m annual expenditure and is the University of Surrey’s first ever Black female Union President.

Sadiya Akram is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at Manchester Metropolitan University having previously worked at Queen Mary University of London, the University of Birmingham and been a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Canberra, Australia. Sadiya’s research is concerned with understanding and tackling race and racism in British politics and society, and she has published numerous articles and books on this issue.

With over a decade’s experience of teaching in universities, Sadiya is a passionate believer in the power of education to change lives. As the beneficiary of a scholarship herself, Sadiya is committed to widening access to higher education. She is proud to work with The Cowrie Scholarship Foundation in supporting Black British students to overcome financial barriers to thrive in the university environment.

Tim is an archaeologist, former diplomat and now Bursar at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford.

As someone for whom education changed his life, Tim is a very strong believer in the necessity and power of education as a motor for informed change – change in people’s lives, livelihood and the families and communities in which they live and work.

Already engaged in higher education, Tim wants to help Black British students access the world of university education to enable them to become engines of change.

Naomi works with IFES Europe as their Regional Training Co-ordinator, training staff and students across Europe and working on the senior European leadership team for the charity. She was the Revive Extra Plenary Director for the largest Student Conference in Europe. Naomi is the founder of Passion for Evangelism. PfE is a network of creative, public female speakers. Helping hundreds of women grow in confidence in public communication. In addition, Naomi has also set up an initiative called Community in a crisis. CIAC has been helping churches and charities across Europe get online during the covid-19 pandemic.

PJ is a solicitor advocate who previously worked at the EU Commission as an employed barrister and as a solicitor at one of the world’s leading law firm’s Slaughter and May. He has chaired / co-chaired two organisations previously and recently acted as one of sixteen Commissioners into an inquiry of the Hampshire County Council’s appx £2bn annual managed funds, culminating in a report for Hampshire 2050.

PJ believes fair access to higher education is part of social justice, having been told himself that he would never make it to university, he went on to secure a first class at Masters level and a Major Award from the Bar Council’s stage panel.

Ikenna has been a professional in the education space for more than 15 years working to develop innovative programmes and initiatives at elite higher education institutions serving objectives rooted in access, equity, inclusion, and diversity. He has built multiple student-facing leadership and scholarship programmes from scratch working with partners on 3 continents, more than 15 universities, and directly supporting the academic and career journey of up to 400 undergraduate and post-graduate students.

He is particularly passionate in supporting scholars from the African continent and within the African diaspora, recently completing an MSc in Anthropology and Development with a dissertation entitled, “Scholarships in the Marketplace: Racial Capitalism, the Black radical tradition, and scholarships for African Development”.

Celia is the Insights and Analytics Lead for Europe and Asia Client Group at Capital Group (CG). Prior to CG, Celia was a Risk & Data Analytics manager at Lloyd’s Banking Group (LBG) with previous spells in Financial Services consulting at PwC and Accenture.

Celia frequently organises, speaks and volunteers at technology, data, educational and diversity & inclusion events. She currently leads the Capital Associates of African Descent (CAAD) network for Europe and was the Race & Ethnicity signature event lead whilst at LBG. Her Diversity, Equity & Inclusion efforts saw her named as both a Yahoo Finance Top 100 EMPower Role Model and an Investing in Ethnicity Top 10 Future Leader in 2020.

In December 2020 she was appointed as Governor, by the Board of Trustees, for a King Edward VI Foundation School in Birmingham.

Chioma Okoye is Managing Director, Corporate Development – Europe & Asia, Tradeweb. She is part of the Corporate Development team at Tradeweb, a leading global operator of electronic marketplaces for rates, credit, equities and money markets. Chioma previously worked at Goldman Sachs in London for 11 years, in various roles within the Fixed Income division.

At Tradeweb, Chioma is a member of the firm’s Women’s Network and Diversity & Inclusion Committee. She is also a member of ‘100 Women in Finance’, a global association supporting women in their professional journey, while also laying the foundations for a new generation of industry leadership.

Through her involvement with the Foundation, Chioma hopes to help talented Black students access the same educational and career opportunities she was able to benefit from, thanks to the support of her family. She believes that partner universities’ commitment to covering students’ tuition fees ensures constant engagement and the success of the Foundation.