Colour of Power: UK’s leadership ranks remain mostly White

UK’s leadership ranks remain mostly White and continue to lack diversity, according to diversity and executive recruitment consultancy Green Park. Its latest research The Colour of Power 2020 has revealed that just 52 out of the 1,099 most powerful roles in the UK are filled by non-White individuals. That’s just 4.7% of the total number compared to the 13% proportion of the UK population. Black individuals are particularly under-represented with just 17 of the 1,099 roles held by Black men and women, despite organisations across Britain and the world declaring their commitment to improving equality and diversity, in light of the Black Lives Matter movement. 

“Following the Black Lives Matter protests and the disparity of impact the COVID pandemic has had on ethnic minority communities, the UK is beginning to face truths about its relationship with race,” stated Green Park’s Co-Founder and CEO, Raj Tulsiani. “With organisations and individuals more open to have honest conversations and with public declarations of support for the Black Lives Matter movement, we have a real opportunity to turn this moment into meaningful change for the future of the workplace and wider society. Through Race Equality Matters we intend to empower and amplify the voice of ethnic minority employees and provide organisations, networks and individuals with the insight, tools and resource to drive effective action for sustainable change.”

UK LEADERSHIP STILL LACKS DIVERSITY

Green Park’s The Colour of Power 2020 provides a visual depiction of the upper echelons of the UK’s most powerful institutions. It highlights not only the lack of diversity and disparity of power in the UK’s most senior leadership roles, but the total failure to address it despite three years of government-backed targets and ample rhetoric about commitments to diversity and inclusion. 

The executive search firm has therefore recently partnered with The Collaboratory and Black History Month to found a not for profit community interest company which seeks to improve racial equality in the workplace and launch a UK-wide Race Equality Week (as reported yesterday).

ZERO BAME REPRESENTATION

The report reveals that of the top roles in the UK (across 39 categories including central and local government, public bodies, the private sector, education, sport and charities), 15 of these categories still have no ethnic minority representation at all in their top ranks. They include:

• Leaders of Political Parties 
• Supreme Court Judges 
• Members of Defence Council for the Armed Forces
• Heads of Intelligence Agencies
• Permanent Secretaries in the Civil Service 
• Chief Constables 
• CEOs of Metropolitan Borough Councils
• CEOs of Top 50 NHS Trusts
• CEOs of Media Agencies 
• Managing Directors of TV Broadcasters
• CEOs of Business Organisations
• CEOs of Public Bodies/Quangos 
• CEOs of Culture and Arts Organisations
• CEOs of National Governing Bodies of Sport

UK LEADERSHIP ANALYSED

In addition, Green Park’s research, shows that five categories have seen a decrease in BAME leaders over the past three years, and more than half of the categories (21) have seen no change at all. “The 2020 figures represent a gain of only 1.2% or 15 additional ethnic minority led roles since the Colour of Power 2017 index, demonstrating a failure to address the disparity of power in the UK’s leadership positions, despite three years of government-backed targets and ample rhetoric about commitments to improving diversity and inclusion,” noted the executive search firm.

So exactly which UK professions/sectors do have BAME leadership in the top ranks? Here’s a snapshot (listing the most diverse first):

Government Ministers (6 out of 94):

• Kemi Badenoch MP, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Minister for Equalities
• Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State (Minister for South Asia and the Common Wealth) and Prime Minister’s Special Representative on preventing sexual violence in conflict
• Nadhim Zahawi MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Minister for Business and Industry
• Ranil Jayawardena MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Minister for International Trade
• The Rt Hon James Cleverly MP, Minister of State Minister for Middle East and North Africa
• The Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP, Minister of State (Minister for Business Energy and Clean Growth)

Vice Chancellors of Top Universities (5 out of 50):

• Adam Habib, SOAS University of London
• Bashir Makhoul, University for the Creative Arts 
• Dame Minouche Shafik, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
• Max Lu, University of Surrey
• Nishan Canagarajah, University of Leicester

Cabinet Members (4 out of 26):

• Alok Sharma MP, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
• Priti Patel MP, Secretary of State for the Home Department
• Rishi Sunak MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Suella Braverman QC MP, Attorney General

CEOs of London Borough Councils (4 out of 32):

• Ade Adetosoye OBE, London Borough of Bromley 
• Althea Roderick, Newham
• Ian Thomas, Kingston Upon Thames
• Kim Smith, Hammersmith & Fulham

Leaders of London Borough Councils (4 out of 28):

• Jas Athwal, London Borough of Redbridge
• Joseph Ejiofor, London Borough of Haringey
• Mohammed Butt, London Borough of Brent
• Ravi Govindia, London Borough of Wandworth

Chairs of Top 50 NHS Trusts (3 out of 50):

• Dr Ebrahim Adia, Lancashire Teaching Hospital, NHS Foundation Trust
• Karamjit Singh CBE, University Hospitals of NHS Leicester
• Pradip Patel, Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust 

Directly elected Mayors (3 out of 24): 

• Marvin Rees, Bristol
• Rokshana Fiaz, Newham
• Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London

CEOS of top consulting firms (3 out of 20):

• Alex Liu, Kearney
• Manny Maceda, Bain & Company
• Punit Renjen, Deloitte

CEOs of top accounting firms (2 out of 21):

• Punit Rengen, Deloitte 
• Rakesh Shaunak, Chairman and Managing Partner, MHA MacIntyre Hudson

CEOs of FTSE 100 companies (2 out of 98): 

• Ivan Menezes, Diageo
• Laxman Narasimhan, Reckitt Benckiser Group

CEOS of Unitary Authorities (2 out of 53): 

• Daljit Lally, Northumberland County Council
• Mel Barrett, Nottingham Council

Editors of top 10 UK fashion magazines (2 out of 10):

• Edward Enninful, Vogue
• Farah Storr, Elle

Leader of Unitary Authorities (1 out of 53):

• Mohammed Khan, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council 

Leader of Metropolitan Borough Councils (1 out of 33):

• Shabir Pandor, Kirklees Council

Leader of Trade Unions (1 out of 47):

• Patrick Roach, NASUWT

CEO of a fundraising charity (1 out of 10): 

• Danny Sriskandarajah, Oxfam

Premier League Manager (1 out of 20):

• Nuno Espirito Santo, Wolverhampton

Editor of National Newspapers (1 out of 17):

• Roula Khalaf, The Financial Times

CEO of top publishers (1 out of 10): 

• Perminder Mann, Bonnier Publishing

CEO of top advertising agencies (1 out of 20):

• Magnus Djaba, Saatchi & Saatchi

CEO/Managing Partner of top law firms (1 out of  22):

• Segun Osuntokun, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner

(Check out his guest column on the need for law firms to become more inclusive here).

Police and Crime Commissioner (1 out of 42):

• Hardyal Dhindsa, Derbyshire

Cabinet Member in the Welsh Assembly (1 out of 14):

• Vaughan Gething, Welsh Cabinet

Scottish Parliament Minister (1 out of 26):

• Humza Yousaf, MSP

Check out Green Park’s full Colour of Power 2020 report here.