Page 88 - 2018 Powerlist

Public Sector & Third Sector Simon Woolley

Co-founder/Director, Operation Black Vote

With the snap election called in April, Simon and Operation
Black Vote led a high-profile campaign with media partners
Saatchi and Saatchi, actor/rapper Riz Ahmed and SBTV’s
Jamal Edwards to push the question “black people don’t
vote – but what if we did?”
The campaign won coverage across the national press, on
Newsnight, Channel 4 news and Radio 4’s Today programme
and was aimed at driving voter registration.
The organisation also wrote a Race Equality manifesto to
demonstrate where the BME vote could make a difference
and successfully lobbied the political leaders to make clear
statements on how they would address persistent race
inequality.
The result of Operation Black Vote’s efforts was a record
number of BME voter turnout, a record number of BME MPs
– up from 41 to 52 – and the election of two Operation Black
Vote alumni: Tan Dhesi in Slough and Marsha De Cordova in
Battersea.
One Bristol University study noted: “Diversity in this
election played an even greater role than the youth vote.”
Also in the past year the organisation has been working
with the Government on three major initiatives.
Seyi Obakin Simon was a Government adviser on the Baroness Ruby
CEO, Centrepoint McGregor review into race equality and employment, which
launched in May with headline the “UK loses £24 billion
a year by locking out BME talent from the workplace”.
Centrepoint chief executive Seyi Obakin was awarded an He joined the David Lammy Review looking into racial
OBE last November for his work supporting vulnerable injustice in the criminal justice system, and he successfully
young people to find skills, employment and a place to live. campaigned for the Prime Minister to undertake a Race
Seyi joined Centrepoint, the leading national charity Equality audit across Whitehall.
working with homeless young people, in 2003 as its finance As well as being one of the founders of and director of
director. He had previously worked in a range of social Operation Black Vote, Simon is also commissioner for race
housing provisions, from working with the elderly through on the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
to all forms of supported housing.
He became Centrepoint’s first chief operating officer in
2006 and chief executive in 2009.
In this time, he has developed a passionate concern for
disadvantaged young people, especially those that are
homeless. Seyi said: “One young person’s story has stayed
with me – a young woman who, having suffered domestic
abuse, was taken into care at age 11 and came to Centrepoint
at 17 years old, with little qualifications.
“Yet, with our help, she gained the skills she needed
to get a job with a major multinational company and
has thrived in that job so much that she has made it into
supervisory ranks. I am totally committed to seeing fewer
young people becoming homeless and more young people
gaining the skills and jobs they need to make great homes
for themselves and their families.”
In his role as chief executive, Seyi takes overall
responsibility for moving Centrepoint towards its vision
of ending youth homelessness. He is also a Commissioner
for the UK Commission for Employment and Skills and a
member of the Social Security Advisory Committee.
In 2009, Seyi persuaded Prince William to sleep on the
streets of London overnight to understand the plight of
the 80,000 young people who experience homelessness
every day. Seyi began a professional accounting career at
PricewaterhouseCoopers and then worked in corporate
banking for several years.

84 Powerlist 2018