Page 123 - Powerlist 2019 - Digital Edition

Arinzé Kene
Actor, director, playwright
UK-based actor Arinzé is one
of the hottest up-and-coming
talents in the country. His one-man
show, Misty, has been receiving
rave reviews, as well as making
history by transferring from the
Bush Theatre (following a sold-out
run) to Trafalgar Studios, making
him only the second black British
playwright to have a show in
the West End. The BBC recently
Montel Fagan-Jordan described the show as “the most Kwaku Osei
Young Sailor of the Year 2017 important cultural experience in Associate, Linklaters
Sailing is not a sport where you British theatre right now”. Kwaku is a star on the rise in the
would expect to find a lot of black This autumn, viewers will also corporate world. As an Associate
people, if any at all. However, 17-year- get a chance to see Arinzé in the (project finance) at Linklaters,
old Montel from London could be Netflix film Been So Long, the Kwaku is a member of the
the one to change all that. most expensive British film ever Linklaters Africa Group, and has
The Yachting Journalists purchased by the online streaming advised on several of the firm’s
Association’s 2017 Young Sailor of giant. The musical production transactions in the continent,
the Year was the team captain on co-stars fellow Brit talent Michaela including the $US5billion Nacala
board the 45ft Scaramouche for the Coel (Chewing Gum). corridor financing, the largest
Rolex Fastnet Race in August 2017. This has been a great year infrastructure project financing in
Montel led a crew of eight students, for Arinzé, but it hasn’t been an sub-Saharan Africa.
aided by two yacht masters and two overnight success. Soap fans may He is also a member of Linklaters’
teachers from his school, Greig City recognise him from his stint in diversity action team which
Academy. EastEnders in 2010, and he starred conducts targeted recruitment of
They were the first comprehensive in the acclaimed independent BAME candidates and mentors
state school to complete the six-day movie The Pass, for which he won Linklaters’ prospective and current
race in its 92-year history. Best Supporting Actor at the 2017 trainees. Born and raised in Accra,
Greig teacher John Holt said Evening Standard Film Awards. Ghana, Kwaku attended Yale
before the award announcement: University for his first degree in
“For a lad who has at 17 charmed Political Science and French and
sponsors, pitched to big sailing later the University of Cambridge
companies, sailed over 3,000 miles for an M. Phil. in International
and done masses behind the scenes Relations.
at school for Project Scaramouche, While completing his Graduate
I think if it goes his way, it will reflect Diploma in Law, he worked part
his commitment and effort.’” time in the office of Tottenham MP
Previous award winners include David Lammy, where he researched
Sir Ben Ainslie, the most decorated and wrote speeches.
Olympic sailor in history.

Silas Adekunle is reported to be the highest paid play with augmented reality. The
Robotics engineer robotics engineer in the world. plastic robots are controlled from a
Last November Silas hit the Silas was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and smartphone app, which creates the
headlines as the young robotics moved to the UK at the age of ten. As virtual world for battle and exploring.
entrepreneur who landed a dream founder and CEO of Reach Robotics, The invention has seen Silas featured
deal with Apple after building the he was still an undergraduate at the in the Forbes magazine’s ‘30 under 30
world’s first gaming robot. The University of the West of England European Technology’ list this year.
26-year-old signed a lucrative studying Robotics (in which he In 2015 he was accepted into
contract to see his Mekamon robots earned a First) when he developed Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator,
sold exclusively in Apple stores, with the world’s first gaming robots. powered by Techstars in San Diego,
the company raising $10million in His firm is currently located one of the biggest processor
funding to see them develop and at the Bristol Robotics manufacturers in the world.
expand. Lab, the best robotics Silas ran the Prince’s Trust ‘Robotics
Prior to signing the deal with research centre in Britain, in schools’ programme in Bristol
Apple, the initial launch of where he has a staff of 32. in partnership with UWE for four
Mekamon sold 500 The Mekamon (aka years, leading a team of engineering
bots, generating ‘Meka Monsters’) are students into schools to develop the
$7.5million. A year four-legged ‘battle bots’ that interest of young students in STEM
later, and Silas combine real-world game through robotics.

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