Page 82 - Powerlist 2020

Public Sector & Third Sector Marvin Rees

Mayor of Bristol

Throughout his career, the UK’s first directly elected Mayor
of African or African Caribbean heritage has worked in
diverse areas. Beginning at a UK international Christian aid
agency and other voluntary sector roles, he developed his
skills in Washington, DC, helping to organise the response
of faith-based organisations to President Bill Clinton’s
Welfare Reform Bill.
His career then encompassed public health while
working as a manager for the NHS focused on delivering
race equality in mental healthcare for Bristol, South
Gloucestershire and North Somerset. Marvin also worked in
radio broadcasting, becoming a broadcast journalist for BBC
Radio Bristol.
Marvin was elected Mayor of Bristol in May 2016 and since
then he has worked on fulfilling his pledge to make Bristol a
fairer city for all.
In what may be the biggest decision he makes as Mayor,
in 2019 Marvin cancelled the long-awaited plan to build an
area by the Temple Meads Station.
The episode created heated debate about the authority of
a city mayor to make a decision in the face of strong cross-
Dr Margaret Casely-Hayford party disagreement with the decision. Marvin cited the
£150m cost and expert advice that the venue would be too
Chair, Shakespeare’s Globe; Chancellor, Coventry small to be commercially viable.
University; Non-Executive Director, Co-op Group His priorities remain to tackle Bristol’s housing crisis
by building more homes and protecting private housing,
improve transport and people flow across the city, ensure
The past 12 months have been busy for Margaret, who has early intervention in health and well-being and progress
become a judge for publishers, Faber and Faber children’s social mobility through access to education and skills.
literature and book illustration awards, which are focussed Bristol as a city was founded largely on revenue from the
on improving diversity of writers and illustrators; an transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans. In March 2019,
Ambassador for ActionAid, the charity of which she was Marvin intervened to stop a second plaque being added to
formerly Chair; and she’s been working to support and the statue of Edward Colston who died in 1721. Colston was a
promote Target Oxbridge which encourages the placement Bristol-born merchant who did a lot of charity work but was
and success at Oxford and Cambridge universities of people however involved in the slave trade.
from disadvantaged backgrounds. All this in addition to Marvin proposed that the wording was not harsh enough
being Chair of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. about Colston’s involvement with the slave trade and should
Her move comes after a successful period working as the be reviewed.
Chair of international development charity ActionAid, a role
she undertook for four years. While there, she won £6million
from the UK Government to launch Fearless, a grass-roots
campaign to end violence against women and girls. She
also led on the charity’s Mistreated report, an exposé that
revealed the unfair tax deals that lead to inequality and
poverty for the millions living in the Global South. The
report triggered a government review into the impact of its
international tax treaties.
In 2016, she was elected to the Board of the Co-op,
appointed Chancellor of Coventry University and made a
Trustee on the board of the Radcliffe Trust.
Among her many other positions is Chair of the Advisory
Board of Ultra Education, the UK’s No 1 provider of
entrepreneurial education programmes to schools.
Dr Casely-Hayford is also a Patron of the John Staples
Society, a body created across the Leathersellers’ Federation
of Schools to encourage students to take an interest in
the arts, music, commerce, politics, religion and science.
Additionally, she has been a government-appointed non-
executive director of NHS England and a trustee for Great
Ormond Street Hospital and London’s Geffrye Museum.

82 Powerlist 2020