Sir Kenneth Aphunezi Olisa (born 13 October 1951) is a British businessman and philanthropist. He is the first mixed heritage

Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London The Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London is the personal representative of the monarch, currently King Charles III, in Greater London. Each Lord-Lieutenant is assisted in, largely ceremonial, duties by Deputy Lieutenants whom he appoints; the Lie ...

. He founded and led the AIM-listed technology merchant bank Interregnum and now leads Restoration Partners. Ken Olisa is Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists and has served and serves on several boards of philanthropic, educational and regulator organisations. Sir Kenneth with his wife endowed the Olisa Library at

Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Fitzwilliam College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , establish ...

Early life

Born in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

in 1951 of a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jo ...

father and a British mother, Olisa was educated at Nottingham High Pavement Grammar School and

, where he held a scholarship and studied Natural Sciences and then Social, Political and Management Sciences. His technology career began in the 1970s at IBM. Olisa married Julia Sherwood in Cambridge in 1976.

Career

At IBM he held various posts before joining

Wang Laboratories Wang Laboratories was a US computer company founded in 1951 by An Wang and G. Y. Chu. The company was successively headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1954–1963), Tewksbury, Massachusetts (1963–1976), and finally in Lowell, Massachus ...

in 1981. Following a period as marketing director for Europe, VP of US Marketing and then of Worldwide Marketing based in Boston, he was appointed Senior VP and general manager of Europe, Africa and the Middle East (EAME) located in Brussels. He led the team which restored the EAME operation to profitability, following which he launched an unsuccessful

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena o ...

resulting in his departure in 1992. Olisa then founded Interregnum, a technology merchant bank, leading it through its early growth, its entry into and exit from a joint venture with

BDO Stoy Hayward BDO (an acronym for Binder Dijker Otte) is an international network of public accounting, tax, consulting and business advisory firms that provide professional services under the name BDO. It is the fifth-largest accounting network in the wor ...

, the AIM IPO in 2000. He was also a principal advisor to, and director of, uDate.com, which was later sold to

Barry Diller Barry Charles Diller (born February 2, 1942) is an American businessman. He is Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC and Expedia Group and founded the Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting. Diller was inducted into the Television Hall o ...

's USA Interactive in 2003. Olisa retired from Interregnum in 2006 and now runs Restoration Partners. Olisa has considerable public company board-level experience on both sides of the Atlantic. He was the first British-born black man to serve on the board of a major UK public company (

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was est ...

) and is a former

non-executive director A non-executive director (abbreviated to non-exec, NED or NXD), independent director or external director is a member of the board of directors of a corporation, such as a company, cooperative or non-government organization, but not a member of th ...

Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational media conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where it is headquartered at the Bay Adelaide Centre. Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corp ...

(where he was a member of the Audit Committee), and is also a former non-executive director and Deputy Chairman of the

Institute of Directors The Institute of Directors (IoD) is a British professional organisation for company directors, senior business leaders and entrepreneurs. It is the UK's longest running organisation for professional leaders, having been founded in 1903 and incor ...

. He was a Director and Chairman of the Remuneration Committee of Canada's largest independent software developer,

Open Text Corporation OpenText Corporation (also written ''opentext'') is a Canadian company that develops and sells enterprise information management (EIM) software. OpenText, headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, is Canada's fourth-largest software company ...

. More recently, he served as a non-executive director of

Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation PLC (ENRC) was a public, Kazakhstan/Central African-focused, multinational leading diversified natural resources company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It had activities in integrated mining, proc ...

(ENRC) from 2007 and from which he was fired over governance concerns after which he coined the expression "More Soviet than City" to describe the way he and Sir Richard Sykes had been treated. He also serves on the boards of, or is an adviser to, several privately held and innovative companies including the UK's leading corporate governance advisor Independent Audit. Olisa is also Chairman of the Thebes Group and not for profit

Shaw Trust Shaw Trust is a charitable organisation in the United Kingdom which supports people with complex needs into good work. It was founded in the village of Shaw in Wiltshire in 1982. Shaw Trust surpluses are reinvested through its charitable Sh ...

. In 2009, ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' named him Not for Profit non-executive director of the year, and in 2016 he was voted number one in the ''

Powerlist The ''Powerlist'' is a list of the 100 most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage in the United Kingdom. The list is updated annually and has been published in book format by Powerful Media since 2007. The ''Powerlist'' is ...

'''s Top 10 most influential British black people. In November 2017, Olisa succeeded Adedotun Sulaiman as the Chairman of

Interswitch Interswitch is a leading African integrated payments and digital commerce platform company headquartered in Lagos. Founded in 2002 in Nigeria, as a transaction switching and processing company with national focus, Interswitch progressively evolved ...

and in 2018 he joined the Board of Huawei (UK).

Honours and appointments

Wintrade Week Women in Trade and Industry Gala Awards- Sir Ken Olisa Lord Lieutenant Greater London

Olisa was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

in the

2010 Birthday Honours The 2010 Birthday Honours for the Commonwealth realms were announced to celebrate the Queen's Birthday on 7 June 2010 in New Zealand, on 12 June 2010 in the United Kingdom, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Sai ...

for services to homeless people in London, a

Commander of the Order of St John The Order of St John, short for Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (french: l'ordre très vénérable de l'Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem) and also known as St John International, is a British royal order of ...

in 2017 and a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are ...

in the

2018 New Year Honours The 2018 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

for services to business and philanthropy. Olisa was appointed

on 29 May 2015. In 2018, he was awarded

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

s by

Kingston University , mottoeng = "Through Learning We Progress" , established = – gained University Status – Kingston Technical Institute , type = Public , endowment = £2.3 m (2015) , ...

and by

Nottingham Trent University Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a public research university in Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

. He received a further honorary doctorate from the

University of Worcester , motto_lang = la , mottoeng = ''Aspire to Inspire'' , established = 1946 – Worcester Emergency Teacher Training College 1948 – Worcester Teacher Training College 1976 – Worcester College of Higher Education 1997 – ...

in 2019. Olisa is a Freeman of the City of London; President of

Thames Reach Thames Reach is a London-based charity working with those suffering from homelessness. Services Thames Reach's mission is to ensure that the users of its services find and sustain a decent home, develop supportive relationships and lead fulfil ...

, a charity working to shelter and resettle the homeless in London; Founder and Chairman of the Powerlist Foundation (now the Aleto Foundation); Fellow of the

British Computer Society Sir Maurice Wilkes served as the first President of BCS in 1957 BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, known as the British Computer Society until 2009, is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in inf ...

since 2006; Life Fellow of the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

; Life Fellow of the Institute of Directors; and in 2021 he was appointed High Bailiff and Searcher of the Sanctuary of

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

. Olisa is also a

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

of several charities, including School-Home Support (SHS), a charity helping disadvantaged children and young people overcome barriers to education such as poverty, domestic abuse, and housing issues; Fore, a charity which funds scale-up initiatives for other charities; and the

Black Cultural Archives Black Cultural Archives (BCA) is an archive and heritage centre in Brixton, London, devoted to the histories of people of African and Caribbean descent in Britain. Also known as BCA, it was founded in 1981, by educationalist and historian Len Ga ...

. In 2019, he was appointed President of London Youth. His past appointments include serving as Master of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, Director of the

Thomson Reuters Foundation Thomson Reuters Foundation is a London-based charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, a Canadian news conglomerate. The Foundation is registered as a charity in the United States and United Kingdom and is headquartered in Canary Wharf, London. Anton ...

, member of the Government's Women's Enterprise Taskforce; Governor of the

Peabody Trust The Peabody Trust was founded in 1862 as the Peabody Donation Fund and now brands itself simply as Peabody.

for ten years; non-executive director of the West Lambeth NHS Trust; and a start-up regulator twice: first as an inaugural

Postal Services Commission The Postal Services Commission, known as Postcomm, was a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom charged with overseeing the quality and universal service of post in the United Kingdom. It was established in 2000 under t ...

er, from 2001 to 2004, and as a board member of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, the body charged with managing the expenses, pay and pensions of members of parliament. On 19 March 2019, Olisa greeted Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states durin ...

and the

Duchess of Cambridge Duke of Cambridge, one of several current royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom , is a hereditary title of specific rank of nobility in the British royal family. The title (named after the city of Cambridge in England) is heritable by male de ...

at the opening of the newly refurbished

Bush House Bush House is a Grade II listed building at the southern end of Kingsway between Aldwych and the Strand in London. It was conceived as a major new trade centre by American industrialist Irving T. Bush, and commissioned, designed, funded, a ...

. On 17 May 2021, Olisa became High Bailiff and Searcher of the Sanctuary at Westminster Abbey in succession to Sir Roy Strong. He is a trustee of

The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund (PWCF) awards approximately £3 million to a range of charitable causes annually. It was founded by King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) in 1979, and is registered as The Prince of Wales's Charitable Found ...

. He is the patron of Red Trouser Day, a charity which raises awareness of colorectal cancer.

References

;Footnotes ;Sources
The Telegraph websiteThe Guardian websiteInterview with The Sunday TimesProfile of Ken Olisa at Thames Reach

External links

Thebes Group websiteBusiness tips from Ken Olisa
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olisa, Ken 1951 births Living people People from Nottingham People educated at Nottingham High Pavement Grammar School Alumni of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Nigerian recipients of British titles Knights Bachelor Masters of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists Commanders of the Order of St John Officers of the Order of the British Empire English people of Nigerian descent