Margaret Henrietta Augusta Casely-Hayford"Casely-Hayford, Margaret Henrietta Augusta"
''Who's Who 2019''.

CBE 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 o ...

(born 1959)"Margaret Casely-Hayford"
BLD, April 2010. is a British lawyer, businesswoman and public figure who is active in the voluntary sector. She is Chancellor of Coventry University, chairs the board of trustees of Shakespeare's Globe, and was formerly chair of ActionAid UK and company secretary and head of legal services for leading retailers the

John Lewis Partnership The John Lewis Partnership plc (JLP) is a British company which operates John Lewis & Partners department stores, Waitrose & Partners supermarkets, its banking and financial services, and other retail-related activities. The privately-held publ ...

. She is in the forefront of working to create diversity on boards.

Biography

Margaret Casely-Hayford was born in London, England, into the prominent

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

ian

Casely-Hayford Casely-Hayford is an English language patronymic surname that is native to Ghana. It is most commonly borne by the Casely-Hayford family, descendants of the famous 19th century Euro- Fante and Pan-Africanist, J. E. Casely-Hayford of Cape Coast. ...

family: the daughter of Victor Casely-Hayford, an accountant who had trained as a barrister, her grandfather was the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

lawyer, writer and politician

J. E. Casely Hayford Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford, (29 September 1866 – 11 August 1930), also known as Ekra-Agyeman, was a prominent Fante Gold Coast journalist, editor, author, lawyer, educator, and politician who supported pan-African nationalism. His 1911 no ...

, and her brothers are historian

Gus Casely-Hayford Augustus Lavinus Casely-Hayford (born 1964) is a British curator, cultural historian, broadcaster and lecturer with ancestral Ghanaian roots in the Casely-Hayford family, a cadet branch of the Cape Coast royal dynasty. He is presently the Direc ...

, designer

Joe Casely-Hayford Joseph Ephraim Casely-Hayford (24 May 1956 – 3 January 2019) was a British fashion designer. Beginning in the mid-1980s he established an international reputation as one of the UK's most respected and consistently relevant designers of men's a ...

and Peter Casely-Hayford, formerly managing director of TV production company Twenty Twenty. In 2008, the

s were named on "The Black Powerlist" as the most influential black family in the UK. Casely-Hayford studied law at

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

, graduating in 1982, and did her Bar finals at the Inns of Court School of Law, being

called to the Bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1983 (

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

). She worked for 20 years with the law firm

Dentons Dentons is the largest multinational law firm in the world. Dentons was ranked as the world's 4th- largest law firm by revenue, with $2.9B gross revenue by Global 200 ranking in the fiscal year 2021. The firm is called Dentons in all languages o ...

, where she was made a Partner, becoming the first black woman to hold such a position in a

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

firm. She specialised in planning matters, and in 1995 wrote a book, ''Practical Planning: Permission and the Application ''. From 2000 to 2008 she was a government-appointed trustee of

Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital Great Ormond Street Hospital (informally GOSH or Great Ormond Street, formerly the Hospital for Sick Children) is a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, and a part of Great Ormond Street Hospital ...

Charity and of the

Geffrye Museum The Museum of the Home, formerly the Geffrye Museum, is a free museum in the 18th-century Grade I-listed former almshouses on Kingsland Road in Shoreditch, London. The museum explores home and home life from 1600 to the present day with gallerie ...

and was on the development board of the

Young Vic The Young Vic Theatre is a performing arts venue located on The Cut, near the South Bank, in the London Borough of Lambeth. The Young Vic was established by Frank Dunlop in 1970. Kwame Kwei-Armah has been Artistic Director since February 201 ...

theatre. During 2012–16 she was a non-executive director of

NHS England NHS England, officially the NHS Commissioning Board, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of the ...

, and on the Board of the

British Retail Consortium The British Retail Consortium (or BRC) is a trade association for retail businesses in the United Kingdom. History The British Retail Consortium was formed in January 1992 with the merger of the British Retailers' Association and the Retail ...

. She also serves on the

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

panel overseeing the investigation into police corruption."106 seconds with… Margaret Casely-Hayford, Chair, Action Aid UK"
6th Sense, 10 August 2015. She is in the forefront of working to create diversity on boards. For nine years, until 2014, she was Director of Legal Services and Company Secretary for the

. She was also on the Board of the British Retail Consortium for four years to 2014. She became Chair of the charity ActionAid UK in 2014, and in 2016 she became a member-nominated Director of The Co-op."Board and directors"
Co-op. She is an ambassador of Board Apprentice and Chairs the advisory board of Ultra Education, working to develop young entrepreneurs, and a non-executive director of WetZebra Media. She is also a trustee of The Radcliffe Trust, one of Britain's oldest charities supporting classical music performance and training, She chaired the diversity review conducted by CILIP in 2017 into the awarding of the Carnegie and

Kate Greenaway Medal The Kate Greenaway Medal is a British literary award that annually recognises "distinguished illustration in a book for children". It is conferred upon the illustrator by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) ...

s. Committed to encouraging all business leaders to promote diversity on boards, she has said: "That is the future. There is a whole slew of people who still feel that they aren't part of the game. We are a mixed society – that's what Britain has been for so long. We just need to be more positive rather than negative, and showcase it. We are now at a crossroads." Additionally, she is the former mentor of rap artist and media entrepreneur Kelvyn Colt. In July 2017, Casely-Hayford was named the new Chancellor of Coventry University, the first woman to hold the position."Margaret Casely-Hayford named new Chancellor of Coventry University"
Coventry University, 17 July 2017. She was appointed for a second term in 2020. In February 2018, she was announced as the new chair of the board of Shakespeare's Globe, taking over the appointment from

Michael Bichard Michael George Bichard, Baron Bichard (born 31 January 1947) is a former public servant in the United Kingdom, first in local and then as a civil servant in central government. He was director of the Institute for Government, currently serves a ...

Awards and recognition

In 2014 she was voted Black British Business Person of the Year at the Black British Business Awards (BBBA) founded by Melanie Eusebe. In 2016 Casely-Hayford was awarded an honorary doctorate by

Middlesex University Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated MDX) is a public research university in Hendon, northwest London, England. The name of the university is taken from its location within the historic county boundaries ...

."Margaret Casely-Hayford awarded an Honorary Degree"
Middlesex University UniHub, 13 July 2016. She was appointed a

Commander 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 o ...

(CBE) in the

2018 Birthday Honours The 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as p ...

, for charitable services in the UK and abroad. In October 2019, it was announced that Casely-Hayford would be featured in the

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

'' Powerlist'' as one of the 100 most influential black people in the United Kingdom. The following year, Casely-Hayford was included in the

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

edition of the '' Powerlist'', for her contributions to the education sector. In 2020, she was elected an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford. In 2021, Casely-Hayford was elected a Master of the Bench at Gray's Inn.

References

External links

*
"Inspirational Woman: Margaret Casely-Hayford CBE , Chancellor, Coventry University"
''We Are the City'', 13 August 2020. {{DEFAULTSORT:Casely-Hayford, Margaret Living people 1959 births English people of Ghanaian descent Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford Alumni of the Inns of Court School of Law British women lawyers

Margaret Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian. Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular througho ...

People associated with Coventry University Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fante people Ghanaian people of English descent 21st-century British businesswomen Black British lawyers Ghanaian people of Irish descent