2020 Winner
Lifetime Achiever Award
Lord Simon Woolley is the Director and one of founders of Operation Black Vote, a national and internationally renowned race equality organisation. In the last 25 years Lord Woolley has helped transform our political and civic institutions, ensuring they are inclusive and representative. In 1996 there were 4 BAME MP’s, now there are 65. In 2017 Operation Black Vote, launched the groundbreaking ‘The Colour of Power’, the most in-depth look at the racial make-up of Britain’s top jobs across 28 sectors that dominate British society. Lord Woolley is seen as the inspiration and one of the architects for the United Kingdom’s Race Disparity Unit and served as the Advisory Chair since its inception. Lord Woolley received a Knighthood in the 2019 Birthday Honours for his services to race equality and was nominated for a life peerage in the same year.