Afua Kyei, Chief Financial Officer at the Bank of England was honoured as the top female and number 2 overall on the Empower Global Executives Role Model List 2024, supported by YouTube.
The list celebrates ethnically diverse Executives across the globe, who are driving impactful and innovative work for inclusion in business.
Afua shares key highlights of her personal journey and discusses her role at the Bank of England as Chief Financial Officer and co-Executive sponsor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Speech
Introduction
The reason I wanted to speak today is because I believe Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) are absolutely vital. We need to work out how to bring out the best in each other, so that we can keep moving society forward.
I have been the Chief Financial Officer of the Bank of England for the last 5 years. It has been an honour to serve the UK during Covid, Brexit, the cost of living crisis, and against a challenging geopolitical backdrop. During this time, I have had my hands full with the Bank of England’s balance sheet, which grew to over £1 trillion during the pandemic.
Personal journey
I have spent the last twenty years in financial services…but that was never the plan!
I was born in London, and my family lived in Highgate at the time. We moved progressively South to Wimbledon and then to Purley, where I grew up.
My parents worked hard and inspired me to work hard. My Dad was awarded a scholarship by the Government of Ghana to study in the UK after coming 3rd in West Africa for his A-Levels. He came to study engineering at the Camborne School of Mines. My Mum, totally separately, came from Ghana to the UK when she was 18, to study midwifery at Liverpool University. She went on to work for the NHS for 40 years, and I saw her juggle long shifts, while raising a family.
From the age of 7, I had my heart set on being a doctor, so that I could help people. I went to Old Palace, a fantastic all girls school, in Croydon, where I had the most incredible headmistress, Miss Hilton. She believed in me, and that went a long way.
I read Chemistry at Oxford University, because I wanted to help create a drug to help people with cancer. My Masters focused on creating molecules with anti-tumorous properties. At Oxford, I was inspired by the late, great Professor Sir Jack Baldwin – he was one of the most eminent British Chemists of our time. He believed in me, and he chose me to be part of his research group. I then got a junior research fellowship at Princeton University.
After some time working in the labs, behind a fumehood, I experienced some of the highs of research, as I created lots of new compounds, and my work was published in an international journal. But, I started to realise that I wanted to work in a more fast-paced and more socially interactive environment. I wanted to use my creative and experimentation skills to solve problems. And, in the background, I had a part-time job working in fashion at Burberry in London to pay my student debt. We had a lot of well known customers coming through our doors, and the fashion world gave me an alternative to wearing a white lab coat and goggles to work every day!
Fast forward, I trained as a Chartered Accountant at Ernst & Young in London. I became an Investment Banker at UBS, and during the global financial crisis, I travelled around the world doing M&A deals. Then I did different CFO roles at Barclays.
When I was on maternity leave, I was approached about becoming the CFO of the Bank of England. And as they say, the rest is history.
When I joined the Bank, I was the youngest Executive Director. I was 36, which makes me a millennial (just about!), and I was also the first black executive in the Bank’s 329 year history.
I have learned to balance work and family, as I have 4 young children ranging from a baby to an 8-year old. So I have been busy juggling work and home…
As I reflect back over the years, there are some key things that have helped:
Firstly, I have been flexible about what I do, and changing direction. This has been a consistent theme. New things come up. New people come up. I like experiencing different things and gravitate towards people I enjoy spending time with, because work needs to be fun!
Secondly, having my own sense of inner fulfilment is important. There’s no point in waiting for people to thank you and give you credit for the work you are doing - otherwise, you could be waiting a long time! People are busy, people have other things on their mind, so there’s no point dwelling on things you can’t change. I get satisfaction from doing purposeful work.
Thirdly, there will be barriers. Of course there will be. That’s always been my experience. But there will always be key people, who believe in you, and who will help you figure it out during the toughest times. Family, friends, mentors, and sponsors. People who you can lean on to give you support and encouragement. And that’s what I have found has made the difference.
How am I helping to drive Diversity and Inclusion across modern business?
At the Bank, I’m the co-Executive sponsor of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
I enjoy the social purpose aspect of my role. I do a lot of outreach. I love meeting people from different communities, businesses and charities; people across the public and private sector. I have the opportunity to contribute to different industry discussions at a national level, and to speak at international fora like the G20, and the International Monetary Fund. I try to engage, listen, and share experiences to drive positive change.
At the Bank, we have focussed on creating an inclusive culture, where everyone can thrive. Our visible and invisible diversity is what will help us achieve better outcomes for our society.
During the pandemic, we made DEI a strategic priority for the Bank, and I was delighted when the Governor, Andrew Bailey, asked me to be the co-Executive sponsor.
In 2020, after Black Lives Matter, the Bank of England commissioned a Court Review of Ethnic diversity. We found that outcomes were very different for white and ethnic minority colleagues, and also that we needed to do more to achieve gender equality. I have helped the Bank respond to this, and I will make sure we continue to prioritise this, against a trend of global efforts reducing in this space.
Targets
We have set formal targets for the recruitment and retention of diverse staff at various levels at the Bank, particularly for women and ethnic minorities. We are tracking progress because what gets measured gets done. At the highest level in the organisation, Court, our board has a good mix of gender and ethnic diversity. And we are working towards meeting our targets at all levels.
Diversity alone won’t get us where we want to be:
1. Inclusion matters.
2. Equal pay and career progression matters.
3. Allyship matters.
And, finally, to close…. What I would like to see more than anything, is for diverse people to be fully accepted and valued when they are ordinary, not just when they are exceptional…. That’s when we’ll know we are really moving society forward.
Thank you Suki Sandhu, and the INvolve team for everything you are doing. And thank you all for listening.
I would like to thank my Bank colleagues and chairs of our employee networks, for the vital work they are doing to drive inclusion in the workplace. Also Mohini Gurung and Catherine Milton for proofreading this speech.
