The Nottingham-born man named Britain’s most powerful black figure, Ken Olisa, talks to Notts TV News about his life from a poor childhood to becoming the Queen’s right-hand man.
Lord-Lieutenant Olisa, to give him his official title, was placed in the top spot of the Black Power List in November for his charity work and contributions to business.
It all began with a tough upbringing in Hyson Green.
The 64-year-old recalled growing up there with his mother after his father left to return to Nigeria.
We used to play on bomb sites
He said: “My mum didn’t have any money, so we made our own Christmas decorations – we celebrated as everyone else, and just like lots of people today we had to do it on a budget.
“She struggled all the time, – I remember she saved up to buy a second hand radio, and I was so happy to finally get a radio; she worked all sorts of hours to save money. She put all her ambition and love into me.”
Olisa was Britain’s first black director of a FTSE-100 company, and was appointed as the Queen’s Lord-Lieutenant for Greater London in May 2015.
Olisa grew up on Patterson Road and then Brushfield Street in Hyson Green.
The house only had four rooms but despite his deprived childhood, Olisa grew up happy.
He said: “It’s very hard to imagine now, but much of Nottingham had been destroyed during the war, so we boys used to play on bomb sites, which was fantastic as a boy – the area was a pretty poor environment, but I had a happy childhood. I had very fond memories of growing up.”
Being from one of the only black families in the area, Olisa says he experienced racism both at school, and at home – and struggled with his first girlfriend’s parents.
He explained: “My first serious girlfriend’s father wouldn’t let us go out together, he wouldn’t let me come to their house and even be near her – which made the relationship a little bit exotic!”
Olisa was offered a scholarship with IBM after studying at Cambridge University – but has had a host of jobs from painting toilets in a factory, to working in a laboratory.
He said: “My first-ever job was washing cars on a Saturday, I stood there freezing to death in the winter and sweltering in the summer washing rich peoples cars, thinking ‘you know what, one day I’ll have my car washed by people!'”
Olisa added he believes the Black Power List award should eventually ‘become irrelevant’, and that he hopes to change the attitudes of people who believe “the colour of your skin stops you from being successful”.
