Press Release- New Year Honours

Race for Opportunity, the race equality campaign from Business in the Community, is delighted to announce that our Director, Sandra Kerr, was awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours list.  The OBE was in recognition of Sandra’s service to race equality in the UK. 

Ruby McGregor Smith, Chief Executive Officer, MITIE PLC, chair of Race for Opportunity 2008 – 2011 and board member of Business in the Community, received a CBE for services to Business and Diversity in Business. 

Stephen Howard, Chief Executive of Business in the Community, said:

“The recognition of Sandra Kerr and Ruby McGregor Smith in the New Year’s Honours list is a great tribute to each of them as individuals who have made a huge contribution to responsible business and to the success of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people in the workplace. 

I am also proud of the message that this sends about the success of Business in the Community’s Race for Opportunity campaign. 

During 2011 the Ethnic Minority Advisory Group, which provides advice to government in collaboration with Race for Opportunity, launched the Five Points for Progress diversity framework, a tool which promotes employee engagement and aids compliance with the 2010 Equality Act – this has been adopted across Whitehall. 

Race for Opportunity launched the Bridging the Value Gap toolkit, which promotes better conversations between managers and workers and on organisational culture that enables those conversations to flourish. 

Race for Opportunity continues to lead the agenda with its research.  2011 saw the launch of Race to Progress, an exploration of the levels of ambition amongst BAME workers, highlighting the barriers that prevent them from achieving those ambitions and identifying the support systems that are needed to enable them to progress. 

Race for Opportunity has achieved success with two mentoring programmes in 2011.  Our board mentoring circles have involved more than 350 people.  The BAME women mentoring circles have been a huge success, initially centrally convened 73% of the circles organised have continued to run on a self sustained basis.  

The honours for Sandra Kerr and Ruby McGregor Smith recognise the significance of these achievements.  We look forward to further success in 2012”.