40 Minute Mentor Downing Street, Death Threats and DE&I with Baroness Oona King
“When I lost my seat in parliament, as devastating as it was, I genuinely felt relieved that I got out with my life.”
We’ve officially reached our final episode of Series 7, but we’re definitely finishing on a high with today’s 40 Minute Mentor - it’s none other than Baroness Oona King.
Oona has worn many hats throughout her career - from becoming the second black woman elected into British Parliament, becoming a Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister on Equalities, to ultimately pivoting into tech working within Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for Channel 4, YouTube, Google and currently Snap Inc.
Based on our own commitment to help build more diverse and inclusive companies, we couldn’t think of a better person to finish off this Series of 40 Minute Mentor with.
In this episode, Oona shares some incredibly candid mentorship and advice, including:
- What her path to the House of Commons looked like and how her mum ultimately inspired her to go into politics [07:15]
- What it was like for a black woman in British Politics and the lessons she learned from that environment [10:10]
- How she lost her seat in front of millions of people watching and why there’s a part of her that’s really glad it happened when it did [16:32]
- Why she pivoted into Tech and her advice for anyone else looking to pivot careers [21:54]
- What a typical day in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion looks like [27:51]
- Oona’s advice for any business leaders looking to improve their DE&I efforts and how you can measure impact [31:55]
- What the murder of Georg Floyd has taught her [36:18]
💙 A big thank you to our Sponsors:
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⛳️ Helpful links:
➡ ️The ACT Report - https://newsroom.snap.com/en-GB/introducing-catalyze-tech/
➡ ️More about DE&I at Snap Inc - https://citizen.snap.com/diversity
➡ More about Baroness Oona King - https://www.linkedin.com/in/oona-king-sheher-00ba8414/
➡ Find out more about our sponsors and their rocket ship journey -
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