Yinka Makinde from DigitalHealth.London Recognised as Top 100 Most Influential BAME Leader in Tech

Yinka Makinde, Programme Director of DigitalHealth.London has today been announced as part of the #IB100 – a list of the top 100 most influential black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) leaders in the Tech Sector. Now in its second year, the list has been produced by board appointments firm Inclusive Boards in partnership with the Financial Times.

The list will be published online, and in print in the UK and Europe as part of an FT special report into Diversity in Tech. In 2018, Inclusive Boards research found that 74.5 percent of Boards in the tech sector had no BAME members and that BAME people made up just 8.5 percent of senior leaders (Directors and Executives) in the sector.

As part of their Inclusive Tech Alliance (ITA) campaign, Inclusive Boards is calling on tech companies to implement inclusive working practices to fix the progression challenges currently facing BAME individuals from moving to senior leadership positions. This year’s #IB100 list showcases role models to encourage and inspire tech’s future BAME senior leaders.

Elizabeth Oni-Iyiola, Development Director at Inclusive Boards, said:

“Technology is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the UK and beyond. It’s crucial that as these sectors expand so too does the level of representation within them. Yinka and those featured today are groundbreakers, changemakers and role models within the industry and we are proud to include them in this years #IB100.”

Yinka Makinde, Programme Director of DigitalHealth.London responding to the publication of this list said:

“I am immensely proud to be recognised in this list on behalf of DigitalHealth.London. It is great that diversity is being celebrated across multiple sectors in this way. We know from the work we do that diversity fosters innovation and improved business performance. We are committed to supporting innovators from diverse backgrounds through our Accelerator programme for industry and NHS staff through our NHS Digital Pioneer Fellowship.

“The NHS is a diverse organisation and one I am proud to be a part of. I hope that the pipeline for current and future BAME leaders continues to develop and open up so that equity of opportunity is achieved at all levels.”

Those featured in the list include the most influential leaders from tech companies such as DeepMind, Google, IBM, Larsen & Toubro Infotech, Microsoft, Monzo, Rolls-Royce, Twitter and Seedcamp.