Vogue's Edward Enninful: most powerful UK black person

Editor-in-chief of British Vogue, Edward Enninful OBE, has been named the UK's most influential black person by the Powerlist 2024.

Enniful, Black, gay and a working-class immigrant, was the first man, and the first black person, to be appointed Vogue Editor-in-Chief. During his time at the helm, he created a new identity for the posh glossy magazine.

In 2022, he published an issue to mark 50 years of London’s Pride festival. “We want to celebrate this community, to thank and to listen to them,” he is quoted as saying. In addition to a broader and more innovative range of subject coverage, he has included features using models with disabilities,

The full top-ten list of winners as pictured above

1. Edward Enninful: Editor-in-chief of British Vogue
2. Dean Forbes: CEO Forterro and Partners, the UK’s sixth largest privately held software company.
3. Afua Kyei , appointed CFO of the Bank of England in 2019 when she was 36 years old.
4. Marvin Rees: Mayor of Bristol. Has announced his intention to stand as a Labour MP in the next parliamentary election
5. Tunde Olanrewaju: Managing Partner for McKinsey’s UK, Ireland and Israel offices and a Senior Partner in the global consultancy’s London office.
6. Joshua Siaw: Head of Affrica Practice, White & Case, and Partner Middle East practice.
7. Syreeta Brown: Chief People Officer Virgin Money, the UK's sixth largest bank.
8. Paulette Simpson: Head of The Voice Media Group and Country Head for Jamaica National Bank, the first Caribbean-owned digital bank in the UK, launched in October 2020.
9. Vanessa Kingori: Chief Business Officer, Condé Nast and Vogue European Business Advisor. Effectively, Edward Enninful's boss.
10. Baron Woolley of Woodford, Baron Simon Woolley is a crossbench peer, co-founder of Operation Black Vote and Principal of Homerton College Cambridge.

such as actress Selma Blair, who lives with MS, and Ellie Goldstein, who has Down Syndrome. In October 2022, Timothée Chalamet became the first man to appear on the cover solo. The publication has also been made available as a braille and audio edition.

In June 2023, Enniful announced that he would be stepping down as Editor-in-Chief after six years to move to a new role in 2024 as Editorial Adviser of British Vogue and Global Creative and Cultural Adviser

In 2023, Enniful attended the King’s Coronation. He has helped the Prince’s Trust with its work in Africa and worldwide as a global ambassador.

Enniful's memoir, A Visible Man, was published in 2022, recounting his life from his move as a young child from Ghana to his new home in London where he became a teen model and later a fashion influencer.

He was awarded an OBE in 2016, and received the BSME Editors’ Editor of the Year Award in 2021.

The Powerful Media Powerlist is an annual publication, first published in 2007, aimed at providing professional role models for young people of African and African Caribbean heritage.

Since then it has brought a number of people to prominence who were previously unknown, creating a network of influencers. The mission of the organisation is to "rebrand black Britain."

The publication is distributed primarily to schools and universities, but it has become heavily requested by corporates as well, recognised as a source of identifying black talent.

Powerful Media receive nominations from potential new nominees. These are then put through a test based on an understanding of the meaning of influence, define by the organisation as "the ability to positively alter events and change lives as demonstrated over a reasonable period of time".

Nominees are then provided to an independent panel that comes up with the final rankings.

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References

Powerful Media: The Powerlist

BBC News