Deborah Barnwell | Manchester, UK
Head of Diversity and Inclusion

I’m from a low socioeconomic background; my mum was a single parent earning a low-income working part time to support me and my siblings. I wasn’t academic and I left school with just a few qualifications, I decided that I would get a job after college to help my mum. I completed work experience, and they offered me a job in a department store and by the age of 18 I was a manager recruiting my own staff, I continued to work in Retail for 6 years before leaving to live in the States for a few months to get to know my dad. I received a great opportunity to start a banking career at Halifax on a 2-year Ethnic Minority Scheme to learn on the job as well as gain a qualification. I received a permanent role and worked my way up from a Cashier to Mortgage Advisor to Branch Manager. I’ve had a lot of racial discrimination over the years from customers and staff alike whether that be directly and/or indirectly such as customers wanting to speak to the Male White Manager when I presented myself as the Bank Manager, or being told you don’t feel comfortable with a Black Manager. After 14 years I left banking to pursue one of my dreams to be an actor, which I did for 6 months, but it meant moving to London. Being unemployed, I volunteered at Cancer Research, trained as a Radio Broadcaster, passed an Intermediate Food and Hygiene course with my mum so we could open a Jamaican Restaurant, and I signed up to an agency to be a Supporting Artist. I had a mortgage to pay so I went back to what I know which started my journey at Barclays Bank. Over the past 16 years I’ve had some incredible opportunities in Barclays, like hosting the CEO Awards with the CEO of Barclays Group to 90,000 colleagues worldwide. Completing a Recruitment Drive whilst setting up a new business area for UK Premier Banking and winning an Exceptional Achievement Award 3 times as an Advisor, a Team Leader, and a Senior Leader with a team of 6 because we made a huge impact for all things DEI across a Contact Centre.

Experiencing racism just makes you more determined to make a change in the workplace and the communities in which we live, it also makes you more resilient, which has helped me to help others when they’re faced with challenges. After George Floyd passed Barclays appointed 2 full time Managers to represent 23,000 colleagues across Barclays UK, and I was delighted to be given one of these prestigious roles as I no longer had to drive the DEI agenda side of desk. I had some incredible opportunities like designing, launching, and embedding the DEI personal development objective guide for 23,000 colleagues which was later rolled out across Barclays globally. I recorded a Podcast series called ‘WeAreBarclays’ which received phenomenal feedback because we burst the bubble on taboo topics, and we gave our colleagues a channel of choice with the form of communications they received. In my role as a DEI Partner for UKC our objective is to have diversity of thought, champion DEI and challenge the status quo which has resulted in us achieving our Ethnicity and Gender ambitions consistently.

I’m a proud member/ally of our 12 Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) at Barclays, because it’s great to understand about different backgrounds/cultures. I’m also a Deputy Co-Chair for the Black Professional Resource Group (BPRG) in the UK supporting over 3500 members and I lead our Strategic Locations Pillar for the UK and Ireland. My mum completed a degree later in life and I always told myself if my mum can do a degree then I can do one too. I was delighted when I got an opportunity to complete a fast-track degree programme in Management and Leadership through Barclays, which saw me graduate in Cambridge in 2021. It was a challenge because it was during lock down and I still worked full time in a senior position, however I took complete inspiration from my mum as she graduated at the age of 69. I’m a keen believer that you can do anything you put your mind to, and at the age of 18 I decided to pursue a career part time as a DJ with my sister, we became resident DJs in a night club in Manchester, this led to us presenting our own radio show on a local community radio station. Although 8 years later I thought I’d hung up my headphones for good, later in life I trained to be a Radio Broadcaster and after receiving my qualification I was given my own show again called the Bigga Breakfast on All Fm, which I presented with my sister twice a week. I interviewed underrepresented people from the community, upskilled neurodiversity people, raised awareness on taboo topics, and because of my work I was invited to Buckingham Palace to receive the Queens Volunteer Award in 2022. The beauty of working for a flexible Bank meant I was able to be a Radio Presenter throughout my 16-year career which didn’t prevent me progressing as I’m a Vice President now. Unfortunately, due to having a regional role I hung up my headphones last year, and I do miss it.