I have been a Corporate/M&A/transactional lawyer for 25 years, initially qualifying within the sports and entertainment industry with Wembley PLC following which I spent the next 12 years of my career in private practice within 4 leading UK law firms – Memery Crystal, Charles Russell Speechleys, Pictons and IBB Law.
Following my time in private practice, I have since served as General Counsel & Company Secretary for three global healthcare businesses, becoming the most senior black lawyer working within the UK’s healthcare sector and one of the most senior globally:
– Roche (the world’s largest biotech)
– Cycle Pharmaceuticals (a global pharma company and Cambridge University spin-out)
– The Open Medical Group (a global digital health group of companies).
My legal career is now as a Fractional General Counsel & Company Secretary through The Legal Director Limited, advising high growth global and national businesses and focusing on tech companies within healthcare and education.
Throughout my career, I have led large, operational global team, driving positive outcomes for millions of patients globally. I have had the privilege of negotiating healthcare contracts with Governments and have also led on the governance and compliance agenda for thousands of staff.
I have held a number of business leadership roles too including having P&L accountability and operational and strategic leadership on numerous occasions. For example, my efforts as part of the Brexit taskforce played a crucial part in ensuring continuity of treatment to millions of patients post-Brexit.
During the global pandemic, I advised on the governance and compliance framework for a major, UK-based Covid-19 clinical trial, ensuring timely trial start and treatment for patients affected by Covid.
My leadership has also played a part in shaping and enhancing organisational culture through leveraging diversity and significantly improving staff engagement scores and retention.
My positive leadership impact was showcased in the Roche Group’s 2017 Annual Report.
I am also a seasoned non-executive director, a notable keynote speaker & culture change leader with over 20 years of public speaking & delivering enterprise-wide transformational change. I mentor and coach leaders extensively across all demographics & industries and I am a regular media commentator on BBC TV & radio, in the Financial Times, The Times, The Guardian & other mainstream media outlets.
My voluntary work outside my paid employment has been extensive over the years and current examples include me being a senior volunteer for leading UK social mobility charity, Speakers for Schools & ambassador for the charity’s national work experience scheme, positively impacting over 1,000,000 UK students.
In addition to this, I am the founder of the Akindolie Medical Scholarship, the UK’s only such scheme supporting the pipeline of minority ethnic medical students in UK medical schools. The scheme has now supported almost 100 students, half of whom have qualified as doctors.
I have driven significant positive change across the UK’s legal profession, improving diversity and inclusion and ensuring a more diverse talent pipeline of lawyers. My efforts have been recognised through multiple awards including being awarded an MBE for services to diversity & young people in 2017.
I am co-host of a global podcast with my son, Max Abimbola. ‘The Power of Privilege and Allyship’ podcast has over 12,000 downloads and an estimated100,000+ listens. We have listeners across all continents, almost 1500 cities and over 100 diverse leaders have been interviewed, showcasing themselves as role models who have leveraged their privilege to become more effective allies. Our mother/son podcast has been ranked as a leading careers podcast by Apple.
Since 2022, I have been ranked as a LinkedIn Influencer and Top Voice for gender equality and in 2023, I wrote a best-selling book, ‘Climbing Mountains: My 5-Stage journey to resilient leadership’. I also host popular LinkedIn Live conversations that are broadcast to a global audience across the LinkedIn network.
I am a TED speaker and examples of some of the other awards I have won over the years include winning a National Diversity Award, Point of Light recognition from the UK Prime Minister, a Financial Times award for innovative leadership and an Ethnicity Award (ranked as being a top 10 leader for charity/community contribution).
I have also been awarded 2 honorary doctorates (University of Hertfordshire & Kent University) and appointed Professor of Practice by my alma mater, Newcastle University, in recognition of all my corporate and societal contributions to date.
