Chair

Prof. Brown is a trailblazing lawyer and leader with over two decades of legal/business expertise.  She has dedicated her career to transforming organisations through strategic consultancy, corporate governance, and championing diversity and inclusion. Her multifaceted roles reflect her commitment to driving positive change across various sectors.

Recently appointed as Aston University's Vice-Chancellor Professional Fellow, she provides strategic counsel on equity, diversity, and inclusion. This appointment underscores her commitment to shaping inclusive educational environments and fostering diverse leadership in academia. In July 2023, Aston conferred upon her an honorary doctorate, recognising her contributions to the legal profession and local business community.

As Managing Director of McKenzie Brown Consultancy Ltd, Prof. Brown empowers organisations by offering bespoke advisory services focusing on Corporate Governance, Leadership Development, Strategic Management, and Organisational Change. She has assisted clients across health, education, business, housing, and law sectors, unlocking their potential and driving sustainable growth.

As Regional Chair of the Institute of Directors (IoD) Central region, Professor Brown oversees 7 Branch Chairs and over 3000 members, promoting good governance, ethical practices, professional development and diversity.

In 2020, she became the first Black President of Birmingham Law Society in its 202-year history, expanding membership, establishing a diversity inclusion scheme, and providing scholarships to underrepresented students.

Her most notable legal case was the inquest of David Gray (deceased) in 2010.  The inquest highlighted systemic failures in the registration, vetting, induction, training and monitoring of doctors in private out-of-hours services, prompting a nationwide review of these services to enhance patient safety.  The case was particularly noteworthy due to the circumstances surrounding Mr Gray’s death and the involvement of a foreign locum doctor.  It garnered substantial attention from both local and national media outlets, including BBC, Channel 4, Sky News, ITV News, local media and print publications. 

Trustee

Diamond Ashiagbor is a Professor of Law and 125th Anniversary Chair at the University of Birmingham, and one of only 60 Black female professors in the UK. An academic for over 25 years, Diamond’s teaching and research spans labour, equality, migration, race and colonialism, European Union and African Union. Diamond has advised widely on ‘equality, diversity and inclusion’ in higher education and the creative sector, including for the Arts and Humanities Research Council. She has been the winner of the Society of Legal Scholars Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship, and recipient of Fulbright and British Academy fellowships.

Since 2024, Diamond has been a Fixed Term Member (i.e. academic associate) at Matrix Chambers, one of the UK’s leading international law and human rights barristers’ chambers. Prior to academia, Diamond qualified as a solicitor, specialising in acting for trade unions and their members, advising on employment rights, race and sex discrimination, dismissal, parental rights. She brings extensive governance experience, having been a Governor then a Trustee of Camden School For Girls for 12 years.

Trustee

Melissa Bryant is the Environment Communications Lead at the World Bank, advising the institution’s senior leadership on strategic communications and reputation management around its climate work. Before moving to Washington DC, she was the organisation’s UK Media Lead, managing its strategy and outreach across the UK and Ireland. In this role, she led its media engagement at major global events such as the United Nations' COP summits and during the UK’s G7 Presidency

Melissa started her career as a journalist in the Caribbean, where she grew up. She has a BSc in International Relations from the University of the West Indies and an MSc in Global Politics from Durham University. In her free time, she enjoys watching tennis and honing her at-home barista skills.

Trustee

Jude Davis is a founder, brand consultant, and former Apple marketing lead with over 20 years of experience.

He spent more than a decade at Apple, holding senior roles including Brand Manager and Product Marketing Manager for Education. During this time, he also co-chaired Black@Apple, Apple’s internal network for Black employees in Europe. Under his leadership, the group grew in visibility, membership, and impact, helping to build a stronger culture of inclusion across the company.

Jude went on to serve as a director at a race equality charity before founding The Black Opportunities Platform (The BOP), a professional network designed to increase access to Black leadership and reshape the corporate landscape for Black professionals.

His appointment as a trustee of Black Cultural Archives reflects his deep commitment to community, culture, and equity. Jude brings a strategic mindset, marketing expertise, and an unwavering focus on representation to the board.

Trustee

Christienna Fryar is an academic, writer, and broadcaster. She is a historian of Modern Britain, the British Empire, and the Modern Caribbean. She was a Lecturer in Black British History at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she was the convenor of Goldsmiths’ MA Black British History, the first taught masters’ programme in the subject in the UK, which launched in October 2020. For more than ten years, she has taught the history of the Caribbean, modern Europe, and modern Britain at several universities in the US and the UK. In 2020, she was named a BBC Radio 3/AHRC New Generation Thinker and does occasional radio broadcasting in addition to consulting work related to Black British history and curriculum development.