The Walker Series, launched in 2020, is named after Maggie Lena Walker, the first black female bank president, and founder of St. Luke Penny Savings Bank. Disabled by paralysis and a wheelchair user later in life, Walker also became an advocate for people with disabilities.
For 2021 we welcomed Lord Simon Woolley, Founder of Operation Black Vote, cross-bench peer, and now the first Black man to head a Cambridge college.
During his lecture Lord Woolley spoke about the opportunity presented by the drive for racial equality. He called on his audience of NatWest colleagues to set aside imposter syndrome, reframe their backgrounds as valuable experience and become the leaders they have the capacity to be. The Black Lives Matter movement shone a spotlight on talent that already exists, he said, as well as prompting the deepest conversations he's had in 25 years of activism.
Lord Woolley wrapped up the lecture encouraging his audience to make NatWest Group a beacon in which talent thrives.
Watch highlights from our second Walker Series Lecture with Lord Simon Woolley: