Entrepeuner and Philanthropist from Richmond receives award
On the 25th of October, after careful deliberation by a panel of judges. the rankings for the 2016 Powerlist were announced. The Powerlist is a list containing Britain’s most influential people of African and African Carribean Heritage. The list included celebrities such as Sir Lenny Henry, Mo Farah and Lewis Hamilton however the number one spot went to an entrepeneur and educational philanthropist living in Richmond called Thomas (Tom) Ilube.
Who is Tom Ilube?
Tom Ilube was born in England and originally schooled at Kennington Manor in Sunbury. When he was seven he moved to Kitante Primary School in Uganda. He returned to England at 10 and went to Teddington School before travelling to Nigeria for the second half of secondary school and the start of university. Finally he returned to England and attended Cass Business school. Thomas talked about the enormous difference between schooling in Africa and the UK. ‘In Africa the students took education very seriously, everyone studied and everyone did their homework. There was a lot of pressure on scoring highly and everyone was worried about what place they came relative to everyone else. Discipline was much more intense and there was a lot less fun built into your routine.’
Tom has always been a fan of rugby and when he was young he used to play rugby for London Welsh and even scored a try on TV. He was also a skilled ice skater as a child and skated at Richmond ice rink every weekend. Tom’s love of Rugby has rubbed off on his son Matthew who now plays for Richmond. Thomas has stopped playing rugby and now pursues less intense hobbies such as Tai Chi. Tom was always passionate about science and technology. His house was always filled with science fiction books, his favourite film was the Blade Runner and his older brother Jim was studying Chemistry so there was always scientific discussion in his household growing up. Thomas’s interest in science increased through life and he studied computer science in Nigeria where he did not have a computer to use and had to write his code on paper. He did a bachelor's degree in applied physics at University of Benin. In the near future Thomas will even experience one of the first commercial space flights with Spacex.
What does he do?
When Tom became a man he decided to use his programming skills for a living. However having lived in Nigeria he was unaware of the job application process in the UK. He found a copy of the computer users year book which listed every company that needed computer support in alphabetical order and he applied to everyone beginning with A. He was rejected by all of them so he did the same for B and was accepted by British Airways. He worked for many companies such as the London Stock Exchange and Goldman Sachs before deciding to start his own technology company.
Tom has started many companies in his career, Noddle was perhaps the most successful. Noddle was created because Thomas had the idea one day of giving people free credit reports so he created Noddle and it quickly grew from just an idea and now has over 2 million users. Tom’s current company Crossword is a cyber-security company. He said ‘The company that I’m working on now, Crossword is really interesting because Cyber-Security is such a big issue that affects people, companies and governments.’, He added, ‘The people we are working with are really clever people who I love to watch work.’ Thomas also started a company called Garlik, which helps people protect their identities online, where he had Sir Tim Berners Lee as an advisor. ‘It was amazing to work with someone like that and learn how he thought about the web.’
When Tom decided to start creating charities in 2001 he knew he would make more than one. He approached it in the same way he approaches business. He wanted to focus on one area so he chose an aspect of life he was very concerned about. Education, or more specifically secondary education and STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths). He started involving himself in secondary schools for example becoming a governor. He has set up academies such as Hammersmith Academy which he became the governor of and helped set up other schools from Lancashire to Brighton. More recently he became chair of governors for ADA college which is the new national college for digital skills in London.
He also started the African Gifted Foundation for young people in Africa who are talented in STEM subjects and ran summer academies for 4 years for students all across Africa. Now the Foundation works on running the African Science Academy which is the first all girls Science Academy in Africa which opened in Ghana this year. Tom told me why this charity was his favourite. ‘My favourite Charity is the African Science Academy because it is genuinely unique. It is the only all girls science school on a continent of over 50 countries and over a billion people which makes it really special and over time it should have a huge impact, hopefully we will see more people making similar schools.’ His daughter Rhianna currently works at this charity. Tom says when building charities you need to be focused on your idea and not get distracted by other people which can be very difficult. He also says that raising money is hard and he would happily pay for charities with his own money but usually his ambition is greater than what he can achieve by himself and getting money from investors is also very difficult.
What does he think about the world?
In terms of Politics, Tom is fairly liberal. Tom gets nervous when governments are less tolerant and more Authoritarian. I asked Tom about his thoughts on the election of Donald Trump. ‘I am uncomfortable with what’s happened but it has happened and everybody’s job is to try and make it work.’ I also asked him about his thoughts on Brexit and the current UK government. ‘I voted to stay in the EU but again the decision has been made and it’s the government’s job to implement it in a way that satisfies the wider population and focuses heavily on the next generation. The governement needs to think about the fact that they are essentially caretakers for the next generation and the decisions made now will be in place for the next 40 years so they should take into account what’s best for the people who are 15 now.’
Tom was very surprised and genuinely didn’t expect to be number one on a list with such accomplished people but he says it is a huge honour. Tom believes that everyone on that list could be number one but he thinks the judges chose him because of his combination of Philanthropy and Entrepeneurship which is a little diffrerent from what previous Powerlist number ones have done. However Tom now feels like he is under pressure to live up to his position on the list. He isn’t naturally drawn to the spotlight and doesn’t have or want the public profile that others like actors and politicians have. ‘…But somebody said to me, if you have goals you want to achieve such as charities you now have a much bigger platform to use to highlight the areas you’re interested in and gain support which is a very good point.’ Occassionally but extremely rarely Tom has been recognised by fans. He was once recognised by a fan who had seen him on tv. The fan was working at a sandwich shop and Thomas asked if he could get the sandwich for free but he was met with the prompt reply of no.
I asked Tom what the point of the Powerlist was and he gave me this answer. ‘I think the Powerlist says that there is still work to be done in changing perceptions of black people in British society. Within Black communities success is often seen as excelling in entertainment or sports but the Powerlist aims to show that there are successful black people in different areas of society such as business or medicine or politics. Some people think that British Society is now very equal and the list is unnecessary and it can feel like that at times but if you look at statistics you’ll see that there are still massive inequalities. If you look at the Chief Executives of FTSE 100 companies you’ll find that there are only four from ethnic minorities and 70% of executive boards are all white. Black people, even if they are accomplished, are not in positions that show the contributions they can make to society. The Powerlist sends copies to schools all over England, so if a black student was interested in technology they could see a role model of the same ethnicity as them which could inspire them to pursue their career and become what they want to become rather than see it as an unachievable dream.’
Christian Ilube
