The Bank of England’s chief financial officer, Afua Kyei, has been named the UK’s most influential black person, topping a list that includes some of the world’s well-known stars.
Kyei, 43, is one of the UK’s most senior finance leaders, in charge of the financial governance of the Bank’s £1 trillion balance sheet and funding reforms.
The Ghanaian topped the 2026 Powerlist, which recognizes the most powerful people of African, African Caribbean, and African American heritage in the United Kingdom.
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Some of the big names on the list include former footballer Ian Wright, who is making his debut appearance, make-up artist Dame Pat McGrath and actor Idris Elba.
Kyei was recruited by the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in his former role as the governor of the Bank of England, and said topping the list was “incredibly humbling”.
A mother of four, the 49-year-old revealed that growing up, she saw obvious differences in the workplace.
“I didn’t see so many women in big leadership roles who had families and I know that there are lots of women who think that they need to choose between work and having a family”, she said.
“What I love about the Bank of England is that we really support working families and working parents”, Kyei added.
Afua Kyei read chemistry at Oxford University and was also awarded a junior research fellowship by Princeton University in organic chemistry.
During the global financial crisis, Kyei was an investment banker prior to her time at Barclays Bank, where she was the Chief Financial Officer for Mortgages, per the BBC.
In 2019, Kyei joined the Bank of England and is at the core of the Bank’s leadership and decision-making.
She admitted to the fact that her parents, who moved to the UK from Ghana to go to university at 18, have been her biggest role models.
“My mother came to Liverpool, trained to become a midwife and enjoyed a 40-year plus career working for the NHS.”
“My father has enjoyed a long career in the oil industry. I saw them juggling work and home. They instilled really strong values in us,” she added.
To Kyei, she hopes she can inspire many young people to consider banking as a career.
“You don’t need to be a mathematician, you don’t need to be an accountant and you don’t need to be an economist. What we’re looking for is fresh perspectives and we want the best people.” Afua Kyei takes the place of tech CEO Dean Forbes at the head of the list.
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