Welcome and Keynote Session 1: Floella Benjamin, Om, Dbe, Dl

Baroness Floella Benjamin, OM, DBE, DL is an actress, singer, presenter, author, businesswoman, philanthropist, and politician. She was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London in 2008 and was listed in the 2020 Powerlist as one of the Top 100 most influential people in the UK of African/African-Caribbean descent.

In 2006 Benjamin was the first Afro-Caribbean woman to be appointed as Chancellor of a UK university — the University of Exeter — where there is now a statue to celebrate her chancellorship. She became a Lib-Dem peer in 2010 and has successfully got legislation through for the Children’s Performance Act and for the resurgence of children’s television production output by commercial broadcasters.