Sep 28, 2020
Foundervine Announcement ✨
Izzy Obeng joins the Board of the Hamilton Commission
We are proud to announce that Managing Director of Foundervine and One Young World Ambassador, Izzy Obeng, has joined the Board of the Hamilton Commission.
The Commission was announced in June, by Six-Time Formula One World Champion, Lewis Hamilton alongside the Royal Academy of Engineering and will explore areas including lack of role models and career services at schools, as well as other barriers that prevent people from more diverse backgrounds joining the motorsport industry.
As the first working-class, black driver, Lewis is committed to improving representation across all aspects of the sport, in particular the engineering teams. He sits as Co-Chair of the Commission and is joined by Dr Hayaatun Sillem, Chief Executive of The Royal Academy of Engineering.
The Commissioners were selected due to their unique expertise and will be responsible for review and inform the research methodology; to examine the research findings and help identify the key challenges and opportunities facing young Black people entering STEM careers.
Included within the 14 individuals announced are Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE, Co-founder of Stemettes, George Imafidon, Co-Founder of Motivez, former sports minister Tracey Crouch, Chi Onwurah who is shadow minister for digital, science and technology and former McLaren racing boss Martin Whitmarsh.
“There are still too many barriers to individuals from diverse backgrounds accessing STEM careers. I hope that my involvement on the Board in this project will support development of the necessary solutions to the inequalities we face across all sectors of work and in our society. We started Foundervine to increase access to opportunity for people for underrepresented communities in digital technology. I welcome the challenge ahead and hope my visibility on the board gives young black women hope they can do the same one day too” — Izzy Obeng
Foundervine’s mission is to build a more diverse pipeline of young entrepreneurs and we do this through three key pillars — access, opportunity and advocacy.
Hamilton is a six-time Formula 1 world champion and currently the only black driver to have ever competed in the sport and said,
“Since I began my professional racing career in Formula One, 14 years ago, I was the first driver of colour and to this day, sadly that is still the case. However, what is more concerning is that there are still very few people of colour across the sport as a whole. In F1, our teams are much bigger than the athletes that front them, but representation is insufficient across every skill set — from the garage to the engineers in the factories and design departments.
Change isn’t coming quickly enough, and we need to know why. This is why I wanted to set up the Commission and I’m proud to be working with the Royal Academy of Engineering and our incredible Board of Commissioners to identify the barriers facing young Black people to take up STEM careers in motorsport. We are dedicated to this cause and together, we will make a change.”
Please contact hamiltoncommission@freuds.com with any requests or questions.
Please visit www.hamiltoncommission.squarespace.com for more information.
