Guidance

Windrush Working Group: stakeholder biographies

Updated 6 January 2023

Bishop Derek Webley (Co-Chair), Minister and Deputy Lieutenant, West Midland Lieutenancy

Bishop Webley is a Minister of Religion for the New Testament Church of God, having acted previously as the National Director of Evangelism, then National Director of Youth and Christian Education and the District Bishop for Birmingham/Solihull.

Bishop Webley has an extensive record of civic leadership, including as a former Chair of the West Midlands Police Authority. He has been a Deputy Lieutenant of the West Midland Lieutenancy since 2008. As well as previously serving as a committee member of Relate, Lord Chancellor Advisory Committee, Birmingham Citizens, and Chair of The Drum (arts organisation).

Duwayne Brooks, Managing Director, Active Community Engagement and Development

Duwayne Brooks is a former Lewisham Councillor and Deputy Chair of the Safer Communities Board at the Local Government Association. He has a history of working with different communities highlighting and tackling injustices at all levels. He has also worked closely with the College of Policing previously serving as a consultant on Community, Policing and Victim Care. In 2015, he was awarded an OBE for his public and political service to policing and local community.

In March 2019 his documentary – Stabbed: Britain’s Knife Crime Crisis – aired on BBC, for which he was awarded Grierson best UK documentary presenter 2019.

Blondel Cluff, Chief Executive, West India Committee

Blondel Cluff is a solicitor of over 37 years standing and a Fellow of Kings College, London where she was a member of the college council for several years, focusing on institutional change. Blondel has held various public appointments for over 20 years, addressing communities, education, health and heritage. The former head of legal at Lazard Brothers, has recently retired as a diplomat, having represented the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla, supporting the territory through Hurricane Irma, constitutional reform and in its preparations for Brexit as a border nation of the EU.

The daughter of Windrushers from Anguilla, Blondel is CEO of the West India Committee, a UK registered charity and Royal Charter institution that is custodian of a UNESCO inscribed library and collection on the Caribbean and a Consulting NGO of UNESCO on small island developing nations and heritage. She is also Chair of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, London and South Committee and a member of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee. An author of various works on the Caribbean, Blondel regularly lectures on heritage. In 2018 she received a CBE for services to numismatic design and for her work with the Caribbean community in the UK and abroad.

Loanna Morrison, journalist and founder of London Apprenticeship Fair

Loanna Morrison is a Jamaican born Brit who has spent 25 years in journalism working in newspapers, TV production and radio programme development. She worked as columnist and producer on the 2 largest ethnic media outlets in the UK and is very knowledgeable on the community dynamics of race and opportunity.

Loanna was instrumental in influencing change for ethnic representation in the mainstream media via a think tank she co-founded. Diversity is Right gave aspiring journalists and producers the opportunity to discuss their concerns with representatives including SKY and Channel 4.

Headhunted twice as director on the board of 2 of London’s largest youth organisations, she spent 5 years helping to increase their effectiveness. This led to the Apprenticeship Fair, a social enterprise connecting young people to appropriate career opportunities that suit their skills and aspirations.

Kunle Olulode, Director, Voice4Change

Kunle Olulode is a pro-immigration activist and Director of the umbrella charity Voice4Change England. Voice4Change is a BME charity and support body. Its members number over 460 black and minority community organisations and charities covering everything from education, social enterprise, criminal justice, race discrimination to migrant rights. Currently it is working with a host of leading campaigning and research organisation such as the Runnymede Trust, the Joseph Rowntree Community Trust and Migrant Rights Network, looking at the media framing of the discourse on diversity, race and inclusion within contemporary political debates.

Kunle also has a long-standing interest in the arts and heritage sector, having worked in London and Barcelona for more than 20 years as the creative director of the Anglo-Catalan arts group Rebop Productions alongside Aurelio Munoz. Through their work they provided live performance space for a host of British and American music artists.

Paulette Simpson, Executive Director, ‘The Voice’

Paulette Simpson is the Executive Director of ‘The Voice’, Britain’s top black newspaper that has served the black community in the UK for 35 years. Paulette is also responsible for corporate affairs and public policy at Jamaica National’s representative office in the UK, and has represented the UK on the Jamaica Diaspora Advisory Board and advised the Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade about issues relating to the Jamaican Diaspora in the UK.

Paulette currently serves as Deputy Chair for both the MHCLG Windrush Day Advisory Panel and the MHCLG Windrush Commemoration Committee.