Funmi Adegoke is a determined woman. While she was deciding where to go to university, her teacher told her not to bother applying for Cambridge. “She said, ‘You’re not going to get in because you’re black. You’re female. And you’re from the wrong social class,’” Adegoke recalled.
The effect was “gut wrenching”. But for Adegoke, who was born in Nigeria and lived there for the first 15 years of her life, it was a defining moment: “I was so distraught. And then I got really annoyed.”
She secured a place at Cambridge to study law and eventually qualified as a barrister.
Adegoke, 39, this year’s Ned to Watch, has been a non-executive director on the board of Melrose, the industrial turnaround group, since 2020. She was praised by the judges for her ethical standards and for supporting the management team during the pandemic. By day, she is general counsel at the FTSE 100 safety products maker Halma.
Adegoke worked at BP for almost a decade before the birth of her son made her realise that she wanted to do more for the sustainability agenda.
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On her role at Melrose, Adegoke said a good NED should be there to help the executives. “There’s a humility you ought to take into those conversations, [because] you do not run the company,” she said. “It’s about how you help the management team be more effective.”