We are thrilled to have stepped into the year with the appointment of our new ambassador at The World Reimagined: Patrick Vernon OBE!

Patrick is Interim Chair of Birmingham and Solihull ICS which commissions health care for a population 1.2 million people. He is also board lead on inequalities, Chair of Walsall Together Health Partnership. Patrick is member of the Church of England Oversight committee on reparation. He is also Independent Adviser on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for the Crown Prosecution Service.

Patrick was awarded an OBE in 2012 for his work on tackling health inequalities and ethnic minority communities and in 2018 he received an honorary PhD from Wolverhampton University and was selected as one of the 1000 Progressive Londoner by the Evening Standard. In 2019 he was awarded a lifetime achievement award for campaigning and advocacy work by the SMK Foundation. Patrick led the campaign for a National Windrush Day since 2013 and helping to expose the Windrush Scandal in 2018 in one of the first growing online petitions calling for an amnesty for the Windrush Generation.

He currently advises Paul Hamlyn Foundation and chairs ARE Windrush Justice Grants Programme and Convenor of Windrush 75 with British Futures. In August 2021 Patrick was appointed by Wolverhampton University as Honorary Professor of cultural heritage and Community Leadership for the Department of Community Development.

In 2020 Patrick was selected by British Vogue as of Britain’s top twenty campaigners and was included in the 2020 Power list of 100 influential Black People in Britain. Also, in 2020 Patrick co-authored 100 Great Black Britons and established the Majonzi Fund, which is providing small grants to families and community organisations to organise commemoration events for individuals from Black and racialised communities who have died of covid-19 over the last three years.

Patrick is a sought-after broadcaster, public speaker, EDI adviser and writes blogs and articles for the national and international media on healthcare, cultural heritage and race.

Since being appoint as ambassador we have been delighted to congratulate Patrick  on his latest appointment. Following a competitive recruitment process, Patrick Vernon OBE has been appointed as the substantive Chair of Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board.