Margaret Akullo is a Ugandan-born British criminologist, mentor and leadership adviser with over three decades of experience strengthening justice systems and developing emerging leaders across Africa, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Her career spans criminal intelligence work with UK law enforcement agencies, including the London Metropolitan Police and the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command, Board Chair of a UK-based African children’s NGO, and a tenure with the United Nations, where she advanced responses to human trafficking, migrant smuggling, child protection, cybercrime and criminal justice reform. Throughout her global work, she has been a consistent advocate for gender equality, racial equality and inclusive, people-centred leadership.
As a former United Nations official, Margaret worked at the intersection of criminal justice reform and institutional leadership in some of the world’s most complex environments. Her perspective as a Ugandan diasporan woman deeply shapes her work, offering emerging leaders a grounded, globally aware and culturally conscious approach to personal and professional growth.
As a writer, Margaret is the voice behind the Leadership Reflections and the Diaspora Within series on Substack, LinkedIn, Medium, and Instagram. Leadership Reflections draws on decades of mentoring to examine what leadership actually requires: the cultural humility learned over a shared meal, the clarity found in stepping away, the courage it takes to speak with purpose. The Diaspora Within is more personal, an attempt to reclaim a narrative too often authored by others, and to name what usually goes unnamed: the invisible labour of belonging, the pull between duty to family and duty to self, and the guilt that can come with thriving while others are still building their own path. In both, lived experience is treated not as anecdote but as evidence.
Today, Margaret continues her commitment to empowering emerging leaders as the founder of the Impact Leaders Initiative and creator of the Impact Leaders Mentorship Programme, a structured, one-to-one programme for early career professionals aged 21 to 32. Every mentee begins with a specific idea, challenge, or aspiration, and leaves with a tangible output: a CV, personal statement, strategy document, presentation, or comparable piece of work they can use immediately. The programme works in two stages, first building the internal foundation of self-awareness, purpose and disciplined thinking, then converting that foundation into a finished piece of work through structured accountability. The conversation is never the outcome. The output is.
Warm, steady and deeply grounded in global experience, Margaret is committed to equipping the next generation of emerging leaders with the language, structure and confidence to lead with empathy, integrity and purpose. She has witnessed a powerful truth across continents: when young leaders are seen, supported and equipped, they do not just rise, they help transform the world around them.