How a Criminologist became a Mentor for emerging leaders
We talk a lot about what it takes to rise. Let’s talk about what it takes to redirect.
In 2022, at the age of 55, I retired early from the United Nations. It was because something deeper, louder, and more persistent was calling. After more than three decades of strengthening justice systems across more than 20 countries, I asked myself a question that no job title, no mission statement, no performance review had ever required me to answer:
Who are you without your career?
That question became the engine of everything I now do.
Born in Uganda, raised in Ghana, I came to the United Kingdom for university education and it is where I started my early professional career. I joined the London Metropolitan Police Service, and spent 15 years working at the intersection of race, crime, and justice. Amongst many cases I worked on, I was the Criminal Intelligence Analyst for a murder inquiry, a case that exposed the London Metropolitan Police as institutionally racist. Over two decades now, that work continues to shape me in ways I am still discovering. From London, I moved into the United Nations system, working on projects across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe. I led projects on human trafficking and child abuse, coordinated criminal justice training programmes, managed diverse teams in Austria, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, and beyond.
And then I quit.
I speak about these words by Nelson Mandela - “Quitting Is Leading, Too” - as the truth that I have lived. Leadership was not about staying the longest or climbing to the most senior level. Sometimes the most courageous act of leadership is the decision to redirect, to trust yourself enough to step off the path the world laid out for you and onto the one that was always, quietly, yours.
That is the heart of what I do, write and speak about now.
Information on my online platform is grounded in over three decades of global experience. It is a conversation, warm and honest, rooted in the belief that we must do the inner work before we can do the work that matters in the world. What you will find on the platform draws from three intertwined threads:
The Mentorship Programme, which is a flagship initiative for emerging leaders, with emotional intelligence at its core. Testimonials from past mentees bring itthe programme to life.
My Leadership Reflections and stories of impact are a series that draw on my lived experience and cultural identity, exploring courage, collaboration, and cultural humility. African roots are woven through many of the stories.
A common thread through all of this is the question of justice, race and inclusion, because you cannot talk about leadership without talking about who has historically been excluded from it. For anyone standing at the edge of something, wondering whether to stay or leave, I have been there. Pull up a chair. Join the conversation. There is a seat at my table.