ROLE MODEL 55
BIOGRAPHY
UK BAME Role Model
CLIVE SAUNDERS Current role- E & I Delivery Manager- Surface Transport, Group Equality & Inclusion, Transport for London( TfL)
Coming to the UK in 1971 at the age of 15, Clive’ s intention was to complete his formal education and return to Jamaica after five years. He attended a local comprehensive school in Luton where he completed his GSE and CSE examinations before moving onto Luton College of Technology( now Luton University) where he completed his‘ A’ levels in 1976.
Whilst at Birmingham Polytechnic( University of Central England) reading Government and Politics, Clive developed a real interest in voluntary community work and together with some friends established an organisation for young African Caribbean people in Luton. Clive was also one of the leaders of a young people’ s organisation in Birmingham developing the educational, cultural and artistic skills of young people.
After graduating, Clive started his career as a teacher in Birmingham. However, his passion and focus remained on community and equality issues and he was offered the positions of Vice Chair of the Race Equality council and Chair of Reading Voluntary action.
In 1991, Clive joined Hertfordshire County Council as their Equal Opportunities Manager where he introduced the first equality monitoring framework for both service users and employees. During 1994, Clive also became a founder member of Watford African Caribbean Supplementary School. The school supplements and complements mainstream education and combats the continuing failure of African Caribbean young people in education.
In 1997, Clive became the Head of Equalities for Southwark Council and in 2005, Clive moved to his current role as Equality and Inclusion Manager for Transport for London( TfL). In this role, Clive leads the Audit Commission’ s contribution to updating the national guidance on community cohesion.
Clive is an achiever and has been a pioneer in the field of equal opportunities and diversity. Clive identified the need for public sector organisations to impose equal opportunities requirements into their contracts with limited success. With top level commitment in TfL, Clive has been able to lead the organisation’ s work in making equal opportunities requirements a reality in major contracts. It is a framework based on the principle that policy statements are no longer sufficient and that organisations need to go further and demonstrate that they are delivering differences in outcome.
At TfL, Clive initiated the first organisation-wide mentoring programme aimed at women and BAME staff in order to contribute to bringing about a more diverse workforce at all levels in the organisation.
As well as his work for TfL, Clive is currently the Chair of the Watford African Caribbean Association, a trustee of Southwark action for Voluntary Organisation and sits on the Diversity Panel of the Institution of Highways and Transportation.
Clive did not succeed in his initial intention of returning to Jamaica. However, in every other respect, his life and experiences have been a success. He is an achiever who has been able to make significant contributions to developments in public, private and voluntary sectors of British society.
Clive is a father of three children, lives in Watford and is married to Nerica.
ISSUE SIX 2008 engage | uk