Adina Campbell,<\/span>UK correspondent<\/span> and <\/span><\/p>\n Anthea Lee,<\/span>Senior producer<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Afua Kyei, the Bank of England’s chief financial officer, has been named the UK’s most influential black person.<\/p>\n The 43-year-old <\/b>is one of the UK’s most senior finance leaders, in charge of the financial governance of the Bank’s \u00a31 trillion balance sheet and funding reforms.<\/p>\n The BoE executive director topped the 2026 Powerlist, which recognises the most powerful people of African, African Caribbean, and African American heritage in the UK.<\/p>\n Other influential names include former footballer Ian Wright, who’s new to the list, make-up artist Dame Pat McGrath and actor Idris Elba.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kyei, who was recruited by the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in his former role as the governor of the Bank of England, said topping the list was “incredibly humbling”.<\/p>\n The mum-of-four said growing up she saw obvious differences in the workplace.<\/p>\n She said: “I didn’t see so many women in big leadership roles who had families and I know that there are lots of women who think that they need to choose between work and having a family.<\/p>\n “What I love about the Bank of England is that we really support working families and working parents.”<\/p>\n Kyei studied chemistry at Oxford University and was also awarded a junior research fellowship by Princeton University in organic chemistry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n During the global financial crisis, she was an investment banker before joining Barclays Bank where she was the Chief Financial Officer for Mortgages.<\/p>\n She joined the Bank of England in 2019 and is at the core of the Bank’s leadership and decision making.<\/p>\n She said her parents, who moved to the UK from Ghana to go to university at 18, have been her biggest role models.<\/p>\n “My mother came to Liverpool, trained to become a midwife and enjoyed a 40-year plus career working for the NHS.<\/p>\n “My father has enjoyed a long career in the oil industry. I saw them juggling work and home. They instilled really strong values in us,” she added.<\/p>\n Kyei hopes to inspire more young people to consider banking as a career.<\/p>\n “You don’t need to be a mathematician, you don’t need to be an accountant and you don’t need to be an economist. What we’re looking for is fresh perspectives and we want the best people”.<\/p>\n Kyei takes the place of tech CEO Dean Forbes at the head of the list.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The annual Powerlist was first published in 2007, with its aim to provide role models for young black people, according to Powerful Media.<\/p>\n Powerlist founder Michael Eboda said he thought they would run out of people after three years, but the opposite has happened.<\/p>\n “Over the last 20 years we’ve seen more influencers from the private sector as opposed to the public sector and that’s a great story of success in Britain”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"BBC](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/444a\/live\/b5e42460-b0a7-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp\")
BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n‘You don’t need to be a mathematician’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
The rest of the 2026 Powerlist <\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/acd9\/live\/228c68b0-af5a-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp\")
Getty Images for W Magazine<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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