Transforming Lives and Livelihoods: Celebrating a Fifty-Year Legacy in East London
A celebration of our fifty-year legacy in East London, with a panel discussion, demonstrations of student work, and an inspirational keynote address from award-winning filmmaker and philanthropist, Funmi Iyanda, an honorary fellow of the university.
14 Jun 2023 - 14 Jun 2023
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Event Overview
15:30 - 16:15 – Arrival and registration
16:15 - 16:30 – Word of welcome from Vice-Chancellor Professor Julie Mennell
16:30 - 17:15 – Panel discussion with alumni of the London operations during the past fifty years
17:15 - 18:00 – Breakout sessions with demonstrations of student work
18:00 -18:45 – Keynote from award-winning filmmaker and philanthropist, Funmi Iyanda
18:45 - 20:00 – Barbecue and networking
20:00 – Ends
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Event Information
Key Note Speaker
Funmi Iyanda is the Executive Director at OYA Media and a multi-award-winning media personality, film and TV producer, writer, and philanthropist.
Best known for independently producing and hosting Nigeria’s most popular and ground-breaking talk show New Dawn, a program that has broken boundaries in the Nigerian media landscape. Renowned for her irreverent interview style, Funmi started her career as a sports journalist and satirical columnist and is one of Nigeria’s most revered and beloved TV personalities.
Funmi has produced many outstanding shows for TV, radio, and online including Monte Carlo and BANFF nominated BBC commission My Country Nigeria and Chopcassava. Her feature film adaptation of Jude Dibia’s award-winning novel Walking with Shadows premiered at the London Film Festival in 2019, tackling taboo LGBTQ themes.
Funmi is known to take on difficult progressive issues in a deeply conservative country; she founded Change a Life Nigeria in 2002 and has over the years provided scholarship, education, t raining, grants, and healthcare for over 5000 tragedy-stricken families. Currently, Ms. Funmi is the Executive Producer and host of Public Eye, a bridge-building conversation show in partnership with Macarthur Foundation that tackles the tough issues of public policy, accountability, and innovation for development at a time of extreme polarisation. Working with Macarthur, she initiated the How To Fix Nigeria conversations in partnership with the Royal Africa Society in London as a tour around Nigeria.
Funmi has an exceptional ability to interpret social and pop-cultural trends through the lens of history and some wit in order to predict behaviour for devising improved communication for producing policies, institutions, and technologies that reduce human suffering and promote sustainable human progress. She is a Fellow of the inaugural class of the Africa Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Funmi is also a Tutu leadership fellow, an alumnus of the YGL forum of World Economic Forum, and an honorary fellow at Cumbria University in Carlisle.
Join us from 16:00 until 20:00 on Wednesday, June 14th, at the University of Cumbria, 58 East India Dock Road, London E14 6JE. Closest stations: Westferry (DLR), Canary Wharf (Elizabeth line). A barbecue, refreshments, and networking opportunities are included.