Championing Black voices: “As a Black person within the corporate world, representation is not where it should be.”

To celebrate Black History Month (BHM) in the U.S. and Canada, BHM is taking over our Make Possible Bitesize podcast to shine a light on inspiring Black professionals. 

Our first episode is now live, featuring Ope Runsewe, Director of Partnerships at American Express in conversation with Michael Ogunjobi, Lead Customer Success Manager at Permutive. Runsewe says: “As a Black person within the corporate world, representation is not where it should be.” During the episode, Runsewe addresses this by talking about the importance of having peers with a similar cultural identity, Black representation in businesses, coaching and mentoring, and faith.  

At Permutive, we want to utilise our podcast platform to celebrate diversity and inclusion beyond these dedicated calendar events too. We’ll be bringing in and championing people from all walks of life throughout this year on this podcast and at our events. But during BHM we want to give extra attention to those in and outside the scope of media and advertising. 

We’ll have some amazing guests throughout the month, including Gabriella Nelson, Associate Director of Policy at Maternity Care Coalition and Kerel Cooper, Chief Marketing Officer at LiveIntent. All BHM guests on the show this month will share advice and answer questions on the importance of cultural identity to their career and the business they are in, how to maintain that identity as they grow and the challenges they are proud to have overcome.  

In October 2020, we also celebrated Black History Month in the UK, with four inspiring guests — you can listen back to those conversations now. While some progress has been made, there’s still work to do in the representation of Black people in our own industry and beyond, especially in senior roles. We want to amplify those voices.

The Make Possible Bitesize podcast launched in September 2020 and focuses on championing change in publishing advertising and beyond, talking to special guests about their careers, their lives and how they’re making change possible. We publish our 10-15 minute shows weekly on Tuesday. You can find past episodes and subscribe to our Make Possible podcast on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Happy listening.