Bristol social enterprise company appoints new board members

Babbasa founder Poku Osei said the team was "incredibly pleased" to welcome six new board members to the organisation

A social-enterprise company working to transform the lives of young people from ethnic minority and low-income backgrounds has six new board members.

The non-executive directors have been brought in to support Bristol-based company Babbasa in areas including HR, finance, legal, tech and procurement.

It is the first time members outside Bristol have joined, which reflects its future ambition to "grow nationally".

Babbasa was set up in 2010 to support young people in areas like employment.

A company spokesperson said appointing new members from a wider geographical location would help replicate its social mobility model across other cities.

The new members joining the Babbasa board are Dr Aby Sankaran, an impact and evaluation manager at the University of Bristol, Gurminder Kaur Nijjar, head of general counsel business partnering at Irwin Mitchell and Claire Giraldo, chief people officer at Sideshow Group Ltd.

Also appointed were Jonathan O'Toole, product advisor and founding team member at Elvie, Alexander Emenike, assistant director at Natwest Group PLC, and Sanyalax Morrison, strategic procurement director at National Highways.

Babbasa is based in the St Pauls area of Bristol, supporting aspiring young people aged 16-25

Poku Pipim Osei, CEO and founder of Babbasa, said they were expanding the operational teams and bringing on "more advisors and mentors to support our young people".

"We are incredibly pleased to welcome the new members of the board to the team… [at this] very exciting stage," he added.

The company launched its OurCity2030 campaign in 2022, which was described as a "vision to close the equality gap in Bristol".

Designed to support young people from low-income households, the city-wide initiative, which began in inner-city Bristol, aims to secure meaningful careers by 2030, with future ambitions to expand the initiative across Bristol and beyond.

Vanessa Moon, founding director of Moon Executive Search that supported Babbasa's search for new members, said she was "delighted" to support Babbasa.

She said the "overwhelming response" was testament to all the "great work that Poku and his team have achieved".

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