Samuel Kasumu
Public trust in institutions has narrowed. The leadership styles that worked when audiences were broadly homogenous now misfire when communities start from sharply different assumptions about whom to trust. Leaders who cannot bridge that gap find their messages unheard and their reforms resisted by the people they were meant to serve.
Samuel Kasumu helps senior leaders earn trust with the audiences their institutions have struggled to reach, drawing on his time as Special Adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his work co-founding executive search firm Inclusive Boards.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Samuel Kasumu
- He led the cross-government vaccine confidence programme during COVID-19. As Special Adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he worked with vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi to take uptake in some communities from under 30% to around 75%.
- A working understanding of how board composition actually changes. Through Inclusive Boards, the executive search firm he co-founded, he has placed non-executive directors across more than 150 sports governing bodies and led culture change work with organisations including the Royal Horticultural Society and the Rugby Football League.
- A serious editorial thesis on the strategic value of outsider perspective, set out in The Power of the Outsider (Hodder & Stoughton, 2023). The book gives boards a usable frame for treating difference as a commercial asset, drawn from his own experience inside Downing Street.
- Direct exposure to the political and reputational risks senior leaders face when public trust fractures. Few speakers have served at the centre of UK government during a comparable period of institutional pressure.
Biography highlights
- Special Adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson with the Civil Society and Communities brief, 2019 to 2021. The most senior Black adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office during this period.
- Co-founder of Inclusive Boards, an executive search firm specialising in non-executive and board appointments. Named Third Sector and Public Sector Recruiter of the Year at the 2023 National Recruiter Awards.
- Author of The Power of the Outsider: A Journey of Discovery (Hodder & Stoughton, 2023), with cover endorsement from ITV political editor Robert Peston, and Winning the Race (RoperPenberthy, 2012).
- Member of the Race Disparity Audit Advisory Board under Prime Minister Theresa May, chaired by Lord Simon Woolley.
- Recognised on the MIPAD Top 100 list (Most Influential People of African Descent), a UN-aligned global initiative.
- Regular UK political commentator on programmes including Question Time and Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. Publishes Future-proof Politics on Substack.
Biography
In early 2021, vaccine uptake in some UK communities sat below 30 per cent. By the time Samuel Kasumu left Downing Street in May that year, it had climbed to around 75 per cent. The cross-government confidence programme he led, working alongside vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi, had reached audiences the rest of government could not.
That campaign captures the practical question Samuel works on. As Special Adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson with the Civil Society and Communities brief, he was the most senior Black adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office. The role required both political instinct and credibility with communities Whitehall does not naturally reach.
His commercial work runs in parallel. Inclusive Boards, the executive search firm he co-founded, has placed non-executive directors across more than 150 sports governing bodies. The firm has worked with organisations including the Royal Horticultural Society and the Rugby Football League on culture change. It was named Third Sector and Public Sector Recruiter of the Year at the 2023 National Recruiter Awards.
His 2023 book The Power of the Outsider (Hodder & Stoughton) makes the case underpinning the rest of his work. Outsiders, he argues, see what insiders miss, and organisations that learn to value that perspective gain a strategic edge. The book carries a cover endorsement from ITV political editor Robert Peston.
Key speaking topics
- Inclusive leadership and board diversity
- Trust between institutions and communities
- Civil society and government relations
- Outsider perspective as a strategic asset
- Cultural intelligence in policy and corporate communication
- Race and identity in the modern workplace
- Crisis communication with hard-to-reach audiences
Ideal for
- Chief People Officers and DEI leads responsible for board composition and culture change at scale
- Chairs and CEOs working through institutional trust challenges with employees and external stakeholders
- Public sector and government audiences engaged in community engagement and behaviour change
- Corporate leadership teams seeking a sharper frame on how to treat difference as a strategic asset
Audience outcomes
- A clearer view of why institutional trust collapses with specific communities, and what kinds of leadership and engagement actually rebuild it
- Inside lessons on how government and large organisations make decisions when public confidence is fragile
- A sharper editorial frame for treating difference as a commercial asset across boards and executive teams
- Direct insight into what changes board composition in practice, drawn from work with hundreds of organisations through Inclusive Boards
Talks
Why the people who do not naturally fit an organisation often see what insiders miss, and how leaders should structure boards and teams to capture that asset. Drawn from his book of the same title and developed for audiences from TEDx Soho to corporate leadership programmes.
Key takeaways:
- Why outsider perspective produces commercial and strategic advantage that conventional DEI framing tends to overlook
- How boards and executive teams can be structured to make the most of difference rather than absorb it
- Lessons from inside Downing Street on what happens when institutions over-rely on insider thinking