Torch Exchange set to ignite new wave of black leadership

LONDON:

A conference has been launched in Birmingham to address one of Britain’s most urgent challenges: strengthening black leadership pipelines across business, public service, and civic life.

The Torch Exchange, hosted by Excell3 and the Mahogany Legacy Foundation, brought together young black professionals, established leaders, and intergenerational change makers for a dynamic day of dialogue, development, and connection. The event at the Eastside Rooms, Birmingham, was designed to close the widening gap between emerging talent and senior decision-makers by creating a space where wisdom and innovation met with purpose.

The Torch Exchange was built on a simple but transformative idea: Black leadership flourishes when generations connect intentionally. In this current era, intergenerational back leadership is needed to propel and empower the next generation. The concept of the ‘Torch Exchange’ encompasses the wisdom of our predecessors, where, through the mantra of ‘each one, teach one’, we equip ourselves with the tools to take on leadership roles whether in the corporate, creative, or community spheres.

Many inequalities we find within society are the lack of knowing where institutional gatekeepers manifest as enclosures and barriers that restrict growth for many young black professionals. This is where the conference shines: through the perspectives of various black leaders, grounded in lived experiences, offering insights into the possibilities of success. When these platforms of ‘exchanges’ don’t exist, our stories, wisdom, trials, tribulations, and legacies can simply become a figment of the past.

LEGACY BUILDING

Conference host Dr Cheron Byfield Shakespeare, founder of Star King Solomon Academy and co-founder and chair of Excell3 and the Mahogany Legacy Foundation, opened the event with a call to action. The conference was chaired by senior chair Junior Hemans, alongside Dr Leona Ogene as Next-Gen co-chair, who together, guided the day’s discussions and intergenerational exchanges.

Dr Byfield Shakespeare said: “The Torch Exchange is more than a conference. It is a deliberate act of legacy building. We are creating a space where established leaders and emerging talent can stand shoulder to shoulder, share wisdom, and ignite the confidence needed to lead boldly in every sphere of society.”

The Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Councillor Zafar Iqbal MBE, also offered a brief address.

The programme included a keynote address from Professor Daniel Akhazemea on the principles of great leadership, followed by an audience with Dr Derick Anderson CBE DL, Lord-Lieutenant for the West Midlands. Tony Brown offered specialist insight into AI and the future of leadership, and Dr. Trevor Adams shared learning from a powerful leadership programme for young black professionals.

Next0generation perspectives were brought by the Fusion Delegates from the Mahogany Legacy Foundation’s 2025 Jamaica expedition. The conversation focused on how many delegates worked rigorously to liaise with contacts on the ground to provide aid and support to those most in need following Hurricane Melissa.

FOCUSED INSIGHTS

The project spawned a number of initiates, from partnerships with a school in Roses Valley, St Elizabeth, to fundraisers for Jamaica’s National Children’s home, where Fusions’ very own Brandon Huie raised over £3,500 towards the proceeds.

He was awarded the Association of Jamaican Nationals, Be inspired Youth award in the process.

Leadership, through the Fusion delegates, was expressed through the perspectives of diasporic responsibility, the incentive nature of activism, and providing aid and care when needed most.

A standout feature of the Torch Exchange was the Leadership Circle, intimate mentoring sessions where nationally respected black leaders shared practical wisdom with the conference’s Legacy Insight Leaders. Contributors include Professor Martin Levermore MBE DL, Paulette Hamilton MP, Kishma Bolaji, Rev Joyce Fletcher, and Clive Bailey, who offered focused insights into strategic alliances, resilience, navigating white-dominated institutions, well-being in leadership, and customer-centred innovation.

Although conferences alone don’t fix structural inequalities, they provide tools and techniques to combat the hostile environment of the corporate world, the terrain of leadership within community and life, and, as black leaders, how to succeed amid the pejorative perceptions that undermine our leadership qualities.

These intergenerational spaces are important for our navigation of a society that historically and contemporarily remains a hostile territory for black professionals. Nevertheless, the Torch Exchange was centred on the idea that black leadership excels when generations connect, share, and reason. These conferences aim to ensure that the works of previous generations don’t remain in vain but serve as vintage memorabilia accessible to the next generation.