“If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far go together. ”
Jacqueline Wedube Onalo is an award-winning human rights lawyer and leadership trainer. She is a barrister and solicitor of England and Wales as well as an advocate of the Supreme Court of Kenya. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. (RSA)
She has been instrumental in supporting hundreds of individuals and organisations with their leadership development needs globally with her work spanning multiple countries including UK, Kenya, Malaysia, Myanmar, USA, Djibouti, Tunisia, Iran, Algeria, Oman, Denmark, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Cambodia, India, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Maldives, Philippines and Indonesia. Her clients are from both the private and public sector and she has sat on several esteemed leadership think tanks.
She is a seasoned board member and is a trustee of several charities including at Comic Relief where she chairs the People and Culture Committee and was the former chair of Remunerations and Nominations.
Youth leadership development is her passion, she believes real leaders create new leaders. She has designed a holistic youth leadership programme focusing on employability, career, entrepreneurship, life and active citizenship skills. She has successful delivered this programme to hundreds at Kings College, University of Roehampton, Kingston University, Aga Khan University London, EdSpace, Savvy Scholars, University College London, Aleto Foundation and EdSmart.
As an equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging expert she supports organisations in ensuring that they do not only adhere to relevant legislation but strive to become values led. Her focus is on gender, race and age. She has worked with Computer Science Department of University of Durham, Social Enterprise Academy Scotland, Huckletree, 2150, Local Globe and various NHS trusts
She is an acclaimed international speaker, whose insight has been valuable on various forums including the UN focussing on the Status of women, at the House of Lords on the role of the African Diaspora woman in Africa Rising, at City Hall on the power of networks and international development, at Africa Oil and Power on local content.
Her work in Sub Saharan Africa in international grassroots development has transformed the lives of hundreds in rural and urban communities through volunteering, capacity building and fundraising.
She is a Lecturer at Queen Mary’s, University of London Business School and an Angel Investor seeking to increase investment in Black founders by increasing the number of Black investors. She has several advisory roles with African Business Chamber, The Launchpad Programme for Black Girl Fest, British Award for African Development and Face of Kenya.
Jacqueline has advocated against Institutional Sexual Harassment globally through Inclusion Convention, has contributed to white papers related to the Domestic Abuse Bill.
What People Are Saying
I first met Jacqueline Onalo, when she was a key note speaker at NELFT’s Ethnic Minority Network Annual Conference. I was immediately struck by Jacqueline’s presence and ability to command a room with barely a whisper. Jacqueline’s human rights and charity work, plus her tireless campaigning for equality is truly inspiring. For the last few years Jacqueline has delivered leadership development session as part of the NELFT preceptorship programme. The evaluations from these sessions are always extremely positive and are a real highlight of the programme. Jacqueline is the consummate professional and an absolute pleasure to work with.
— Adjoa Nsiah-Jennings – Interim Practice Experience Manager NELFT
I just want to say thank you once again for your amazing session today, I was truly engaged throughout the duration of your talk and highly inspired by the end of it. Personally, at this stage of my life, I feel like your training was exactly what I needed, as I’d say I had reached quite a stagnant point. I want to thank you because today was about learning about how to be a good leader but I feel like you did much more than just teach me about that; I felt empowered and excited to push myself further and also extremely encouraged to believe in myself and all that I am capable of. So thank you very much for taking time out of your daily routine to share your fantastic knowledge, skills and experience with us today. I’d also like to say congratulations on all your amazing achievements, you are a true inspiration!
— Lourdes Hanna. MS. Clinical Neuroscience Student, Roehampton University Leadership Program