Kanya King MBE
Entrepreneur and Founder of the MOBO Awards
Kanya King is a world-renowned entrepreneur and inspirational speaker on Diversity and leadership and founder of the MOBO Awards
While working as a TV researcher, Kanya noticed the massive gap in the market for a mainstream British awards ceremony celebrating music influenced and inspired by black music.
With Britpop at its peak and with urban music still under the radar, Kanya found it hard to get support and traction behind her idea. Instead, she decided to she re-mortgaged her house to fund the TV production herself and using all of her persuasion skills got Carlton TV (ITV London) to broadcast it – all inside six weeks.
Kanya helped to take black music from the edge of British culture to the heart of the mainstream culture in the UK and around the world.
MOBO has since grown into a globally respected brand and is a champion of diversity, inclusion and recognition for all BME talent within music, culture, arts, fashion, media and larger society as a whole.
The awards have helped provide a stage for upcoming artists that have included -Stormzy, Amy Winehouse, Goldie, Skepta, Rita Ora, Craig David, Ms Dynamite, Dizzee Rascal, Emile Sandé and Tinie Tempah and the event itself is now attended by superstar performers such as Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Janet Jackson, Usher, P. Diddy, Diana Ross, John Legend and Rihanna.
Kanya was presented with an MBE in 1999.
SPEAKING TOPICS
Kanya King is asked to speak on a wide range of topics including
• Leadership
• Entrepreneurship
• Overcoming Adversity
• Diversity
• Taking on Challenges
• Women in Business
“Thanks again for your tremendous contribution to our conference on Friday. The feedback has been outstanding from delegates and sponsors, and the tweeting was just unprecedented for IoD – UK wide, not just here."
— Director IoD Northern Ireland
“It was great to have Kanya to speak – we have received some great feedback, and our audience loved hearing your story."
— Partner Ernst & Young LLP
“We were lucky enough to secure Kanya King as our Keynote Speaker at the launch of the London Creative & Digital Fusion Project in January 2013. The audience’s response to Kanya’s inspirational presentation has been terrific, both on the day and following up after the event. We still get asked about the event weeks after it was held. Her advice to start up SME businesses was invaluable, and her stories about her own startup experiences and inspirations were both funny and thought-provoking. My advice ? If you can, you should invite Kanya King to speak at your event. It is not often your audience will be lucky enough to hear such an inspirational speaker.”
— London Creative and Digital Fusion Project
