Former British championship swimmer Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell has been appointed chief executive of 10,000 Black Interns - an organisation striving to boost representation across UK industry.
The 10,000 Black Interns Foundation launched in 2020 and is seeking to offer 2,000 paid internships each year for five consecutive years. So far, the campaign has partnered with firms from 25 sectors.
Ms Achieng Ajulu-Bushell, who won the 50 metre and 100 metre breaststroke at the 2010 British Swimming Championships, will now look to further expand the programme, which saw more than 2,000 black students and recent graduates complete paid internships at 600 firms across the UK this summer. Among the companies involved was law firm Osborne Clarke, which hired 11 interns in its offices in Bristol, London and Reading.
The announcement of Ms Achieng Ajulu-Bushell's appointment comes as the programme opens for application for its summer 2023 programme.
She said: “I am thrilled to be joining 10,000 Black Interns, which has had such a unique impact on the issue of the underrepresentation of young black talent. I look forward to capitalising on their extraordinary success to date, scaling this impact, and exploring the huge potential of underrepresented talent in the UK more broadly."
Ms Achieng Ajulu-Bushell joins the 10,000 Black Interns Foundation from NKG, a communications and media agency she founded to work on social change projects. She was also managing director of the firm, looking after clients such as Age UK, Barnwood Trust and grassroots organisations such as Exist Loudly - a Black queer youth group in London.
Jonathan Sorrell, co-founder of 10,000 Black Interns and president of Capstone Investment Advisors, added: “On behalf of the trustees, we would like to welcome Rebecca to the team. We look forward to her driving the expansion of the foundation to capture the enormous opportunities that are in front of us.”
Applications for the 2023 10,000 Black Interns programme are open until November 13, 2022. Internships are available to young people from black African, black Caribbean, mixed black and/or other black British backgrounds, who are over the age of 18 and are currently studying at university in the UK or have graduated since 2019.
All internships are paid opportunities and last for six weeks, starting in the summer of 2023. Applicants can join the ongoing 10,000 Black Interns training programme which comprises of CV workshops and application tips with industry leaders.
