Kick It Out wants to appoint Samuel Okafor, a director of the private bank Coutts, as the anti-racism charity’s new chief executive. The Guardian has learned that the wealth manager and former professional footballer has emerged as Kick It Out’s preferred candidate after an extensive search process in which it received more them 100 applications for the job.
Okafor’s career began in football as an apprentice at Colchester United before he moved into banking after his hopes of making it as a professional petered out. The 42-year-old Nigerian made one appearance in League One for Colchester towards the end of the 1998-99 season before moving on loan to Conference club Dover Athletic, for whom he made four appearances.
After failing to earn a new contract at Colchester Okafor moved into banking, beginning as a branch manager at NatWest while playing non-league football for clubs such as Enfield, Hampton and Richmond, and Bromley. Having spent most of his career in retail banking Okafor moved into wealth management at Coutts, which is owned by NatWest, four years ago.
Okofar is understood to have come out on top of a three-person shortlist compiled by Kick It Out’s board to replace the outgoing chief executive, Tony Burnett, who is standing down next month after three years. Owing to Okafor’s background in banking, final due diligence and financial checks are taking place before the appointment can be confirmed.
Kick It Out’s board, which is led by the chairman, Sanjay Bhandari, and several trustrees including Leicester’s Premier League-winning captain Wes Morgan, identified Okafor’s financial skills and past experiences as a player as valuable assets. Okafor also has considerable experience of working on diversity and inclusion issues having spent three years leading NatWest’s racial equality taskforce.
One of Okafor’s key roles will be to improve Kick It Out’s links to the playing community at a time of change for the organisation. Troy Townsend – the father of the Luton Town winger Andros – is also leaving his role as Kick It Out’s head of player engagement after 13 years at the end of this month, although he will still do some work for the charity in a consultancy role.
