We Don't Need Permission - An Evening with Eric Co

Join us at Southwark Cathedral for this very special event with entrepreneur, business advisor ,star of Channel 4's The Money Maker and Cathedral congregation member Eric Collins who will be in conversation with award-winning actor and director Adrian Lester as well as the Dean of Southwark, The Very Reverend Andrew Nunn. They will be discussing themes from Eric's new book We Don't Need Permission: How Black Business Can Change the World published by Penguin Random House's Transworld division. Eric, Adrian and Andrew will discuss how their lives have been enhanced by taking bolding often at times unexpected steps and the impacts of not asking for permission as part of their life strategy.

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We Don't Need Permission: How Black Business Can Change Our World

At a time when half of Black households in the UK live in persistent poverty - over twice as many as their white counterparts - We Don't Need Permission argues that investing in Black and under-represented entrepreneurs in order to create successful businesses is the surest, fastest socio-economic game-changer there is.

Long-lasting economic empowerment - from education to health outcomes - is key to solving the multiple problems that result from systemic racism and sexism. And it is the best way to close the inequality gaps that have hampered and continue to hinder Black people and all women too. To address this problem head on, Eric Collins co-founded venture capital firm Impact X Capital to invest in under-represented entrepreneurs in the UK and Europe.

In We Don't Need Permission, Collins identifies ten key principles of successful entrepreneurship, and reveals how it's possible to change a system that has helped some, while holding others back. The book not only aims to inspire and motivate under-represented people to take their future and economic destiny into their own hands, but will demand of current business leaders and organizations that they do business better.

It's time to stop waiting for someone else to give permission and start boldly making the world we want to see.

This event will take place in the Cathedral nave. Doors open at 6.15pm. This event will also be streamed live via the Cathedral Facebook and YouTube pages.

Copies of We Don't Need Permission: How Black Business Can Change Our World will be available on the evening and Eric will kindly be signing copies post-event.

You can also pre-order a copy of We Don't Need Permission: How Black Business Can Change Our World when registering to attend this event.

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Eric Collins

Eric Collins is a serial entrepreneur, investor, technology executive and host of Channel 4 business show, The Money Maker, which is based on the highly successful US show The Profit on CNBC.

Eric has spent much of his career building the value of digital companies through innovative strategies at public and private companies including AOL, TimeWarner, Tegic/Nuance Communications, MobilePosse, SwiftKey/Microsoft and most recently, Touch Surgery, where he was COO.

He sits on the boards of companies in San Francisco and London, including Tech Nation.

President Obama appointed him to the Small Business Administration’s Council on Underserved Communities.

In his debut book, We Don't Need Permission: How Black Business Can Change Our World (published September 1 2022) Eric argues investing in Black and underrepresented entrepreneurs is the surest, fastest socio-economic game changer there is.

Eric is a brand ambassador for Audi, and The Prince’s Trust and has been featured in The Times, The Guardian, Sky News, Bloomberg, CNN, and several other media outlets. He is also a regular speaker.

In 2018, The Financial Times named him among the UK’s top 100 BAME leaders in technology. Since 2019 Eric has been voted one of the most influential black people in Britain on The Powerlist.

Adrian Lester

Award-winning actor and director Adrian Lester CBE started his career with a string of successful West End productions including Company, for which he received an Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical, Six Degrees of Separation and Sweeny Todd, before playing the lead role in movie Primary Colors, directed by Mike Nicholls and co-starring John Travolta, Emma Thompson and Kathy Bates.

Other movie roles include Day After Tomorrow, Loves Labour’s Lost, As You Like It, Maybe Baby, Dust, Final Curtain, Scenes of a Sexual Nature, Starting Out in The Evening, Doomsday, All Is By My Side, Best, Born Romantic, Case No39, Doomsday and the Oscar nominated Mary Queen of Scots.

TV work includes The Undeclared War, Undercover, Trauma, Trigger Point, Girlfriends (US), Red Band Society (US), London Spy, Curfew, Being Human, Merlin, Bonekickers, Ballet Shoes, Afterlife, Beyond, Ghost Squad, Jason & The Argonauts, Storm Damage, Silent Witness, Teaching Matthew, Sleep With Me, The Rook, the hugely successful Riviera for Sky Atlantic, BBC One drama Life and playing Mickey 'Bricks’ Stone in the long running BBC One series Hustle.

Directing work on screen includes Of Mary, Hustle, Riviera and The Greatest Wealth, at The Old Vic Theatre in London.

Adrian has played the title roles in Henry V and Othello at the National Theatre, for which he won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor, Rosalind in As You Like It for Cheek By Jowl, Ira Aldridge in Red Velvet in London and New York, for which he won the Critics Circle Best Actor award, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opposite James Earl Jones and Hamlet in Peter Brook’s The Tragedy Of Hamlet in London, Paris, Japan and New York.

In October 2021 he appeared in the National Theatre's transfer of The Lehman Trilogy on Broadway in New York, alongside Simon Russell Beale and Adam Godley, directed by Sir Sam Mendes, which garnered him a Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

In 2018 he appeared as Sky Masterson in Guys & Dolls at the Royal Albert Hall and starred in the Pulitzer Prize winning Cost of Living at the Hampstead Theatre. In February 2021, during the coronavirus pandemic, Adrian joined Danny Sapani starring in Hymn, which was streamed live from The Almeida over six performances, was available on demand and opened to live audiences in July 2021. He also appeared as Prince in the National Theatre's Romeo & Juliet, which was broadcast on Sky Arts in April 2021.

In 2010, alongside wife, actress and playwright Lolita Charkrabarti, Adrian appeared in When Romeo met Juliet for BBC2. He was also featured in Empire’s Children for Channel 4, retracing his grandfather’s step when he risked everything to travel 5,000 miles to Britain.

Adrian also featured in the 2019 Portrait Artist of the Year Award on Sky Arts.

Adrian has 3 honorary Degrees, earlier this year he was awarded the Pragnell Shakespeare Prize, was made an OBE in 2013 and a CBE in 2021 for services to drama.

He is Patron of charities: National Youth Arts Trust, Body & Soul, The Primary Shakespeare Company, Cowrie Scholarship Foundation, Sparkle Sheffield, Everything to Everybody project, The Horniman Museum and Gardens and Eastside Educational Trust. He is an Ambassador for The Old Vic, Oscar Birmingham, Children and the Arts, Asthma UK, Shelter, ACLT and was featured on the 2019 Children in Need Album.

The Very Reverend Andrew Nunn, Dean of Southwark

The Very Revd Andrew Nunn was born in Leicester in 1957. He grew up there and attended primary and secondary schools in Wigston, where he was also a member of the choir of All Saints, Wigston Magna.

Andrew was installed as Dean of Southwark in January 2012. Prior to that, he was Sub Dean and Precentor of Southwark (1999-2010) and Acting Dean from November 2010.

He is a member of the General Synod and the Diocesan Synod.

He is a Foundation Governor of St Saviour's & St Olave's Girls' School in Southwark. He is also Chaplain to the Worshipful Company of Launderers, the Worshipful Company of Innholders and the Whitsters Club.

Andrew contributes to the local church by teaching and speaking at a number of courses and events in the Diocese of Southwark and further afield outside the Diocese. He is a member of the General Synod of the Church of England and on the Panel of Chairs of the Synod. He has served as a member of the Crown Nominations Commission since 2011. He was Rector General of the Society of Catholic Priests until October 2017.

His many interests include theatre, cinema, reading and travel.