Hailing from the heart of East London, Stephen now splits his time between the UK and the US driving change across multiple continents for everyday people.
Awarded an OBE in the 2021 New Year’s Queen’s Honours for innovation in charity and social enterprise, the legacy of Stephen’s work spans across some of the biggest and brightest names in social innovation. Those organisations include Bloomberg Philanthropies, Marks and Spencer, Esmee Fairbairn, UNICEF, Guys and St Thomas’ Foundation, Wellcome Trust, the Greater London Authority, the Irvine Foundation, Nesta, Big Lottery, JP Morgan, Santander Bank, Google, the Cabinet Office and more.
Stephen has also over 15 years experience in strategy, innovation, policy and delivering programmes at early stages. Not only has he worked with the likes of Tribal, Deloitte, the Home Office, he also worked at the Virginia (USA) headquarters of the 2012 Presidential Campaign for Barack Obama.
He is the founder of design agencies TSIP (UK), whose mission is to improve people’s quality of life and build a fairer society. Stephen also founded Path Group (USA), a social innovation studio focusing on the challenges of the future of humans at work. He also founded Turning Basin Labs (USA), a worker-owned COOP staffing agency that focused on giving workers and employers the resources they need. In addition to this, Stephen is Deputy Chairman of The Barbican UK.
With a passion for justice, education, health and investment to name a few areas of interest, Stephen also works to support Black founders and social enterprises in the wealth creation and sustainability space.
Stephen uses his time not only lobbying for change and exploring the future of work, but developing the next generation of social entrepreneurs, often providing mentoring opportunities and advising an Evergreen Fund investing in diverse entrepreneurs in the UK.
Stephen Bediako OBE is one of those rare characters who inspires everyone around him with his energy, enthusiasm, and drive. He is a quintessential entrepreneur, constantly searching for new opportunities to add value across his formidable network, driven by a true belief that the world can be made better.
Stephen's highlights
- Visiting Fellow, Stanford University, USA, 2023
- Freedom of the City of London, UK, 2023
- Honorary Fellow, Social Enterprise UK, 2022
- OBE New Year’s Honours for Innovation in Charity/Social Enterprise, 2021
- LBS & Local Globe, Newton Venture Capital Programme. 2021
- Startup.COOP Accelerator Board, 2020
- Mayor’s International Programme member, 2019
- LSE Marshall Institute, Guest Lecturer, 2019
- Board (former Vice Chair), The Barbican, 2018
- Co-chair of UK Social Investment Diversity Working Group, 2018
- SOCAP Scholar and attendee, California, USA 2017
- UnLtd Social Entrepreneur Winner/Board Member, 2017
- Goldman Sachs 10ksb Graduate, 2014
- AMEX Common Purpose Leadership Graduate, 2013
- Volunteer Innovator Obama Campaign, Virginia, USA, 2012
- Board member, Centre for London, UK, 2012
- Vice Chair, Chance UK, 2011
- Shadowing David Miliband MP, OBV, 2010
- Stockwell Primary School, School Governor, 2005
Learn more about Stephen’s work through his Case Studies page. Want to work with Stephen? Contact him now to book him to speak at your next event.
What I’m Working on
- Impact investing in diverse leaders (Global)
- Designing Future of Work solutions (USA)
- Innovating new services, programs, and solutions with communities (UK)
- Designing community health systems (UK)
- Exploring how we ignite catalytic capital (UK)
- Building proximate led organisations (UK/USA
- Advising Inclusive Property Ownership (USA)
- Transforming a global arts institution (UK)
What I’m interested in
- Investing in diverse entrepreneurs
- 21st Century employment models
- Shared ownership models
- Innovating services, programmes and ideas
- Proliferating Social Entrepreneurship
- Scaling Social Enterprise
- Building learnt expertise and proximate expertise into Mixed Teams
- Macro-social and government trends
- Building collective learning environments
- Building inclusive economies through capital, policy, programming and people
- Reimagining Arts, Creative and Cultural institutions