She is not a star of the stage or screen, or an elected politician, a media personality or even the head of a major private corporation. So what makes 51 year-old Sharon White one of the most powerful women –and a Black woman to boot – in Britain? The influential Bloomberg business media analyst picks her as one of the possible contenders to become the next Governor of the Bank of England when its current governor Mark Carney demits office in 2019. White is also seen as a possible candidate in the future for the post of Britain’s Cabinet Secretary and head of the country’s civil service.
Jamaicaglobalonline introduces Sharon White, daughter of Jamaican parents, members of the Windrush Generation who migrated to Britain in the 1950s. Sharon was born, grew up and educated in Britain but her Jamaican parentage makes her Jamaican and we are proud to claim her. But who is Sharon White and why is her name and achievements not seen and mentioned more regularly in the public domain? The short answer is that civil servants rarely are, and for most of her career Sharon has been a civil servant.
Sharon White is currently Chief Executive of Britain’s telecoms regulatory body OFCOM. When she assumed that position in 2015, she became the first woman and the first Black person to head the media regulator and the first Black person to have such a senior role in any UK media organization. A year earlier in 2014, the Voice newspaper had named her among the top 10 most powerful Black persons in Britain. At that time Sharon was seen as one of the most powerful women in Whitehall (home of the civil service) having ‘punched a hole in the glass ceiling’ to become a second Permanent Secretary of the Treasury – the first Black person to be so appointed and only the second woman to hold the position.
As second Permanent Secretary, Sharon was responsible for overseeing the UK government’s spending cuts and oversaw the review into the financial management of the government. She also led the inquiry into the Treasury’s management response to the financial crisis. Her long career as a civil servant began in 1989 with a posting in Washington D.C. where she was to meet her future husband Robert Chote. Early in her career, Sharon’s work as Director General of the Department for International Development (DIFID) would have connected her with Jamaica, if only tangentially. She also held Board level positions at the Ministry of Justice and as Civil Service Adviser in Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Policy Unit. An economist by training, Sharon read Economics for her bachelor’s degree at Cambridge and later took an MSc at University College, London.
The mother of two children, Sharon and her husband are regular church-goers – not so surprising as her first job was working for a church in the depressed area of Birmingham. She is a keen runner (the 400M is said to be her specialty) and she often travels to office in trainers. At 51, she readily admits to being ‘more digital than her age group’ having become, in her words “a quasi 18-year old” who on waking up reaches for her mobile phone even before seeing whether her husband is still there! Physically imposing at close to 6ft, she is described by a colleague as being “ down to earth and approachable but tough when she needs to be. She is someone who gets on well with everybody but she’s no pushover.” In a 2015 Guardian newspaper article, Sharon is quoted as describing her management style as ‘delegating and empowering.’ In the early stages of her career she did a lot of mentoring and coaching particularly of women, in an effort to boost their confidence to put their hat in the ring from more senior jobs. “I try to be open and accessible to staff at all grades.”
Upward and Onward Sharon, Jamaica and its global diaspora is behind you.
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