Karl Oxford

Previous Experience

Karl works at a strategic level of policy design and programme development for communities, locally and nationally. His background has been in various aspects of community regeneration and business development – working across the sectors of business, government, voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations; building key and effective partnerships of mutual interest.

His career started in the private sector (in window sales) in the early 1980s. This period has proved pivotal throughout Karl’s working life; it embedded him with the key intention to sell products and concepts proficiently within challenging environments and mind-sets.

Karl has run his own businesses and has a strong background in supporting and promoting Black and minority owned enterprises and the VCSE through various business development initiatives and agencies. In 1997, he was a catalyst and joint-founder of the African Caribbean Westminster Initiative (ACWI), based in London, which had strong representation from the House of Lords. This ACWI organisation was the predecessor to the DTI Ethnic Minority Business Forum of the time.

He was recruited to the UK Government in 2001 following serious rioting in the North of England. He was the Regional Coordinator for Community Facilitation and Cohesion, and was responsible for co-designing and managing a strategic programme of community engagement and cohesion activities across 8 local authorities in the region of Yorkshire and The Humber. Within this work, Karl also bridged joint-working and conferencing activities across the North of England and fed into community engagement policy and strategy nationally.

Karl has a strong passion for building business2business relationships. This includes across trade sectors such as food, the cultural and creative industries and also exploring opportunities for international business linking in regions such as Africa and the Caribbean.

Karl is an Executive Director of Palm Cove Society CIC, where he leads on enterprise and enrichment activities. He is also:

• a board director of the national Voice 4 Change England charity

• active on a few regional strategic policy-shaping committees, including within the West

Yorkshire Combined Authority and West and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce

• a member of the Lloyds Bank national Black Business Advisory Committee

• member of the Leeds Lifted Board (for Female Founders)

• Founder/Director of African and Caribbean Business Ventures

• Founder/Director of Culture City Radio