We’re delighted to introduce Seyi Akiwowo as a member of Yoti’s Guardian Council.
The Guardian Council
The Guardian Council is our independent board of trustees and advisors. They have no financial stake in the company but are wholeheartedly invested in protecting the people we seek to serve. They bring expertise from fruitful careers in sectors like human rights, data privacy and last mile tech to advise us as we navigate the complex world of identity, digital or otherwise.
Seyi Akiwowo
Seyi Akiwowo is multi-award winning Founder and CEO of Glitch, an trailblazing charity working to prevent online abuse, gender-based violence and hate speech. Seyi is also the author of How to Stay Safe Online (Penguin, 2022), a comprehensive guide to spotting red flags, responding to, and proactively defending yourself in online spaces, and how to use the internet as a force for good.
Seyi’s journey to making the world a safer place began after graduating from the London School of Economics, with her election as a Councillor in East London at 23, where she became the youngest Black woman to ever hold the position. From TED Talks to Crystal Palace FC, lectures to OECD, Parliaments all over the world, Seyi delivers talks on feminist leadership, values-driven culture, tech for social good.
Galvanised by her own experiences with online abuse, Seyi established and grew Glitch into Europe’s leading not-for-profit tackling the issue of online safety for marginalised people. Glitch has a flagship training programme on Digital Citizenship to help us all exercise our agency to navigate the online world in a positive, critical and respectful way.
Alongside being appointed to TikTok and Twitter’s European Trust and Safety Council, Seyi sits on the board of Multitudes Foundation’s to support changemakers across Europe to reimagine who holds political power. In Spring 2022 Seyi was offered an MBE as recognition of her work but made the decision not to accept.
Seyi’s passionate about widening participation and representation of diverse groups in public life, and anyone that has met her will know how charismatic and positive she is about all of the wonderful work she’s doing. Seyi is also an expert facilitator in skills and inclusion and delivers workshops around the world, including London, Kuwait and UAE. In addition to her inspirational talks, Seyi’s also written reports and seminal pieces for The Guardian, Gender IT.org and Huffington Post.
If you want to follow all the interesting things she’s saying and doing, you can find her at @seyiakiwowo.