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June Sarpong MBE

Title
Honorary Fellow
Person Type
Honorary
June Sarpong MBE

Biography

Honorary fellow

Campaigner, author and one of UK television's most recognisable faces, June Sarpong is now using the power of fashion to address social issues.

The daughter of Ghanaian immigrants, June Sarpong was born in Leytonstone, East London, in 1977. The TV presenter, author and charity campaigner began her career at MTV in 1998, and went on to host T4 for eight years, interviewing everyone from Kylie Minogue to Kanye West, and even duetting with Tom Jones.

In 2005, Sarpong gained unprecedented access to then-Prime Minister Tony Blair for the one-off special ‘When Tony Met June’. She went on to present the UK leg of Live Earth, launched the Make Poverty History campaign and hosted Nelson Mandela’s 90th Birthday celebrations in Hyde Park in front of an audience of 30,000 people.

An Ambassador for the Prince’s Trust for 15 years, Sarpong was awarded an MBE for her services to broadcasting and charity in 2007. She is the co-founder of the acclaimed conference the WIE Network (Women: Inspiration & Enterprise) and the DNA Summit (Decide Now Act). Her latest project is the LDNY Foundation – a charity which supports young people from lower-income communities to find work in the creative industries.

After eight years in America, Sarpong is living in London and currently writing Diversify: Six Degrees of Integration, a book about the moral, social and economic benefits of diversity.