Professor Augustine John
Chief Executive

Professor Augustine John is the Chief Executive of the Gus John Partnership Limited and has been active in promoting Racial Equality and Social Justice in Britain since 1965. Born in Grenada, he has lived in England since 1964 and was an activist in the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD), an organisation whose work led directly to the enactment of anti-discrimination legislation, particularly the Race Relations Act 1968.

He has been involved in policy development and training on Equality and Race Relations issues for over 30 years and held senior positions in local government, most recently as Director of Education and Leisure Services in the London Borough of Hackney. He chairs the Communities Empowerment Network (CEN) and is a founder Trustee of the George Padmore Institute, an archive and research institute in North London that is dedicated to recording the history of black political struggle in post-war Britain.

Between 1969 and 1971 he conducted a study for the Runnymede Trust in Handsworth, Birmingham, and wrote the book Race in the Inner City. In 1971, he co-authored with Derek Humphry (then staff reporter with the Sunday Times) a Penguin special Because They’re Black, followed in 1972 by a Panther publication Police Power and Black People. Between 1973 and 1978, he conducted research on local government youth policy with respect to black young people across 16 towns and cities in England and in 1981 the report In the Service of Black Youth was published. In 1986, he co-authored Murder in the Playground following the racist murder of Ahmed Iqbal Ullah at Burnage High School in Manchester and the Commission of Inquiry led by Ian Macdonald QC.

Professor John is a Visiting Professor of Education at the University of Strathclyde and a team member of their Equality and Discrimination Centre. He is also a Fellow of the Revans Institute, University of Salford.

He was a member of Home Secretary Jack Straw’s Race Relations Forum and is currently a member of the Home Office Minister’s Race Equality Advisory Panel (REAP). He serves on the Advisory Board as Deputy Chair for Centre for Public Policy Seminars (CPPS) and is a regular Chair or presenter at those seminars.

Professor John heads The Gus John Partnership (GJP) Limited, a management consultancy specialising in organisational change, project management, policy development, implementation and impact assessment and in equality and diversity training. He chaired Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council’s Commission of Inquiry into the Needs and Circumstances of Black and Minority Ethnic People in Doncaster, the report of which was published in August 2002.

Professor John led part of the public consultation for the Attorney General’s Review of Deaths in Custody and joined a team of CPS inspectors in a Thematic Review of Cases with a Minority Ethnic Dimension

In the last year, GJP has reviewed the race equality policy and implementation plan of each of the Higher Education Institutions in England and the Further and Higher Education Institutions in Scotland on behalf of their respective Funding Councils and produced reports on how those sectors are implementing the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000. The Partnership also conducted a review of prosecutors’ case files for the CPS’ Diversity Monitoring Project and Quality Assurance of Police Community and Race Relations Training for the Home Office.

Professor John declined appointment as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the New Year Honours, 2000.

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