From night shifts in a takeaway to being honoured by the City of London
FUND MANAGER’S REMARKABLE JOURNEY AFTER GROWING UP IN CHEETHAM HILL
WHEN Justin Onuekwusi was a teenager he was working night shifts at a takeaway in Manchester, selling fried chicken and chips to buy a computer for his family.
Now he’s been honoured with the Freedom of the City of London in recognition for his work promoting inclusivity in the financial sector.
Living between Cheetham Hill and Crumpsall, fund manager Justin grew up in a single parent home with his mum and brother.
The 38-year-old is now head of retail multi-asset funds at Legal and General Investment Management, one of Europe’s largest asset management companies. It’s one of the most coveted roles in the financial sector.
A straight-A student who studied at St Monica’s RC High School in Prestwich and Holy Cross College in Bury, Justin left Manchester at 18 to study at Warwick University, before forging a successful career in the city.
He said: “I grew up around Cheetham Hill in the early 90s when it got pretty hairy at times. I think that coming from a less privileged background has taught me to be relatively humble.
“I used to work in a place called Allen’s Fried Chicken on Cheetham Hill Road to buy a family computer so I could do my coursework for sixth form.
“That taught me humility, and coming from an ethnically diverse area I saw a wide range of different people and levels of income, it taught me to really respect other people and their lived experiences.
“My mum taught me about resilience. Growing up in that household. I’ve seen my mum struggle, but she always bounced back. I can never claim to be as resilient as her.”
Justin has endured prejudice and setbacks along the way, but has never let anything hold him back.
He said: “Part-time work was really important to top up the income in my household. But I was accused of theft three separate times while doing parttime work. One that jumps into mind was during the 2002 Commonwealth Games. I was a linen lifter in the athletes’ village, and after a discussion with a Guernsey athlete he gave me some merchandise.
“It was green tracksuit bottoms. When I walked away, one of the bosses asked me where I got it from and didn’t believe me when I told them the athlete gave it to me – by the end of the week I didn’t have a job any more.”
The Freedom of the City of London dates back to 1237 and is given to people who have achieved success, recognition or celebrity in their chosen field.
The list of previous freemen include members of the royal family, prime ministers and international leaders.
Justin is a co-founder of the #talkaboutblack movement which was launched three years ago. The campaign aims to discuss issues affecting people of colour in the working world. He said: “I remember my first big event I was at after I became an asset manager. You’re talking about a room full of 300 people and I think there was only two black people in the room, the rest were white. During a dinner, one of the advisors pointed to the only other black guy in the room and said ‘look your twin’s there.’ You already feel like an outsider, and for something like that to happen at your first big event in the industry, it’s pretty horrendous.”
Several years on, City high-flier Justin has been placed in the Top 100 Ethnic Minority Executive Role Models 2020 list. He intends to return to Manchester and continue his work promoting diversity in the financial sector to the region he calls home.
He said: “We don’t see a lot of Mancunians in this city (London). It would be great for me to reach out with communities in Manchester to get people into these big global industries.”