Business Leaders - Kerry O'Brien

Kerry O’Brien is chief executive of the Young Urban Arts Foundation. For 25 years she has been a recording and performing artist under the name ‘Lady MC’ and has shared producers with Kanye West and Michael Jackson. She has appeared on BBC2’s ‘Dragons’ Den’, BBC3’s ‘Singing With The Enemy’ and Channel 4’s ‘Musicool’, and in 2001/2 she toured the east coast of the USA with TC Izlam and Prince Tafari. In 2008, she co-founded the British DJ and MC Academy and spent three years as its operations director. The following year she set up YUAF, where she remains, while also working as a reiki master and public speaker. In this in-depth conversation, she talks about the power of music to transform young people’s lives, describes the struggles of running a charity against a background of changing governments and financial support, and explains how figures in the voluntary sector can be the key to unlocking the potential inside everyone.