Sir Ken Olisa hires lawyers to sue Institute of Directors
Sir Ken Olisa has threatened to sue the Institute of Directors (IoD) for defamation following his acrimonious resignation as deputy chairman earlier this year.
Olisa, who is the first black Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London, intends to take legal action in a bid to clear his name over allegations that he was aware of racist statements made by former chairwoman Lady Barbara Judge while he was her deputy.
The long-running dispute centres around the accusation that Olisa, the founder of Restoration Partners, was aware of Judge, who was ousted as chair earlier this year amid allegations of racism and bullying, making racist comments.
Judge, who denied the claims, was accused of reducing her assistant to tears and making racist comments about staff, some of which were reported to have been secretly recorded by the IoD’s director general, Stephen Martin.
After an investigation into the allegations the IoD concluded that Olisa became aware of a recording of Judge last year, however the accusations were not made public until March this year.
In his resignation letter Olisa wrote: "Senior leaders covertly recording private conversations, systemically disregarding due process and leaking confidential material to the press have combined to make the IoD a laughing stock in the court of public opinion."
Olisa is seeking an apology, costs and compensation from the 115 year old institute following his resignation in March.
A spokesperson for the Institute of Directors said: “We are entirely confident that we’ve acted correctly and that Ken has no grounds for making a claim concerning his resignation or, indeed, for receiving an apology.”