BYP Network, a U.K. based firm described as the ‘Black LinkedIn,’ heads to New York and Atlanta

For young U.K. Black professionals seeking successful role models, they were often limited to those who broke barriers in sports and entertainment. As an emerging young professional in banking, Kike Oniwinde Agoro saw a gapping hole in how her industry and generation were networking. In 2017, she founded the BYP Network in London, described as a “career advancement platform for Black professionals.” Through her company, she regularly connected corporate partners with Black talent, including those from Spotify, Meta, Shell, Morgan Stanley, Apple and many more.

Today, BYP has a reach of 150,000 members, with 25,000 of them being “upskilled” and over 1,000 organizations use BYP services. With the U.K. as its main hub, BYP is growing globally. Agoro and her team saw the need to connect across the pond and this May, BYP’s launches two conferences in New York and Atlanta. Rising Wall Street star Robert Newman III has been tapped to serve as BYP’s chief activator in New York City.

Newman knows firsthand the power of reaching back to pull someone forward. As a former equity inclusion and diversity program manager at Neuberger Berman, the HBCU grad joined the BYP Network’s BYPeers division and mentored individuals in networking, personal development and entrepreneurship.

On May 19, BYP Network will hosts its US Leadership Summit in New York. DETOUR checks in with Newman on becoming a mentor and creating allies in leadership and why, after years in the financial sector, he bet on himself and became an artist full-time.

DETOUR: From your days on Wall Street, working at Morgan Stanley to Neuberger Berman, you were a dedicated mentor. Why has that been important from the start of your career until now?

ROBERT NEWMAN III: I would not have gotten here if it was not for my mentor, Russell Gregory, who took me to Morehouse for a weekend visit when I was in high school. Growing up, I had never met a person who had three or four careers at one time. He was a colonel in the military, he owned a real estate business and a few properties, and he was doing yard work every Sunday. When he took me to Morehouse, I saw everybody else that we were around and I decided that this was the school [I’d attend]. Looking back at my life, that moment where there’s a fork in the road, that’s when I made choice.

I realized that there’s no way I could have been where I am without mentorship – having a person be able to shift [someone’s] energy and give them a little bit more perspective. I’ve tried to continue that with anybody that’s around me as well.

DETOUR: What is the BYP Network and your role as chief activator?

NEWMAN: I don’t want to sell it short, but the easiest way conceptually to explain BYP is that it’s the “Black LinkedIn.” [Co-founder] Kike has taken her time to really build out this platform to be extremely comprehensive for somebody who’s thinking about the professional journey. BYP has a jobs platform for members to see what companies are offering; there’s a sponsorship model for companies that want to get more deeply involved with talent development; and there’s content and a sharing of information. For example, on BYP’s social media recently, we promoted two or three Black owned businesses.

BYP is looking to build a community, which is a perfect segue to my role. As chief activator, I get to be a conduit of information. From reaching out to different young professional networks in New York City and bringing in senior speakers to developing different engagement activities for the peer groups and interacting with the sponsors [in the U.S.] because BYP is a U.K. brand. Also I get to curate a bit, which is super fun for the art side of my brain.

DETOUR: Speaking of your artistry, while you were working in finance and at BYP Network, you also were known as “The Wall Street Artist.” You had a number of showings, including the Black In Time Black History Month Exhibition at FIT Museum in New York and the Paraíso Exhibition Summer 2021 in Milan and the Canary Islands. Are you still balancing both?

NEWMAN: As of last August, I became an artist full time.

DETOUR: What was the transition for you to jump into artistry full time?

NEWMAN: It was between the projects I wanted to work on and the projects I was starting to get that I realized there was enough work to keep me busy. In the beginning, there was a big fear of what will I do now if this big portion of my life – which takes up 60 hours a week — is gone. Plus at my last firm, I had set up the DEI space and that project was my baby and I didn’t want to just hand it off. But then I started [telling myself] once I get into a gallery, I’ll be able to go full time. Then once I get into a museum, I can go full time. But after I did both of those things, I was still in the office. So last year, there were a number of projects where I told myself, I’m safe, right? People found out about me, outside of a financial environment, whether it was to do nonprofit work or other independent projects. At that point, I was okay with letting it go.

If you’re interested in learning more about BYP Network’s US Leadership Summit, please connect here.

This story was originally published May 3, 2023 at 4:37 PM with the headline "BYP Network, a U.K. based firm described as the ‘Black LinkedIn,’ heads to New York and Atlanta."