Episode 111

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Published on:

4th Sep 2025

Enterprising Equality - Building Fairer Futures Through Business with Professor Monder

Starting a business can change lives. 

It can mean freedom, security, and the chance to shape your own future. 

But let’s be honest - if you’re from a racially marginalised community, there are still barriers stacked against you that hard work alone won’t fix. 

That’s why I’m so glad to be speaking with Professor Monder Ram OBE, director of the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship at Aston University. 

Monder has spent decades making sure these stories are heard and acted on, and in this conversation we get into what’s really going on, what needs to change, and the opportunities we’re missing if we don’t take inclusive entrepreneurship seriously.

Highlights:

(07:15) Why CREME is different from other research centres

(15:40) The £75 billion opportunity for the UK

(22:10) Three big barriers: money, markets, management

(34:00) Business as a progressive force against toxic politics

(44:20) Shifting the narrative from deficit to asset

Find out more:

Aston University CREME institute The Time to Change Report: A Blueprint for Advancing the UK’s Ethnic Minority Businesses, commissioned by NatWest Group 

https://www.aston.ac.uk/research/bss/abs/centres-hubs/creme/time-to-change

Connect with us here:

Website: https://aurorawellnessgroup.co.uk/

Ngozi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ngozi-weller-aurora/

Obehi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/obehi-alofoje-psychologist-aurora/

Aurora Company Profile 2025

Book a Call here: https://aurorawellnessgroup.co.uk/#book-meeting

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About the Podcast

The Wellbeing Rebellion
Welcome to The Wellbeing Rebellion, an award-winning podcast.

We’re Ngozi Weller and Obehi Alofoje, Directors at Aurora — a leadership and organisational effectiveness consultancy.

This podcast explores how the way organisations are led shapes performance, trust, wellbeing and culture over time.

The challenge with many approaches to wellbeing and culture is that they place responsibility on individuals to cope, rather than examining the leadership decisions, behaviours and systems that create the conditions people are working within.

This is where the conversation needs to shift.

On The Wellbeing Rebellion, we explore leadership behaviour, organisational systems and decision-making under pressure through honest conversations with senior leaders and advisors navigating real organisational complexity.

Some episodes are just us. Others bring in leaders and experts reflecting candidly on what works, what doesn’t, and what leadership requires in practice.

If you’re responsible for people, culture or organisational performance — and want to think more critically about how leadership shapes outcomes — this podcast is for you.

About your hosts

Obehi Alofoje

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Obehi is a psychologist and culture change consultant who helps senior HR and business leaders reduce employee burnout, absenteeism & talent attrition through mental wellbeing strategy, training & coaching.

Ngozi Weller

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Ngozi Weller is a culture change consultant and an ICF accredited coach who helps build resilience into your business by creating psychologically safe workplaces that enable employees to thrive.