Sandie Okoro (@sandieokoro), a British national, was appointed Senior Vice-President and General Counsel for the World Bank Group in February 2017. Prior to joining the World Bank Group, she had been a General Counsel of HSBC Global Asset Management and Deputy General Counsel of HSBC Retail Banking and Wealth Management since 2014, prior to which she was Global General Counsel at Barings.
Sandie qualified first as a barrister and then re-qualified and trained as a solicitor. In July 2014, Sandie was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Law by City University London in recognition of her career in business and law, and her voluntary work. On July 18, 2017, Sandie was made an Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple in the United Kingdom.
Sandie has received several accolades in the United Kingdom and Europe for her work and volunteer efforts. Sandie is named in the Powerlist 2015 as the fourth most influential black person in Britain. Sandie received the 2014 Chambers Europe Award for Excellence in the category for Outstanding Contribution to the Legal Profession. In March 2014, she was named by the Guardian Newspaper as one of 10 women who are changing the face of the City. She was named in the Autumn 2015 edition of Brummell Magazine, as one of the top Inspirational Women in the City who are Champions of Diversity. In May 2016 Sandie was named by City AM as one of the Power 100 Women, and in June 2016 she was named in position number 30, as one of the Financial Times’s Upstanding 100 Leading Ethnic Minority Executives. Most recently, in July 2016, Sandie was named as one of the 100 Women to Watch by the Female FTSE Board 2016, and in November 2016, she received a lifetime achievement award from the UK’s Black Solicitors’ Network.
A leader in her field, Sandie was appointed in July 2011 to the Management Board and the Panel of Experts of The Hague-based Panel of Recognized International Market Experts in Finance (P.R.I.M.E.), which assists with the settlement of international disputes on complex financial transactions. She played a leadership role during the financial crisis particularly in respect to the mitigation of counterparty risk exposure. In late 2013, Sandie became a council member of the Human Rights organization, JUSTICE. From 2010 to 2016, Sandie was ambassador for the Law Society of England and Wales Diversity Access Scheme. From January to June 2014, Sandie was President of International Lawyers of Africa (ILFA), having previously been an ILFA director for many years.
In November 2014, Sandie was appointed to the Board and elected as a Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company. During 2016, Sandie was also on the Equality Standards Panel of the Premier League.