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About: Nathan John

Social Entrepreneur / Programme Maker / Motivational Speaker
 
Nathan JohnNathan John is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Youth Enlightenment Limited (Y-E-L).  He is a 26 year old from London who has devoted a part of his life to working with young people. Nathan is also the Co-Founder and Director of www.commontouchgateway.com.
 
“I have seen first hand the difference support and hard work can make, that is why we are committed to helping young people go beyond any boundaries and achieve unprecedented success."
 
In May 2010, Nathan was appointed as the new Community Cohesion Adviser to the Mayor of Lewisham, Sir Steve Bullock.  He is also a member of the Lewisham Youth Task Force.
 
2009 was an exceptional year, watch his new "Go Get It!" video:

  
Nathan has been married to his very supportive wife, Simone for seven years.  The couple has four beautiful children, Nathan jr., Allana, Mikaela and Olivia.  “My family is an important part of my life and motivates me to achieve unlimited success.  I lost my father at a young age and my mum had three jobs at one point so I understand that as a parent you have to go that extra mile!”  

In January 2009 Nathan was included in The Voice newspaper's top 20 Movers and Shakers of 2009!  Other names include President Barack Obama, Baroness Scotland, Lewis Hamilton, Usain Bolt, Levi Roots plus more...  He was awarded by the London Youth Corporation for being a Guest Speaker at the first 10/10 Leadership Summit at the Marriott Hotel, Park Lane.  In February 2010 he received an Appreciation Award from New Cross Apostolic Ministry.

The Voice NewspaperStripy Panda The Voice Newspaper

 

Supporting the Community 
  
Nathan has been involved in the following: 
  • Adviser to the Stephen Lawrence Review, which was conducted independently by Dr Richard Stone (panel member of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry as Adviser to Sir William Macpherson). His responsibilities included general coordination and project management of the Youth Forum.  Other principal Adviser’s included Doreen Lawrence OBE, Perry Nove QPM CBE & Dr David Muir (see SLR Report).
  • Member of the NPIA’s Stop and Search Community Panel
  • Appeared on various panels including one at the BBC Children’s Festival 2009, The London Peace Lecture at the Mayor’s Office plus has chaired a panel at the London Schools and the Black Child conference, which was hosted by the former Mayor of London and Diane Abbott MP
  • Attended meetings at: 1) Mayor's Office - Mayor of London, Boris Johnson as part of a forum “discussing urgent solutions to youth violence in London”, which feed into the 'Time for Action' strategy, 2) Home Office - Carole Eniffer, who is the Head of Gun and Knife Crime Section, 3) New Scotland Yard - Superintendent Leroy Logan MBE
  • Delivered motivational workshops and inspiring speeches to over 3,000 young people at Schools, Colleges, Community Centres, Feltham YOI, BUC's 'Black Boys in Business' and much more!
  • Mentored several young people and ran monthly workshops at New Cross Apostolic Church - COOLJC, where he was also a Sunday School Teacher and Youth Leader.  He is now an Elder
"I know my purpose is to Be a Light to young people worldwide. St Matt. 5, verse 14 says: Ye are the light of this world. A city that is set on a hill can not be hid. My hearts desire is to work with the youth to make a difference.”

  Stephen Lawrence ReviewMayor of London - Time for Action

Professional Career / Education

  

Nathan has 6 years experience working in London for various leading financial institutions.  His professional career started at US Bank: Bank One where he was a trainee accountant, he went on to work for Top 4 Accountancy Firm: Ernst & Young LLP, the Largest Bank in the World: Citigroup and UK Bank: RBS.

 

Nathan has 10 GCSEs, 3 A’ levels and is ACCA (The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) part qualified.

 

“I came from a single parent home that was surrounded by poverty and negative influences – I made it out so can others”

  

Media Experience
In addition to presenting On.Point, Nathan has presented in a four minute documentary called 'Points of Youth' that was shown at the BBC Children's Festival 2009, worked with CBeebies where he devised recommendations on improving diversity and worked on BBC1's Inside Out as a freelance researcher.
 
Nathan recently worked as a researcher for M & Y Films on a series of one minute films on knife crime, which were funded by the Home Office. He found and interviewed young men whose powerful stories highlight the consequences of choosing to be involved with knives.
 
Since 2007 Nathan has also been interviewed over 100 times on BBC / ITV / Channel 4 / Sky News / BEN TV / MBC / Bangla TV / Capital 95.8 / LBC / Choice FM / Premier Christian Radio / Colourful Radio / The Guardian / thelondonpaper / U.S News and World Report / The Voice Newspaper / Epoch Times plus local newspapers in relation to challenges facing young people while proposing solutions.  Watch our new Media Relations video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crda8Ma8ePo
Nathan John on BBC, ITV's London Tonight & Sky News

Click here for the 2007 list of interviews

Click here for the 2008 list of interviews

Recent Interview List

  • Premier Christian Radio – "Prince's Trust survey: Life meaningless for Youth" on 05/01/2009
  • Premier Christian Radio (live) – Premier Sunday Breakfast Show as a Guest on 11/01/2009 at 8am to 9am
  • Premier Christian Radio (live) – Big Issue panel: "Inauguaration of President Barack Obama" on 20/01/2009 at 4:40pm
  • BBC Radio 5 Live (live) – Up All Night "Inauguaration of President Barack Obama" with OBV's Simon Woolley, MC Bashy & Sean Benson on 21/01/2009 at 2:15am
  • BBC News 24 (live) – "Burglaries and knife robberies up" on 22/01/2009 at 3:05pm
  • ITV1 – London Tonight "Scouts meet Home Affairs Select Committee" on 27/01/2009 at 6:14pm
  • Premier Christian Radio – Premier News Talk on 21/02/2009 at 11:30am
  • BBC London Radio (live) –  Dotun Adebayo Show "Stephen Lawrence Review" on 22/02/2009 at 8:15pm
  • LBC (live) – Nick Ferrari Show "Stephen Lawrence Review" on 24/02/2009 at 7:05am
  • Premier Christian Radio – "Stephen Lawrence Review" on 24/02/2009
  • BBC1 (live) – Breakfast Guest: "Child knife crime views revealed" on 15/03/2009 at 7:12am
  • BBC News 24 (live) – "Child knife crime views revealed" on 15/03/2009 at 9:30am
  • BBC News online – "Child knife crime views revealed" on 15/03/2009, read online: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7944426.stm
  • Premier Christian Radio – "We must 'grow up', says Archbishop of Canterbury" on 01/04/2009 at 2pm
  • LBC (live) – Nick Ferrari Show "Sir Ian Blair says Police were not racist over Lawrence" on 07/04/2009 at 7:12am
  • Premier Christian Radio – "PM unveils community work scheme" on 24/04/2009
  • BBC Ariel Newspaper – "BBC Children's Festival 2009" on 28/04/2009, week 17, page 7
  • BBC Radio 5 Live (live) – Victoria Derbyshire Show "Eastside Young Leaders Academy" on 26/05/2009 at 11:48am
  • Premier Christian Radio – "Kinsella trial verdict" on 12/06/2009
  • Premier Christian Radio (live) – Premier Sunday Breakfast Show as a Guest on 28/06/2009 at 8am to 9am
  • ITV1 – London Tonight "Lambeth Primary School to send teens to Boarding School" on 29/06/2009 at 6:07pm
  • Premier Christian Radio – Premier News Talk on 03/07/2009 at 11:30am
  • BBC Radio 5 Live (live) – Rachel Burden Show "How to keep young people in School" on 22/07/2009 at 10:33pm
  • Stripy Panda Lifestyle Magazine – "Nathan John Draws us close to Business" in July, to read the front page feature of the first issue click here
  • BBC London Radio (live) –  Dotun Adebayo Show "Celebrating 1 year of following a dream" on 09/08/2009 at 9:20pm
  • Premier Christian Radio – "Teenagers most influenced by celebrities" on 12/08/2009 from 2pm
  • The Voice Newspaper - "Government Criticised over Child Imprisonments" on 17/08/2009, page 3.  To read the article click here
  • Premier Christian Radio – "Adults demonising Young People" on 28/08/2009
  • The Voice Newspaper - "Choosing another path to make a difference" on 21/09/2009, picture on page 1 with article on 17
  • Premier Christian Radio – Premier News Talk on 10/10/2009 at 11:30am
  • BBC1 (live) – Breakfast Guest: "Career advice for seven-year-olds" on 26/10/2009 at 7:40am
  • BBC Radio 5 Live (live) – Breakfast with Nicky Campbell and Shelagh Fogarty "Career advice for seven-year-olds" on 26/10/2009 at 8:42am
  • BBC Oxford Radio (live) – "Truancy rate reaches record level" on 27/10/2009 at 10:38am
  • ITN Online - Christmas Channel: “The Christmas Message all year - Motivational speaker Nathan” on 30/10/2009. Watch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73AKsdgYFPg
  • BBC1 (live) – Breakfast Guest: "Archbishop warns over gangs" on 24/12/2009 at 6:40am.  Watch on YouTube  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMsFXBw1jR8
  • BBC Radio 5 Live (live) – Breakfast Show "Archbishop warns over gangs" on 24/12/2009 at 7:11am
  • BBC1 (live) – Breakfast Guest: "School absence is highest in England's poorest areas" on 28/12/2009 at 8:12am
  • BBC Radio 5 Live (live) – Breakfast Show "School absence is highest in England's poorest areas" on 28/12/2009 at 8:40am
  • BBC Three Counties Radio (live) – The Nine O'Clock Show "Social Mobility" on 18/01/2010 at 9:57am
  • Premier Christian Radio – "Half of young black people unemployed" on 20/01/2010 from 3pm
  • Premier Christian Radio – Premier News Talk on 06/02/2010 at 11:30am
  • BBC News 24 (live) – "Anti-Social Behaviour" on 11/03/2010 at 8:30pm.  Watch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NalmJisJxww
  • Sky News – "PM calls on youth to fight against knife crime" on 15/03/2010 from 6:07am.  Watch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg3c5MBIspM
  • BBC Radio 5 Live (live) – Victoria Derbyshire Show "Record high Truancy" on 25/03/2010 at 11:40am
  • Knowledge Fountain – "Entrepreneurs to watch in 2010", March - July 2010 on page 9 of volume 2, issue 1
  • BBC Three Counties Radio (live) – The Nine O'Clock Show "Politics and Young People" on 14/04/2010 at 10:15am
  • The Voice Newspaper - "Lost generation of NEETs need better Teaching says Y-E-L Report" on 10/05/2010, picture and article on page 2
  • Premier Christian Radio – "Nathan John appointed Adviser to Mayor of Lewisham" on 27/05/2010 from 9am.  Click here to listen to an audio clip
  • BBC Radio 5 Live (live) – Tony Livesey Show "Good parenting affects behaviour of youth" on 08/06/2010 at 11:20pm
  • BBC Radio Kent (live) – Breakfast Show "Good parenting affects behaviour of youth" on 10/06/2010 at 08:50am
  • Premier Christian Radio – Premier News Talk on 19/06/2010 at 11:30am
  • Premier Christian Radio – "Girls of nine lured by gang culture" on 23/06/2010 from 2pm
  • Premier Christian Radio (live) – Premier Sunday Breakfast Show as a Guest on 11/07/2010 at 9am to 10am
  • Premier Christian Radio (live) – Premier Drive's The Review on 24/08/2010 at 3:10pm to 4pm
  • Premier Christian Radio – Premier News Talk on 28/08/2010 at 11:30am

Nathan is committed to being the voice of young people and members of the black community.  He got to air his opinion to the public as an ITV Citizen Correspondent, click here for a list of his clips.  Click here to watch him in ITV's promotional video.

For further information

 Please contact us if you would like to invite Nathan to an event or if you have any questions. 

Alternatively contact Nathan directly by e-mail: nathanjohn@y-e-l.com, Facebook: www.facebook.com/nathanjayjohn, myspace: www.myspace.com/njjohn or YouTube: http://uk.youtube.com/nathanjohnyel.

 

Youth Enlightenment Limited

 

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