How the CCC Awards is becoming one of Britain’s most important events
Blending community, corporate and culture, co-founder Mahari Hay tells Black Current News why a new kind of platform is bringing people and power into the same room
I call Mahari Hay at exactly the agreed time. He answers, saying: “You know, I like when people call on time. They’re saying they’re gonna call, and they call on time, they get my time.”
We laugh. He has just made it into an empty conference room, fresh from the lift. It’s a light moment, a brief exchange before the conversation turns to “crunch time”, with preparations for the CCC Awards well underway.
On Saturday evening, hundreds of guests will gather for the annual event, an initiative that has quickly become one of the most talked-about celebrations of Black achievement in Britain.
Yet for its co-founder, Mahari, the real purpose goes far beyond trophies, speeches or glamorous photos.
For him, the awards are about something deeper: connection, opportunity and the quiet power of recognising people who don’t often receive public credit for the roles they play in other people’s success.
“Everybody has someone in their life who helped them become who they are,” he says.
“But those people often remain behind the scenes. I wanted to create a platform that celebrates the story behind the story.”
A platform with a different purpose
The CCC Awards, which stand for Community, Corporate and Culture, bring together three worlds that are often treated separately.
Sponsored by HSBC and backed by organisations including the Financial Times and John Lewis, the awards bring together entrepreneurs, community organisers, creatives and corporate leaders, with rising talent sharing the room with established names.
Mahari says that this approach, alongside co-founder Mexy Thomas, was intentional.
“If a village is going to prosper, different people contribute in different ways,” he explains.
“Why recognise only one sector when our lives are shaped by so many?”
In his view, real progress happens when those worlds intersect. A journalist might meet a business leader who becomes a mentor or a community organiser might connect with a sponsor who can support their work. The room becomes a place where doors open.
That philosophy has clearly resonated.
What began as a modest idea has grown rapidly. The first event in 2025, held at The National Gallery, attracted around 120 attendees. This year’s ceremony has expanded to around 500 guests, with a waiting list still growing.
“I didn’t really know what it would become when we started,” Mahari admits.
“But I believed it was a good thing we were trying to do. If you give people a platform to celebrate themselves and others, it will multiply.”
From Kingston to the corporate world
Mahari’s drive is rooted in a story that begins far from the awards stage.
He was born in Kingston, Jamaica, the youngest of ten children.
His early life was spent in a tenement yard, where multiple families shared facilities, in a close-knit community where resources were limited but relationships were strong.
“My mother saw something in me that others didn’t,” he recalls.
Determined to create better opportunities for her son, she left Jamaica to train as a nurse before moving to the UK to work in the NHS.
Mahari later joined her, arriving at around ten years old and stepping into a world that felt entirely different.
“It was cold,” he says, laughing. “But I was blown away.”
Seeing London for the first time, from underground trains to the pace of the city, left a lasting impression.
“We didn’t grow up by the beaches or the Sandals hotels, we lived in the ghetto,” he says.
“So to come here and see how advanced everything was, it blew me away.”
More important, though, was watching his mother, whose name was Melody, work night shifts while raising him.
“That’s what shaped me,” he says. “Seeing someone leave everything behind and work so hard for other people.”
Mahari is emphatic that nothing he has built has been done alone, crediting his wife Nikki as both partner and strategist in the journey.
“There’s none of this ‘behind a great man is a great woman’,” he says. “She’s beside me and often in front of me… we’ve got a thing, I’ll knock it down, she’ll set it up.”
A career built on people
Before launching the CCC Awards, Mahari spent more than two decades working in finance.
Like many senior Black professionals navigating corporate Britain, he often found himself looking up and seeing few people who shared his background.
“When I looked up, there was nobody who looked like me,” he says.
He is a highly experienced, people-focused leader with more than 20 years in the financial services sector, known for translating complex ideas into clear, practical action.
He also serves as co-chair of the B.O.L.D Network, the Black Organisation for Leadership and Development, one of the UK’s most influential employee resource groups.
His impact has been recognised across the industry.
In 2023, he was named Top Finance Sector Employee at the UK Black Talent Awards, Professional of the Year at the PBC Awards and Trailblazer of the Year by NOBEEL. He is also listed in the Empower Global Top 100 Future Leaders.
Alongside this, he has become a sought-after keynote speaker, delivering talks on personal branding and diversity, equity and inclusion, always grounded in lived experience.
A turning point
The idea for the CCC Awards began to take shape in 2023, after Mahari attended several award ceremonies and noticed a pattern.
When winners took the stage, many used their moment not to celebrate themselves, but to thank the people who had helped them get there.
“That’s when it clicked,” he says.
“They were telling the story behind their success. And I thought, why not celebrate those people too?”
Mahari’s approach to leadership is rooted in collaboration.
“You don’t work for me,” he tells those around him. “You work with me.”
That ethos runs through the awards. The evening is not simply about recognition, but about what happens next.
“I want people to leave with something new,” he says. “A new connection, a new idea, a new opportunity.”
As the weekend approaches, anticipation is building. Guests are preparing, nominees are waiting, while Mahari and the team focus on the details.
Taking place at the Royal Leonardo Hotel, Tower Bridge on 21 March, past winners of the awards range from Brixton Soup Kitchen to Lorraine Dublin, the lead microbraid wig stylist behind Wicked!, and media personality Remel London.
But beyond the ceremony, the vision is clear.
To create a space where recognition leads to opportunity and where community is not just celebrated, but strengthened.
“We have to create our own space to be fantastic and brilliant,” Mahari says.
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