ASIAN JEWEL AWARD WINNERS 2005 - SOUTHERN REGION
(11 July 2005)

The winners of the prestigious Lloyds TSB Asian Jewel Awards (Southern Region) 2005 were announced at a glittering awards ceremony in central London on Saturday 9 July 2005. The Awards, now in their fourth successful year, celebrate the achievements of British Asian people in all walks of life. The Awards are organized by the Institute of Asian Professionals.

THE AWARD WINNERS

Business and Commerce Award : Tony Sarin

Tony Sarin has, over the last five years, gone from being a professional accountant to a 'serial entrepreneur'. In this time he has raised in excess of £90m of institutional, private client and debt funding for a variety of businesses that he has founded. In January 2004, Mr Sarin was elected Chairman of the Asian Business Association, part of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and he also sits on the Bank of England's panel advising on Asian businesses.

Mr Sarin was recently appointed a Business Ambassador for London's successful 2012 Olympic bid and a trustee of the Safer London Foundation, a new charity created to develop innovative crime reduction projects for Greater London. Previously he was founder and CEO of Numerica Group plc, which listed on AIM in late 2001, having raised £50m of equity and debt funding. Mr Sarin lives in Hampstead, North London. In his acceptance speech Mr Sarin thanked his parents and his wife Anita, and said of his role as chairman of the Asian Business Association: 'I look forward to the days when Asian businesses no longer have specific issues and are at one with the rest of the business community ' and I'm confident that this day isn't too far away.' On the subject of glass ceilings, he advised: 'We should all keep in mind that glass can be shattered if we strike it long enough and hard enough.'

Entrepreneur Award : Joginder Sanger

Joginder Sanger's entrepreneurial story began with a small travel agency in East London in 1965 and today his businesses consist of several London hotels including The Bentley in Kensington and The Washington in Mayfair, properties, travel agencies and a life insurance company. He is passionate about his social and cultural work and devotes an enormous amount of time and energy to raising funds for worthwhile causes, including the Gurudwara Singh Sabha in Southall, London's Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, the Balaji Temple in Birmingham and the Sardar Patel Memorial Society.

He is the Treasurer and Trustee of the Balaji Temple at Tividale, Birmingham as well as Vice Chairman of the Institute for Indian Art and Culture 'Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan' in West Kensington; following his involvement the building has been extensively renovated and is now the only institution in the UK propagating India's rich culture, education and traditions. In his acceptance speech Mr Sanger dedicated his award to his children.

Professional Award : Iram Shah

Epsom-based Iram Shah, born in Peshawar, graduated with top honours from a college in Pakistan where she was the only female in a class of 80 and moved to the US to complete her MBA at the University of Chicago. Over the past 14 years Ms Shah has held a variety of positions with a number of Fortune 500 companies in several countries around the world. Her experience ranges from marketing and strategy to business development and operations.

At Coca Cola as Divisional Marketing Director, she developed a solid foundation for the expansion of the business into completely new and profitable beverage categories. At BP (British Petroleum), as Marketing Director, she has been involved in developing the Company's marketing and brand strategy. She is currently General Manager - Global Innovation for BP, and is responsible for creating new businesses. In her acceptance speech Ms Shah thanked her husband 'who gives me the space to be who I am' and dedicated her award to her mother and to her daughter Sonia.

Media, Sports and Arts Award : Lopa Patel

Lopa Patel is founder and editor of redhotcurry.com, the award-winning lifestyle portal for UK Asians, which she launched in 2001. The site is Britain's most popular South Asian resource, having achieved staggering readership growth from humble beginnings as a cookery site. It features an informative collection of in-depth articles on race, culture, entertainment, religion, food, fashion and beauty ' all written with a South Asian perspective ' and attracts over 40,000 unique users and several million hits each month.

Edgware-based Mrs Patel is also Managing Director of DMS Direct Ltd, a business-to-business marketing services company, which she founded with her husband in 1991. Prior to this, she was on ICI's fast-track graduate scheme, which she joined after attaining a joint honours degree from University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology . In her speech Mrs Patel thanked her husband and her parents-in-law for their constant support.

Healthcare and Education Award : Professor Shahina Pardhan

Professor Shahina Pardhan is Professor of Optometry and Opthalmic Dispensing at Anglia Polytechnic University and was the first female Professor of Optometry in the UK. She has worked as a research fellow, lecturer and senior lecturer in the Department of Optometry at the University of Bradford and has authored well over 100 scientific research papers and has published internationally in the field of optometry.

In 2001, Professor Pardhan led a team of optometrists to the remote areas of Hunza and Gilgit in Northern Pakistan to conduct charity eye camps. The group examined well over 1,500 patients in eight days and provided eye care in the form of medicine and prescription glasses to people who, in some cases, had been blind for years. In addition, the group established a purpose-built laboratory in Hunza to manufacture spectacles. In her acceptance speech Professor Pardhan thanked her husband John and said: 'I'm so impressed with the level of talent and expertise in the Asian communities. I'm proud to be British, proud to be Indian and proud to be Asian.'

Public Service Award : Irene Khan

Irene Khan joined Amnesty International (AI) as the organization's seventh Secretary General in 2001 as the first woman, the first Asian and the first Muslim to guide the world's largest human rights organization. She has led Amnesty International through challenging developments in the wake of 9/11, confronting the backlash against human rights, broadening the work of the organization in areas of economic, social and cultural rights, and initiating a process of internal reform and renewal to enable the organization to respond flexibly and rapidly to world events.

Deeply concerned about violence against women, Ms Khan called for better protection of women's human rights in meetings with President Musharraf of Pakistan, President Lahoud of Lebanon and Prime Minister Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh. She also initiated a process of consultations with women activists to design a global campaign by Amnesty International against violence towards women.

Lifetime Achievement Award:

Jointly presented to Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur CBE and Kabir Bedi.

Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur CBE is the highest-ranking Asian police officer in the United Kingdom, having achieved Chief Constable status in 2001. His current responsibilities include homicide investigation, serious gun crime, the Flying Squad, Economic and Public Sector crime and organised and serious crime. During his time as Assistant Commissioner, Mr Ghaffur has overseen a number of large public enquiries including the Damilola Taylor and Victoria Climbie inquiries. Mr Ghaffur started his career with Greater Manchester Police in 1974. In 1996 he was promoted to Assistant Chief Constable (Lancashire). He then moved to the Metropolitan Police Service as a Deputy Assistant Commissioner.

In 2001, Mr Ghaffur was promoted to Assistant Commissioner and headed the Directorate of Performance, Review and Standards. In 2002, Mr Ghaffur assumed responsibility for the Specialist Crime Directorate, undertaking a total reform of the way in which the business of serious and organised crime was managed by developing a programme-based approach. As a result of this, he oversaw massive improvements in performance during 2003/4, with a murder detection rate of 97%, large increases in drug and cash seizures as well as significant reductions in gun-enabled crime, including commercial armed robbery.

Mr Ghaffur received the Queen's Police Medal (QPM) in 2001 for his services to policing. In June 2004, Mr Ghaffur was awarded a CBE for services to policing in the 2004 Queen's birthday honours list. In his acceptance speech Mr Ghaffur paid a personal tribute to the officers who had worked to convict the people who had killed members of the Chohan family and also said, on the subject of last week's terrorist bombs in London, that 'the dignity, defiance and emotions shown by Londoners provide a sense of real hope for the future.'

Actor Kabir Bedi's career has taken him across the globe portraying many different roles. In the James Bond film, 'Octopussy' he played Gobinda, the villain who battled Roger Moore. In Europe, his greatest success was the title role in 'Sandokan,' a record-breaking Italian-German-French television series, the saga of a romantic Asian pirate and freedom fighter during British colonial times. Over a billion people saw him, for over a year, as Prince Omar in 'The Bold and the Beautiful,' one of the world's most-watched television programmes, in 149 countries.

Mr Bedi is currently starring in the West End musical adaptation of M.M. Kaye's 'The Far Pavilions' at The Shaftesbury Theatre in London. Over the last three decades Mr Bedi has acted in over 60 Bollywood films, from Raj Khosla's super hit 'Kachche Dhaage' to acclaimed roles in Rakesh Roshan's 'Khoon Bari Maang' and Feroz Khan's 'Yalgar.' He also played pivotal roles in the Shah Rukh Khan blockbuster 'Main Hoon Na' and Dharmesh Darshan's current hit 'Bewafa.'

In his acceptance speech Mr Bedi said: 'There's nothing as gratifying as recognition from one's peers,' and thanked his parents, children and ex-wife for sharing 'the tumultuous adventure' of his life. He dedicated his award to the bravery and courage of 'people who have dared to dream' and said: 'If you do something from the heart, then you're a professional.'

AWARDS JUDGES

The Asian Jewel Awards judges were Mike Fairey (deputy group chief executive, Lloyds TSB); David Frist (director general, British Chambers of Commerce); Digby Jones (director general, CBI); Steve Sharp (operations and interim CEO, Duke of Edinburgh's Award); Iqbal Ahmed OBE (chairman and chief executive, Seamark plc); Ranjit Sondhi CBE (chairman, English National Forum); Admiral Sir John Band KCB (commander-in-chief of the fleet); His Hon. Judge Mota Singh QC (retired Sotuhwark Crown Court judge); Makhan Singh Ghattaura (MD, Polypack Polythene Ltd); Nighat Awan OBE (chief executive, The Shere Khan Group); Prof. Sir Netar Mallick (Professor Emertitus of Renal Medicine, Manchester University); and Sukhvinder Kaur Stubbs (chief executive, Barrow Cadbury Trust).

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