2011 shortlist

Director of Beeja Dance Company, Anusha is a dancer, choreographer, teacher and dance movement therapist. In 2010, Anusha was presented with a UK New Choreography Award in recognition of the overwhelming potential of her innovative choreographic abilities.

Noor joined Asda in 2000 as a checkout operator. Within six months, she was promoted to an HR role at head office. From there, she’s gone from marketing to merchandising and eventually to trading, where she became an ethnic buyer. She has taken the ethnic range from a few lines to 15,000. Noor is also a member of EMAG (Ethnic Minority Advisory Group), lead mentor for Race for Opportunity and lead mentor for the Mosaic Group.

From helping her parents prepare samosas for the English pub they ran, to setting up her own food business in 1985, Kamal has always had a keen interest in ethnic food. Twenty-five years later, The Authentic Food Company has 230 employees, boasts a £31m turnover, and runs its own factory, supplying many of the UK’s hotels, pub chains, restaurants and retail outlets with quality international food.

Having worked in both the public and private sectors, Yasmin is now responsible for the strategic development of all Home Office external and internal communications. She works directly with the Home Secretary, home office ministers and senior officials to develop and implement a communication strategy to deliver the departments objectives.

A self-confessed “anorak”, Ritula has been listening to Radio 4 ever since she can remember. After a spell in regional TV news, she joined the Today programme in1991. Seven years and many night shifts later, Ritula made the short journey across London to Bush House, where she became one of the presenters of the daily news show The World Today. Ritula is now back at Radio 4 as a regular presenter of The World Tonight, Saturday PM and Woman’s Hour.

Aisha is a senior lecturer in Criminology at Roehampton University, specialising in health and criminal justice responses to violence against black, ethnic minority and refugee women in the UK. Aisha has also served numerous government working parties on ‘honour’ killings and forced marriage, and written books on how victims of these atrocities experience the civil and criminal justice systems in the UK, India and Iraqi Kurdistan.

Detective inspector Khizra has a formidable nine year record with West Midlands Police. She has recently won regional policing accolades for her life-saving bravery, and been selected as Mosaic’s Community Leader of the Year for spearheading the hugely successful Matchbox Estate project, which slashed crime by 42 per cent.

At the age of just 24, Shezmin founded Nia Children’s Foundation – an international children’s charity supporting the education and health of underprivileged children in Africa – after a visit to the slums in Kenya, where she worked in a small non-government run nursery school for three months.

Shireen Irani is a UK qualified lawyer and founder of i-ProBono, a non-profit website connecting civil society organisations to lawyers and students who want to contribute to the public good. Prior to joining the legal profession, Shireen worked in the social sector in the UK, US and India.

Amerdeep serves as IPCC commissioner for Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire police forces. She has received several awards for her work in tackling domestic violence, including one from the attorney general for confronting the particular challenges affecting Asian communities in dealing with domestic violence and for her commitment to diversity.