2015 shortlist


Asian Women of Achievement Awards Winners & shortlist 2015
Asian Women of Achievement Awards
Arts & Culture
Winner
Sajeela Kershi
comedian, actor and writer
A comedian, compère, writer and actor, Sajeela has been performing stand-up across the UK and abroad since 2006. She famously starred in Brendon Burns’ “So I Suppose This is Offensive” show, which went on to win the The Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award. She stars in BBC Radio Scotland’s multi-faith family sitcom “Mixing It” and has produced her own hit comedy show “Immigrant Diaries”. She donates all the profits from her award-winning comedy club Comedy Cottage to charity.
Highly Commended
Piali Ray OBE
director, Sampad
Bengal-born Piali is director of Sampad, a Birmingham-based agency which supports and develops the profile of South Asian arts through performances, festivals, conferences, education and outreach work. An acclaimed performer and choreographer, she was commissioned by the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival to produce two large scale shows – “Moving Earth” and “Mandala”, which were widely recognised as flagship events for South Asian arts in the UK.
Neishaa Gharat
Founder and Designer, House of Gharats
Jing Lusi
Actor and Presenter
Stephanie Street
Actress and Writer
Diana Yukawa
Songwriter and Solo Violinist
Asian Women of Achievement Awards
Business
Winner
Sevasti Wong
managing director, Accenture
Sevasti is a Managing Director with Accenture, where she has worked within the Communications Industry serving some of Accenture’s largest global telecommunications clients for over 15 years. No only recognized by her peers, and the senior clients she serves, as a deep industry expert with unrivalled mastery of business transformation, she is also an extremely inspirational role model. She has been a champion of people development, a mentor to many, and has made a huge impact in her role of Inclusion and Diversity Lead in Accenture.
Highly Commended
Nupur Singh Mallick
HR director UK & Ireland, Tata Consultancy Services
Nupur is the HR director for Tata Consultancy Services UK & Ireland, part of the Tata Group – one of India’s largest and best-known companies. Starting her career as an HR officer in Mumbai, Nupur rose up the ranks and is now responsible for the HR function for more than 11,000 employees from 39 nationalities. The company was named “Britain’s Top Employer” by the Top Employers Institute in 2013 and 2014.
Umerah Akram
Senior Manager, Primary Markets, London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG)
Shona Bajal
Managing Director, Wealth Management, UBS
Shelina Janmohamed
Vice-president, Ogilvy Noor
Jaimie Lowe
Senior Finance Director, Business and Finance Services, HR Services, Workplace and Corporate Real Estate, Unilever
Asian Women of Achievement Awards
Entrepreneur
Winner
Farzana Baduel
founder, Curzon PR
A former vice-chair of business relations for the British Conservative party, Farzana founded London-based communications agency Curzon PR in 2009. She has headed campaigns for the Oscar-winning documentary “Saving Face”, the Arts Council-backed initiative Creative Industry Finance, and the NYSE-listed global rice brand Amira. She holds a board position at the largest educational NGO in Pakistan, CARE Pakistan UK.
Highly Commended
Renu Kapur
founder and CEO, X-Forces
Serial entrepreneur Renu is the brains behind X-Forces, a social enterprise set up to support and launch ex-service people in their own businesses. Started in November 2013, X-Forces has now launched more than 300 entrepreneurs and lent over £3.3m. Her vision is to help the armed forces community build more than 3000 enterprises over the next three to four years, creating an extra 15,000 jobs.
Lucy Choi, founder
Lucy Choi London
Maleka Dattu
Founder, Merumaya Integrative Effective Skincare
Rupa Gantara
CO-founder, Yes-Sir.com
Priya Oberoi, founder
Oberoi Capital Partners
Asian Women of Achievement Awards
Media
Winner
Shivvy Jervis
presenter, Digital Futures; head of digital media, Telefonica
Voted one of 100 people “making digital Britain tick”, Shivvy is an editor, speaker and the creator of Digital Futures (youtube.com/digitalfutures). The video series focuses on ‘tech-for-good’, has gained a loyal following of 1.5+ million and features eclectic trailblazers. TED Global’s curator calls Shivvy “a brilliant connector brining together people and ideas”, the WEF’s Director insists “her expertise and spirit make her a media leader beyond compare” and the late soul legend James Brown said she was one of the “greater ideas” of the broadcasting world!
Highly Commended
Shelina Permalloo
author, cook and TV personality
Shelina wowed the judges of BBC’s “MasterChef” back in 2012 with her exotic and modern take on Mauritian food, becoming the first Asian woman to win the coveted MasterChef title – and the first woman in eight years to be crowned winner. She went on to write two cookery books and has regular appearances on C4’s “Sunday Brunch”, ITV’s “This Morning” and has featured on the Food Network and C4’s “What’s Cooking?” and ITV’s “Lorraine”.
Nejra Cehic
TV Reporter, Bloomberg
Fenfen Huang
Director, China Pearl
Sandi Sidhu
Producer, UK bureau, ITV News
Asian Women of Achievement Awards
Professions
Winner
Nicky Jayesinghe
head of professional policy division, British Medical Association
As head of the professional policy division at the British Medical Association and with more than 15 years of experience within healthcare policy development, Nicky is renowned for managing sensitive negotiations to represent the best interests of medical professionals, building effective working relationships with key stakeholders, and delivering on major projects and programmes of change.
Bijal Khatri
Head of Management Accounts, Condé Nast Publications
Jasvinder Devgon
Relationship Director, RBS
Jyoti Shah
Consultant Urological Surgeon, Burton Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Anita Wu
Civil Engineer, London Bridge Associates
Dr Christina Yan Zhang
China Director, QS Intelligence Unit
Asian Women of Achievement Awards
Public Service
Winner
Daman Mullhi
director of PR, The UK Sepsis Trust
Daman is a groundbreaking doctor, passionate about patient safety. She is a fulltime NHS consultant and founding trustee of the UK Sepsis Trust- a national charity committed to saving 12, 500 lives a year from sepsis. Daman has combined her clinical skills with developing networks to help establish the charity as a credible national player, influencing health policy change. Previous charity work includes being lead anaesthetist for the Transplant Links Charity, helping to save lives in the developing world by training local doctors and founding kidney transplantation programmes.
Farah Dakhlallah
Arabic spokesperson, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)Jenniffer Gearheart-Tang, global innovations and research manager, recruitment, Shell
Professor Mala Rao OBE
Professor and Senior Clinical Fell, Imperial College; honorary public health consultant, Public Health England
Ruqaiya Ramzan
Senior Consultant, Strategy Consulting, Deloitte
Asian Women of Achievement Awards
Social & Humanitarian
Winner
Parmi Dheensa
executive director, Include Me TOO
Parmi set up a national charity dedicated to supporting ethnic minority disabled children and their families. She has developed a range of initiatives, research and resources, including peer and ambassador programmes increasing disability awareness within a cultural context. She continues to campaign for equality, aiming for a disability rights-respecting society.
Highly Commended
Camilla Bowry
founder, Sals Shoes
Faced with a collection of her son’s outgrown shoes and no organisations that could tell her where they would end up walking again if she donated them, Camilla founded Sal’s Shoes in 2013, collecting children’s outgrown shoes and finding them new feet. In its first year, Sal’s Shoes collected 4,805 pairs of shoes and found them new feet in eight countries including the UK.
Highly Commended
Balvinder Sandhu
diabetes specialist dietitian, NHS
As a practising diabetes specialist dietician for the past 17 years, Balvinder has helped to make healthcare more accessible to black and ethnic minority groups, developing and implementing a number of successful health programmes designed to improve accessibility. Her work has been recognised in Parliament as an example of best practice. Balvinder is also general secretary of humanitarian relief agency Khalsa Aid.
Kulvinder Kaur Sahota
fostering service manager, Foster Care Associates
Pooja Naidu Kingsley
manager, Coffey International
Myira Khan
counsellor, lecturer and founder, Muslim Counsellor & Psychotherapist Network
Asian Women of Achievement Awards
Sport
Winner
Annie Zaidi
youth engagement coach, Leicester City Football Club Community Trust
A rare female role model in the male-dominated world of football, Annie is a Muslim coach with Leicester City Football Club and the first ever South Asian woman to get a level two coaching certificate from the Football Association. She is passionate about training aspiring footballers and encouraging disadvantaged young people into the sport.
Highly Commended
Rimla Akhtar
inclusion and diversity consultant, Rimjhim Consulting
Last year, Rimla became the first Muslim woman on the Football Association Council – and its youngest member. She works with national government bodies to promote diversity in sport and is on the advisory board of the international digital magazine, “Shirzanan Global”, to help encourage more Muslim women role models in sport. She has been named the Sky Sports and Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year (2013), the Asian Woman in Football winner (2012), an FA Grassroots Hero (presented by HRH Prince William) and a member of the Muslim Women Power List (2009).
Maryam Amatullah
Instructor and Membership Secretary, Leicester Women’s Velo
Halima Khan
National Projects Manager, Sporting Equals
Asian Women of Achievement Awards
Young Achiever
Winner
Tanya Datta
store manager, Marks & Spencer
Tanya is a rising star of retail and currently runs a £6m Marks & Spencer store in north London. Acknowledged for her vision and innovation, she is behind a £300k store refit and modernisation programme that will offer customers the latest shopping experience. She has been recognised within the top quartile of M&S management nationally.
Highly Commended
Dr Jennifer Gupta
outreach officer, Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth
A passionate astrophysicist, Jen is currently based in the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth where she is the South East Physics Network /Ogden physics outreach officer. She also works at the Winchester Science Centre as a planetarium presenter, helps to organise the Winchester Science Festival and does astronomy themed stand-up comedy.
Highly Commended
Joanne Sui
civil engineer, London Bridge Associates
A 28-year old civil engineer, Joanne works on the £4.2 Thames Tideway Tunnel. She is a the Past Chair of the British Tunnelling Society Young Members Committee, a London Bridge Associates ambassador for London Excellence and a founding member of London Excellence Aspiring Professionals.
Dr Amber Appleton
Doctor, NHS
Noelle Chen
Manager, Business Development M&A, Rio Tinto
Jing Jin
Management Consultant, Deloitte
Asian Women of Achievement Awards
Community
Winner
University of East London
Deloitte
Include Me TOO
The Listening Service
Shell
Asian Women of Achievement Awards
RBS Chairman’s
Winner
Jyoti Shah
consultant urological surgeon, Burton Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Jyoti is a consultant urological surgeon at Burton Hospital with extensive experience in clinical and academic work. She is the commissioning editor of the Royal College of Surgeons Journals and joint editor-in-chief of “Medical Woman”. She is an examiner at Leicester Medical School as well as being an author, reviewer and teacher.