Gautam Banerji is a qualified Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and an Indian Advocate. He is presently engaged in legal practice as a Principal at a London Chancery Lane Limited Liability Partnership. He is an Executive Member - Legal Affairs for the Hindu Council UK and was appointed to the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 in November 2007.

Gautam started his career as a Lecturer in Delhi University after his first Masters degree in English Literature from St. Stephen's College Delhi. He subsequently earned an LLB degree at Delhi University and then went on to work for UNICEF as a professional for some twelve years, the last five years (1991-1995) were under a complex emergency in Iraq in the immediate aftermath of the first Gulf War. He also holds an MSc (Econ) degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science, specializing in Social Policy and Planning.

He has a deep understanding of sustainable development issues impacting upon vulnerable population groups derived through his professional career with UNICEF. He has a working knowledge of Arabic. He also speaks Japanese, having spent a year at Keio University, Tokyo, studying the language. He is proficient in Bengali, which is his mother tongue and Hindi besides English.

Chitra Bharucha MBE BS, FRCPath, FRSA, (born 6 April 1945) is a former Consultant haematologist and currently the Vice Chairman of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Born in Madurai, India, she gained her medical qualification before moving to the UK in 1972. Between 1981 and 2000, she was consultant clinical haematologist at Belfast City Hospital and was deputy director of the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service. She was elected to the General Medical Council in 1999 where she served on a number of panels including chair of the Fitness to Practise Adjudication Panels.

In 1996 Bharucha moved into positions in the media industry, serving on the BBC Broadcasting Council for Northern Ireland until 1999. In April 2001 she was appointed Northern Ireland member of the Independent Television Commission, where she served until December 2003 when the ITC was subsumed into Ofcom, and she became a member of the Advertising Standards Authority Council in November 2004.

In April 2002, Bharucha was appointed Chair of the Advisory Committee on Animal Feedingstuffs for the Food Standards Agency, and in 2006 she was appointed Lay Member of the Review Body for Judicial Complaints.

She was awarded a MBE in the 2008 New Year's Honours List for services to the animal feedstuffs industry.

Nitin Dahad is a graduate in electronic engineering from the City University in London, and is a member of the IET. He joined the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) board on 14 December 2008 and is a member of the strategy committee and digital partnership.

Nitin has operated in all the major technology centres in Europe, USA, and Asia, working with large semiconductor and electronics companies in the early part of his career and then as a commentator/journalist on various aspects of international business and entrepreneurship. His current professional interests include consulting, corporate marketing and business development firm TechSpark, which works with technology start-ups and high-growth companies in leading edge technologies around the world.

Nitin also works with identysol, a start-up established to utilise the latest communications technology for tracking and monitoring solutions. Among the most significant achievements during his career was that of taking a UK-based start-up, ARC International, first to Silicon Valley and subsequently through to an IPO (initial public offering) on the London Stock Exchange.

In the public sector, Nitin Dahad serves on the board of governors at the University of Hertfordshire. He is also involved with The Rajasthani Foundation, a charity and community organisation for people of Rajasthani origin in the UK. In 1995, he was instrumental in establishing a business network for ethnic minority businesses in conjunction with the Hertfordshire Training & Enterprise Council (TEC) which is now the Business Link.

Sanjay Dighé is Principal of Vega Risk Consulting providing training and consultancy in financial derivatives and risk management. He has previously held senior executive positions in investment banks including Global Head of Equity Derivatives at Banque Paribas Capital Markets. His is currently the England Chair at the Big Lottery Fund UK. Sanjay was previously Councillor and Deputy Leader Harrow Council (Labour), Lead Member for Equalities, London Councils and Non-Executive Director and Chair of Audit Committee of the Central and North West London Mental Health Trust.

Sanjay is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is a member of the Strategic Planning Society and founder member of the London chapter of the Global Association of Risk Professionals. He is a Governor of two schools and a Further Education college and holds MBA and BSc. (Hons) degrees.

Jitesh Gadhia is a senior investment banker, with extensive experience of cross-border M&A and capital raisings. He has played a pioneering role in transactions between emerging markets and western companies. Jitesh is a Trustee of Guy's & St Thomas' Charity, the UK's largest National Health Service endowment, and of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), where he also chairs the Endowment Committee and is a member of the Finance, Audit and Remuneration Committee.

Jitesh was educated at Cambridge University and the London Business School, where he was a Sloan Fellow. He started his career at Baring Brothers, rising to become one of its youngest directors. He was also involved in the sale of Barings to ING Group in 1995. In 2001, Jitesh joined ABN AMRO, where he led some of the bank's most important transactions on behalf of clients, including Royal Dutch Shell, Severstal, Tata Steel, Morrisons, Corus, LogicaCMG and BHP Billiton. In August 2008, Jitesh became Managing Director and Global Head of Advisory at Barclays Capital.

Rajay Naik is a UK Board Member of the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) - the largest National Lottery grants distributor which has allocated £2.5 billion to people and communities most in need since 2004. He is also a Commissioner of the Standing Commission on Carers - launched by the Prime Minister in 2007 to advise Ministers on supporting the United Kingdom's six million carers and implementing the National Strategy. Rajay is a renowned expert on policy and programs relating to young people currently supporting their engagement within local government.

He previously worked on policy at the Office of the Third Sector and at the Royal Society of Arts, where he managed the Coffeehouse Challenge. Rajay is a former Chair of the BYC, and Trustee of the National Youth Agency and the national volunteering organisation, v. He was also a Council Member of the Learning and Skills Council and an Executive Council Member of the English Secondary Students Association. Rajay currently continues to serve as a College Governor at City College, Coventry and as a Trustee of the Changemakers Foundation.

In 2006 Rajay was commissioned by NESTA as co-author of 'Learner Voice' which was met with high acclaim from the education sector. In 2007 he was the United Kingdom's youth delegate at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala, Uganda. Rajay is an ambassador of Make Your Mark, and the city of Coventry.

Lopa Patel MBE FCIM FIDM FRSA is an entrepreneurial businesswoman with extensive experience in the development of businesses within the 'New Media' sector - the latest venture being Redhotcurry.com, Britain's leading South Asian lifestyle portal. She previously founded a direct marketing services company where she is now a Non-Executive Director, and has helped set up several not for profit organisations.

Lopa currently serves as Non-Executive Director of Becta (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) and as a Member of the RSA (Royal Society for the Arts) Fellowship Council. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and a Fellow of the Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM). She holds a BSc (Hons) degree from the University of Manchester, a BTec qualification in computer science and diplomas in marketing and direct marketing. Lopa was recognised with an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to the creative industries.

Rita Patel is the Founder President of Belgrave Baheno Peepul Centre, with over 30 years of service in the voluntary/social sector. Rita has built up a reputation as one of Leicester's best-known community advocates and social entrepreneurs. She was a co-founder and director of Belgrave Baheno Women's Organisation and led the team that developed the Peepul Centre. Rita was CEO of the Peepul Centre until recently when she took on an honorary role as founder president to help promote the Centre and its vision.

Over the last 30 years Rita has helped to establish numerous voluntary and community organisations. She has also served as a board member in a variety of local and national forums, including the East Midlands Development Agency, Leicester Primary Care Trust, Comic Relief and the Ethnic Minority Business Task Force. She currently serves on the NESTA Public Services Innovation Lab Board.

Rita holds an MBA from the Leicester Business School, and an Honorary Doctorate of Law and Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration from the Universities of De Montfort and Leicester.

Anil Ruia OBE DL, JP, LLB, ACA, FRSA, born in Bombay, India is a director at Wrengate Limited, a privately held business involved in the importation, distribution and converting of textiles. In addition, the company has a controlling stake in Warren Tea Limited India, which is engaged in the business of growing, manufacture and sale of black tea. He has a law degree from King's College, London and is a chartered accountant.

Anil has many external interests involving organisations in community, business, educational and charitable affairs. He is currently a Governor of the University of Manchester and the Manchester Grammar School, a Trustee of National Museums Liverpool and a Board Member of Arts Council England. In November 2009, he was appointed to the Board of The Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Previously, Anil was a Board Member of the North West Development Agency, The North West Cultural Consortium, The Manchester Asian Business Forum, M2002 Limited and The Commonwealth Film Festival together with a non-executive directorship at Granada Television Limited. In October 2002 was elected President of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Industry and was awarded an OBE in January 2001 for services to business.

Dr Samir Shah OBE was appointed as a non-executive director of the BBC's new Executive Board from 1 January 2007. He is Chair of the Runnymede Trust and a Trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum and of the Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture.

He is currently Chief Executive of the independent production company Juniper Communications. He worked in the Home Office Research Intelligence Unit after graduating from Hull and Oxford Universities, before joining London Weekend Television in 1979 as a researcher, rising to become Editor of a range of current affairs programmes. Samir Shah joined the BBC in 1987 as Head of Current Affairs, moved to head up political programmes in 1994, before leaving to join the independent sector in 1998.

He also holds a Special Professorship in the Department of Post-Conflict Studies at the University of Nottingham.