ASIAN WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS 2003 - FINALISTS

The Asian Women of Achievement Awards applaud and celebrate the commitment, dedication and determination of Asian women to their professional and personal achievements within the commercial, professional, artistic and humanitarian sectors. This year 37 finalists have been selected across seven different Award categories:

BUSINESS WOMAN OF THE YEAR - CORPORATE AWARD

For an individual thriving in corporate Britain who has made, and is making, a significant contribution to the success of their organisation.

IRAM SHAH
Born and raised in North West Pakistan, Iram was an outstanding student and active in various women's associations and volunteer organisations. Despite cultural barriers of a very strict environment, she chose to join business school which was strictly for men at the time and passed with honours in a class of 80 men. She pursued higher studies and an MBA in the US. Her business career spans 14 years over four large corporations from Quaker Oats to Coca Cola and currently BP where she is responsible for developing and leading Global Brand strategy. She is also a member of BP's Group Development Potential population - an elite collection of managers who are identified to possess global senior executive potential. She has demonstrated her ability to deliver superior results, manage and lead teams, create new business possibilities and combine strong analytical skills with a strategic mindset.

NABILA SADIQ
Nabila's career path started when she joined John Lewis as a graduate trainee where her calm management style, hard work ethic, sound business acumen and ability to get the best out of employees resulted in a fast track three years. She left retail for the world of recruitment as a consultant with Badenoch & Clark, and then joined Shepherd Little as an Associate Director. In 1997 she became part of the Joslin Rowe management team and was made managing director in December 2000. She has become one of the most senior Asian women in recruitment and one of the most recognised names within the highly competitive financial temporary market place. Nabila is responsible for a business s with a multi-million pound turnover, in an industry that has historically been dominated by males at board level.

NIPUN GUPTA
Nipun specialises in mergers and acquisitions, regulatory and corporate law. She is a dynamic cutting-edge lawyer renowned for her hard-core negotiation skills and voted one of the 'hot 100 lawyers in the UK' by The Lawyer magazine. After studying law at Brunel University Nipun joined Nabarro Nathanson where she completed articles and qualified into the Company/Commercial department. She then became Senior Legal Counsel in the world's second largest steel-making group Isapt International where she set up an in-house legal department dealing with group issues, mergers and acquisitions activity, financing projects, high street practice and marketing. At White & Case Nipun has her own substantial client base that includes many of the largest Asian clients, including the LNM Group.

RINA NAMEIRAKPAM BARUA
Rina was born in a small town on the Indo Burmese border in the north east part of India. After attending the University of Bangalore and JNU at Delhi she qualified as an advocate and commenced her practice in one of the most prestigious chambers in the Supreme Court of India. From there she joined the largest law firm in India (Singhania & Co), became head of the litigation department and then moved to the UK as head of the London branch. Today Rina is Head of Legal at digital TV corporation B4U. The company owns and operates two channels - B4U Movies Channel, a pay channel with some 10 million viewers, that has been rated the world's number one Bollywood movie channel; and B4U Music Channel, a free to air channel with over 40 million viewers worldwide. She manages and looks after all legal elements of the company including general business matters, documentation and legal audit of contracts and deals, carriage and digital platform issues, employment, trademarks, copyright infringement and other aspects of media law.

ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR AWARD

For a woman who has taken the risk and has successfully set up and is running her own business.

DIPA SUDRA
Dipa opened the Body Temple in Seven Kings, Essex in 1999. With the belief that beauty is a direct consequence of the way we feel inside, The Body Temple is not just a beauty salon but a holistic therapy centre that offers its growing number of clients stress relief treatments and professional life coaching as part of it service. Clients range from 12-68 years old with some travelling over 50 miles. From a starting client base of 20 The Body Temple now has 5,000 with 85% repeat business. A second site was opened in 2003 on the prestigious Sunborn Yacht Hotel, permanently moored at Prince Albert Dock beside the Excel Centre. The e-commerce business is due to go live at the end of April 2003. Dipa is a trained beauty therapist having studied at Champneys College and worked across all sectors of the business from store counter selling to working in Health Farms and on Ocean Cruise Liners.

EMMA ALLIANCE
Emma set up Ela Couture, specialising in made to measure evening and bridal wear, in 2002. She trained in the USA and spent a number of years as International Wholesale Manager for Amanda Wakeley in London selling in the UK, Europe, USA and Asia. She designs and manufacturers couture evening and bridal gowns to private clients, including opera singer, Debra Myers.

HONEY KALARIA
Honey runs the only British Asian dance academy in London. She started in 1997 teaching a few people in her father's garage and now has over 900 students and 9 schools. The academy has gained a reputation of the highest standard and is frequently approached by film and video producers and directors. She also set up Diva Entertainments in 2001 now one of the leading companies co-ordinating and providing artists and dancers for Bollywood films being produced in the UK. Honey has also produced and released 'Teach Yourself Bollywood' and 'Bhangra Dance' videos, and in the last twelve months she has released her album, produced her own workout video, conducted an education tour, starred in a Bollywood film, opened two further academies in the UK and run a successful entertainment company.

SHEHZAD HUSAIN
With a background of almost twenty years in Indian cookery Shehzad is one of the most experienced cookery consultants specialising in India foods and the cuisine of the Indo-Pak sub continent. For nearly 14 years she was cookery consultant to Marks & Spencer on their extensive range of chilled and ready Indian foods, and has also written several highly successful books on the Indo-Pak cuisine. Shehzad has now developed her own brand of premium curry sauces made in the UK and sold exclusively in Harvey Nichols. She is a regular contributor to magazines and broadcast programmes, and as a restaurant critic has reviewed some of the top Pakistani and India eateries.

SHERNAZ ENGINEER
Shernaz is Founder and Managing Director of the Verity group which includes Verity Appointments, providing secretaries and ancillary office staff to the legal profession; Verity Education, for temporary and permanent teachers; and Verity TMC, an IT placement agency. From a start up loan of £20,000 in 1993 Shernaz has created a multi million pound business that has been driven by her belief that finding the best staff, empowering them and giving them encouragement is the best way to build personal development and be successful. She has been in the recruitment sector for some 25 years and has a reputation for honesty, speed of service and complete reliability.

ZANEB KHAN
Zaneb set up the London Training Agency (LTA) in 1995 to provide a full range of Adult Education courses in the community from basic to higher level and especially for those who have not benefited from or had access to any education provision before. Since its inception the company has grown from 200 learners in the first year to 2000 learners presently enrolled on community training programmes. Courses, ranging from ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) to Information Technology, lead to national open college certificates recognised by employers and further education establishments. Zaneb has made a significant contribution to the cause of Asian women's educational advancement and has achieved an original combination of private enterprise and public responsibility.

THE JUDGES

The judging of the Asian Women of Achievement Awards took place on 24th March 2003. The judging panel, headed up by Chairman Baroness Helena Kennedy QC included Angela Lane, director, 3i; Anshu Jain, head of global markets, Deutsche Bank AG London; Professor Azim Nanji, director, Institute of Ismaili Studies; Professor Brian Gazzard, consultant physician, Chelsea & Westminster Hospital; Sir Gulam Noon, chairman, Noon Products; Jonathan Grun, editor, Press Association; John Ormerod, senior partner, Deloitte & Touche; Judith Grahame, chief executive, M & R Saatchi Arts; Baroness Margaret Jay; Marjorie Wallace, chief executive, SANE; Sir Nicholas Montagu, chairman, Inland Revenue; Sir Nicholas Young, chief executive, Red Cross; Sarah Sands, deputy editor, Daily Telegraph; and Stuart Rock, editorial director, Caspian Publishing.

ABOUT THE ASIAN WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Now in their fourth year the Awards, founded in 1999, were set up by Pinky Lilani and Munir Samji to recognise all levels of achievement made by Asian women in the UK. They acknowledge and celebrate the individual efforts of Asian women from all over the country and from all walks of life - reflecting the wealth of talent amongst women in the Asian community, most of which goes unrecognised and is not in the public arena.

There are eight Award categories: The Arts & Culture Award, The Social & Humanitarian Award, Business Woman of the Year - Corporate, Entrepreneur of the Year, Media Professional of the Year, Professional of the Year, Young Achiever of the Year and The Chairman's Award.

Click here for finalists in the Arts & Culture category.
Click here for finalists in Media & Professional Categories.
Click here for finalists in the Social & Humanitarian category.

Click here to visit the AWA website.