NOOR ALI

Who is she?

Senior Buying Manager for World Foods at Morrisons.

What does she do?

Noor’s role is all about delivering products and services for her customers. Getting the right products, in the right stores at the right price! This involves listening to customers and store colleagues, working in partnership with our suppliers and with many internal categories, and also understanding the market trends both now and in the future to drive innovation.

Noor is passionate about Morrisons’ heritage and being at the heart of the local communities it serves and therefore supports key cultural events and festivals. She ensured that Morrisons has an excellent offering and runs in-store promotional events including for Hanukah, St Patricks Day, Passover, Carnival Season, Diwali, Ramadan and Eid.

Career History:

In 1992, Noor joined her brother to open a modern ethnic supermarket in Bradford. Here Noor was responsible for ordering products, pricing, training colleagues and customer service.

After successfully selling the family business, Noor joined Asda in 2001 as a checkout operator. Within six months Noor was promoted to Head Office as People Advisor in HR, then roles in Marketing, Merchandising, eventually in Trading where Noor became an Ethnic Buyer for World Foods. In 2007 Noor launched 1,200 new lines into the business – a first for world foods within the top retailers. Over the five years Noor successfully grew the world foods category by over 300%, a huge success for Asda.

In 2012 Noor joined Morrisons as World Foods Manager and was promoted to Senior Buying Manager in 2014. Noor partnered with 85 suppliers to grow the category from just 500 lines to over 1350 and increased year on year sales by 146%.

Interesting Fact:

Noor thoroughly enjoys sharing her culture, knowledge and experience. She has a strong passion to coach and develop both individuals and businesses, mentoring and supporting them to achieve their goals.

She was also Race for Opportunity Mentor Leader – as part of the Race to the Top mentoring programme for BAME Women which supports women from both private and public sector organisations. Noor is also Vice Chair and a Lead Mentor for the Yorkshire Regional Mosaic Group – mentoring young students and mentoring as part of the Business Enterprise Challenge through coaching and motivating students. She has won several awards including – Yorkshire Asian Business Association Professional of the Year in 2016, Everywoman Retail Ambassadors Award 2014, and Business Woman of the Year 2011 at the Asian Women of Achievement Awards. Also category awards include – Winner of the Race for Opportunity Awards 2007, 2008 and 2010 for Supply Chain Diversity, Winner of the World Foods Awards 2009 and 2010 Best Retailer Award and was highly commended at the World Food Awards 2013.

Naved Syed

Who is he?

Managing Director of Janan Meats, halal adviser to over 250 SME Yorkshire Asian Business Association, a Board Member of EBLEX Halal Steering Group and the technical adviser to the Halal Authority Board.

What does he do?

As Managing Director of Janan Meat, Naved has been responsible for the company being accredited to the “British Retail Consortium” Standard and the managing the day to day buying and selling. Under his supervision the company was the first Halal producer to achieve the Red Tractor accreditation in the UK.

Career History:

Along with being the Managing Director of Janan Foods, Naved introduced the initiative of greyhound racing to the Coventry Speedway Stadium and is responsible for the daily management of the stadium. He worked with Canterbury Foods Limited as the Halal Operational Director for all seven national group companies. He set up the Food Cluster to create Food Park with the help of the EDD and AWM in Birmingham. Naved was also responsible for setting up the first Independent Halal Food & Drink Board.

Interesting Fact:

He is a member of the Birmingham Tornado Committee responsible for empowering Businesses in the East Regeneration Zone, coordinated Tornado recovery support for businesses, set up Business associations, Sign posting. Naved worked as an adviser to EBLEX in the production of the Halal “Farm to Fork” DVD production and accompanied them to Dubai to open up the export market for UK Halal Meat. He has also coordinated seminars for tax relief, business rates rebates and health and safety and Smoke Free Birmingham, along with helping bring in regeneration for the North West working with Paul Henna and David Drecott through the Phoenix fund, where Birchfield traders Association received an award.

MANISH TIWARI

Who is he?

Managing Director of the one of UK’s leading multicultural marketing agencies Here and Now 365.

What does he do?

Heading a highly skilled creative team and specialists in customer relationship management, with deep-rooted insights, create and execute strategies that are perfectly suited to his clients business requirements. He does this through bespoke communication ideas which are extendable using any form of media that helps achieve the best result, be it digital, experiential, print or broadcast.

Career History:

Today, when it comes to diversity in communications and media – one name stands out and that is of Manish Tiwari. Manish Tiwari founded an agency in 2005 that specialises in brand communications for an increasingly diverse audience. Called Here & Now 365, he made it the UK’s leading ethnic advertising and marketing agency through his understanding of the country’s eclectic audiences and influences. In the past eight years he has constantly strived to bridge the communications gap between products and their multicultural audience through marketing and communications. He has not only leveraged the product value of ethnic brands such as Patak’s, Lebara Mobile, TRS, Tilda Rice, Bank of Baroda, Western Union, State Bank of India and HDFC but has also brought companies like Virgin Media, Barclays Bank, Nestlé, the NHS, T.K. Maxx and ASDA closer to the ethnic majority of Britain. Here & Now 365 is also the largest agency representing Indian media in the UK including all major networks such as Zee, Star, Sony, and Viacom 18. It is also the exclusive partner of NDTV 24×7. Most recently, Manish has been appointed as the marketing and PR coordinator for the UK Welcomes Modi event, where the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi will address the Indian Diaspora at the Wembley Stadium. He has taken on handling publicity for the Regional Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2014 held in London and also co-ordinated and published a souvenir booklet for the Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP) Convention in 2011 and organised the South India Melam in Southbank in 2012, promoting tourism to Kerala. Finally, he also received support from Mark Shand, the late brother-in-law of Prince Charles, to raise awareness of elephant corridors in Kerala through charity.

Interesting Fact:

He is a member of the London Chamber of Commerce under the Asian Business Association and Here & Now 365 is an accredited member of the IPA Diversity Group, the premium body of advertising agencies in the UK. Manish has also been invited as a speaker at many events to talk about the Indian Diaspora in the UK. He has been the keynote speaker at the MSDUK Supplier Diversity Day 2015 in Leicester where he addressed the audience on the importance of multicultural marketing, the Asia-Pacific Technology Network – Prospects for an Innovative India where he spoke about the impact of social media on the Indian elections and at the Doing Business in India with Essex Chamber of Commerce. He has many accolades to his name including winning the Small Business of the Year Award 2015 by the English Asian Business Awards and presented by Lloyds Banking Group, The Best Social & Charitable Campaign 2014 by Asian Media Awards 2014 presented by ITV, the Asian Lite Campaign of the Year Award for three years consecutively in 2011, 2012 and 2013, the UK Telegu Association award for outstanding contribution to the community and Sanch Foundation award from Baroness Verma in 2013. Here & Now 365 has also been awarded Best Agency of the Year by B4U and the CBS award for Best Campaign Depicting South Asians in 2012.

DAVE KHIMANI

Who is he?

Chief Executive Officer at Shana Foods and CEO of Rubicon Foods Limited.

What does he do?

Dave is responsible for taking Shana Foods product range from Ethnic distribution to mainstream. And is responsible for growing Rubicon outside of Europe.

his Journey:

Dave was born in Kampala, Uganda in 1972. His family fled to India that same year, following the expulsion of Asians by government decree. At the age of three, he left India for the United Kingdom, initially settling in Oldham, Greater Manchester and then moving to London a few years later. During his mid-teens, Dave fell in with a rough crowd resulting in truancy, delinquent behaviour and eventual expulsion from school. By his late teens, he realised he was on a path to self-destruction and decided to turn his life around. He completed his higher education and went onto to graduating with BSc Honours from Brunel University.

Career History:

Dave joined Rubicon as Office and IT Support Assistant during his one-year work placement as part of his BSc degree. He had a passion for IT and a natural flair for Sales and was offered a full-time position at Rubicon upon completing his degree in 1995. Within two years he was appointed International Sales and IT Executive. He successfully developed the Export division, exceeding £1m in sales within two years and made available products in 30 countries word wide. In 2001, he joined Shana Foods Ltd as Sales Manager and was quickly promoted to Senior Sales and Marketing Manager. From placement during his BSc Business Management to CEO of Shana Foods Ltd and Rubicon Worldwide, he attributes his professional success to the strong team he has built. Dave has training and experience in Balance Scorecard, Managerial Grid, MBTI and Transactional Analysis.

Interesting Fact:

Dave is the Secretary of the world’s first and largest Asian Scottish Pipe Band. He has organised charity performance at many prestigious events including the Queen’s Golden and Silver Jubilee and BBC TV programme Blue Peter. He firmly believes in giving time and support to the local youths and community.