ASIAN ACHIEVERS AWARDS

Annual Ceremony

The UK’s most prominent celebration of British Asian achievement across multiple fields. Asian Achievers Awards paid tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the annual ceremony Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London. Dame Arlene Foster DBE PC, Former First Minister of Northern Ireland, led the tribute with a one-minute silence to inaugurate the ceremony.

The evening was hosted by actor, Nitin Ganatra OBE, and entrepreneur, philanthropist and documentary filmmaker, Deana Uppal, and welcomed a guest list of celebrities, public figures, VIPs and dignitaries. Today in the UK South Asians occupy leadership positions across a range of fields. Now in their 20th year, Asian Achievers Awards are recognised as the most prestigious and longstanding celebration of the leading figures of the UK’s South Asian community. Established in 2000, the Awards returned this year following the pandemic, presented by global advisory firm, EPG, and supported by media partners, Asian Voice and Gujarat Samchar, Zee TV, Sunrise Radio and LUXURY Internation- al Magazine. Across ten categories, Asian Achievers Awards received more than 500 nominations, from which the judges shortlisted four per category, evenly divided between male and female candidates.

This year’s judging panel included Former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Bas Javid; Former President of the Royal College of General Practitioners, Dr Mayur Lakhani CBE; COO of Monzo Bank, Sujata Bhatia; music producer, Bally Sagoo; Welsh Assembly Member, Natasha Asghar; and Artistic Director of Darbar Festival, Sandeep Virdee OBE.

Asian Achievers Awards 2022 Winners: Art and Culture: Namit Malhotra – Chairman and CEO of industry-leading, visual effects and animation company, DNEG, and Founder and Non-Executive Director of DNEG’s parent company, Prime Focus Limited.

Business Person of the Year: Shamil and Kavi Thakrar –Founders of Dishoom, one of the UK’s most successful, Indian restaurant companies. The company was ranked fourth in the 100 Best UK Companies to Work for list in 2021 and first in Hospitality and Leisure.

Community Service: Dr Zareen Roohi Ahmed – Founder and CEO of Gift Wellness and Chair of The Halimah Trust.

Entrepreneur of the Year: Sherry Vaswani – Founder and CEO of Xalient, a global provider of IT services to large enterprises.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr Kartar Lalvani OBE –Founder and Chairman of Vitabiotics, the first and now most successfully specialised vitamin supplement firm in the UK, with presence in over 100 countries.

Media: Naga Munchetty – Known nationwide as one of the presenters on BBC Breakfast and hosting a prominent radio show on BBC 5 Live. In addition, Naga presents Claimed and Shamed for BBC1.

Professional of the Year: Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian (University of Cambridge) – Shankar created Next Generation DNA Sequencing, a technology that enables fast, accurate, low-cost and large-scale genome sequencing.

Special Award for Business Leadership: Puneet Gupta –Co-Owner and joint CEO of PG Paper, an award-winning company based in Scotland, UK and one of Scotland’s largest and most successful exporters, with a presence in fifty-five countries.

Special Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship:

Bankim Chandra – Bankim left his job as a programmer for TCS in 1996 in India and came to the UK to work for RBS as a programmer for their CRM Systems. He soon moved to Bradford to do programming for Abbey National’s Car and Home Insurance Products and next year he came to Brighton to take on the challenge of fixing the Y2K bug at American Express. Today, he is the Founder and CEO of Dotsquares, with offices in France, Australia, the US and the UK.

Sports Personality of the Year: Karenjeet Kaur Bains – The first female Sikh powerlifter to represent Team GB. She became the 2019 Commonwealth Champion, winning three gold medals and two silver medals in Newfoundland, Canada. She also became the first British Sikh female to represent Britain in the World and European Championships, placing in the top 10.

Uniformed and Civil Service: Captain Harpreet Chandi –Army officer and physiotherapist also known as ‘Polar Preet’, she has created history by becoming the first coloured woman to complete a solo, unsupported trek to the South Pole. She has also completed a 156-mile ultramarathon across the Sahara Desert in 2019.

Woman of the Year: Rt Hon Suella Braverman KC MP – UK Home Secretary and former Attorney General. Suella was first elected to Parliament in 2015 and re-elected in 2017 and 2019.