The trustees reflect the rich diversity of Britain and are the legal guardians of Edutrust and its vision and policies. The following form the Board of Trustees:
Additional trustees are in the process of being invited to join Edutrust.
ABOUT TRUSTEES
Lord Bhatia works in the City of London in financial services and is actively involved in a wide range of voluntary organisations and charities. Amongst his many positions, he has been a trustee of Oxfam and the National Lottery Charities Board and Chair of the Ethnic Minority Foundation, The Forbes Trust and the British Muslim Research Council (BMRC). Lord Bhatia is a founder trustee of Edutrust.
The Rt Rev and Rt Hon The Lord Carey of Clifton, ALCD BD MT PhD
Lord Carey was a curate in London and parish priest in Durham before he became Principal of Trinity Theological College in Bristol. He was called to be Bishop of Bath and Wells and in 1991 he was ordained as Archbishop of Canterbury until his retirement in 2002.
Professor Khalili is a scholar, collector and benefactor of international standing. He is Chair of Islamic Art at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) London and of a research fellowship in Islamic Art at the University of Oxford. He is a graduate, Associate Research Professor and member of the Governing Body of SOAS, and an Honorary Fellow of the University of London. Professor Khalili is a long standing and committed believer in the vital contributions of inter-faith understanding to the creation of a cohesive society. He is cofounder of the Maimonides Foundation, which creates peace and understanding between Jews and Muslims.
Sir Anwar Pervez, OBE, H Pk is the founder and Chairman of Bestway Group established in 1976. Today, Bestway is UK’s second largest Cash & Carry Operator, with an annual turnover in excess of £1.6 billion. One of Sir Anwar’s corporate philosophies is to help those less fortunate than others by supporting charities and contributing to local communities. This is manifested in the Charter of the Bestway Foundation established in 1987. Every year the Group contributes approximately 2.5% of its profit to the Foundation for its various charitable activities. Sir Anwar received an OBE in 1992 and a knighthood in 1999 for his commercial achievements and his commitment to a number of charitable causes. In March 2000, the President of Pakistan rewarded him with the highest civilian award the ‘Hilal-e-Pakistan’ (H Pk).
Trevor Pears is Executive Chair of The Pears Foundation (www.pearsfoundation.org.uk), a British-based charitable foundation investing over £4million annually in the non-profit sector. The Foundation has a broad range of interests in the UK and abroad and supports a number of UK-based youth and community projects including The Schools Linking Network, the Children's Society's National Mentoring Initiative, School Councils UK and the Duke of Edinburgh Award. The Pears Foundation is the largest private funder of Holocaust Education in the UK. Trevor Pears is also a Director of the William Pears Group of companies
Mr. Rashid is Director and Head of the Government and Public Services Practice at Harvey Nash PLC, a technology and professional services recruitment firm. He has over 10 years Board level experience across the commercial, public and not-for-profit sectors. He has worked for AT Kearney Executive Search and BNB Resources where he was a key member of the PLC Leadership Team. Mr. Rashid is a founder trustee of Edutrust.
Mr. Randeree is Group Managing Director of DCD London & Mutual PLC (DCD Group). The DCD Group operates worldwide and its core trading activities are in finance, property and investments. Mr Randeree holds a number of additional directorships, predominantly in the sphere of international banking. Educated in the United Kingdom, Mr. Randeree holds an MBA. He is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organisation (YPO) and is a founder trustee of Edutrust.
Mr. Caan is a highly successful entrepreneur and was founder, Chairman and Chief Executive of Alexander Mann Group, an international recruitment business with operations from 147 offices in 35 countries and an annual turnover of £100 million. Since 2004, Mr. Caan has been involved in providing venture capital finance and management expertise to growing businesses through Hamilton Bradshaw Limited.
Mr. Caan graduated from the Harvard Business School in 2003, having completed the Advanced Management Programme. In the same year he was PricewaterhouseCoopers ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ and has served on the fundraising board of the NSPCC.
Professor Afshar teaches Politics and Women’s Studies at the University of York. She is also the visiting Professor of Islamic Law at the Faculte Internationale de Droit Compare at Strasbourg. She has served as the Chair for the British Association of Middle Eastern Studies and she was also Chair of the United Nation Association’s International Services. For seven years she served as Deputy Chair of the British Council’s Gender and Development Task Force. Professor Afshar was also involved in the Advisory Group of the Cabinet Office’s Women’s Unit to work on raising gender awareness amongst civil servants who adjudicate on applications for asylum from women. She served as a member of the Nuffield Council on bioethics’ working group on Ethics and Pharmacogenetics.
In 2005 she was awarded an OBE for services to equal opportunities. In 2005-6 she served on the advisory group of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, (AHRC) and the Economic and Social Research Council, (ESRC) to take forward the development of a joint research programme tackling the issues of religion, belief and society. In 2006 she served as a member of the ESRC Working Group on Religion and Ethnicity and was invited to serve as a Commissioner on the UK’s Drug Policy Commission. She has been a Patron of the National Coalition Building Institute (Diversity Hub) since 1985.
Ms Haifa Fahoum Al-Kayani, Businesswomen’s Advocate
As an economist, Haifa Fahoum Al Kaylani has long held the belief that a society cannot fully prosper without utilising the resources of its women. She has wide international exposure in government and business circles and held senior roles in several organisations in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was a natural progression that in 2001 Al Kaylani founded the London-based nonprofit Arab International Women’s Forum out of her desire to promote Arab women’s participation in business, government and society throughout the Arab world and the global community.
In 1999 and 2000 Al Kaylani, as the president of the International Federation of Women’sAssociations in London, launched conferences for Arab, British, European, American and international women working in business, government and civil service that inspired the founding of the forum. With the motto "Building Bridges, Building Business", she initiated the Arab International Women’s Forum, a formal network of Arab and international businesswomen as well as female community leaders, to expand the growing role of women in the global marketplace and decision-making.
In addition to her work with the forum, Al Kaylani is also a board member of the Susanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement, a board member of the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard University and vice president of the European Women for Achievement Award in the United Kingdom.
Yasmin Shariff is a director of Dennis Sharp Architects Ltd and a senior lecturer at the University of Westminster. She is a specialist on climate change and the built environment and has lectured extensively on the subject. Yasmin is currently a design enabler for Transform South Yorkshire and has worked with several national government organisations to raise design standards including the UK Round Table for Sustainable Development and the East of England Development Agency.
Chair & Co Founder of Teliris, Chairman and Co-Founder of YouthNet Uk, Former TV reporter and news anchor. Over 32 years as a TV journalist, Martyn Lewis built up a reputation as one of Britain's best known TV anchormen and reporters before taking up a business career. He is now Chairman of Teliris, a company he co-founded with British and American partners after leaving the BBC six years ago.
Teliris has become the acknowledged leader in 'Interactive Telepresence' - a new 'Being There' technology system which is rapidly taking over from video-conferencing. Clients include Vodafone, Glaxosmithkline, Pearson, Lazard and Euronext. Two thirds of Martyn's career was spent anchoring the UK's mainstream news programmes - ITN's News At Ten, and the BBC's One O'Clock, Six O'Clock and Nine O'Clock News Programmes. He presented open-ended BBC programmes at the start of the Gulf War and after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. He has co-presented General Election and Budget programmes. In his early career he reported extensively for ITN across the UK and from over 35 countries. He regularly chairs the annual Hospice conference, as well as corporate conferences and debates around the world.
Martyn also chairs YouthNet UK, a charity he founded in 1995 to create a comprehensive internet site signposting young people to every conceivable opportunity of form of help they might need. Praised publicly by both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, it has a staff of 35, a budget of almost £2 million a year, and is accessed by over 300,000 young people a month.
Martyn has been closely involved with the Hospice movement for over 20 years and is a Vice-President of the three major national hospice charities - Help The Hospices, Marie Curie Cancer Cure and Macmillan Cancer Relief - as well as many individual hospices. He is also President of United Response, helping people with learning disabilities, and a Trustee of the Windsor Leadership Trust, helping develop the leaders of tomorrow.
Martyn was awarded a CBE in the 1997 New Year Honours