Lord Bhatia

Brief description of achievement:

Lord Bhatia exemplifies the guiding principle that if you are more fortunate than others you should contribute your time, leadership and creativity and skills to improve the quality of life for others. Since his arrival in the UK in 1972 Amir has built a successful business and has become an outstanding leader and champion of social and charitable causes in the UK.

Full description of achievement:

Amir has been working in the charitable sector and for social causes in the UK for more than 30 years. His philanthropic endeavours have been astonishingly wide-ranging and have informed many different aspects of his life since he first came to the UK.

An Ismaili Muslim, he has been involved in a wide range of initiatives focused on ethnic minorities. These have included helping Ugandan students in 1972 to secure university places and find jobs and overseeing the fair trade of third world products through Oxfam as Chairman of Oxfam Trading.

In 1985 Amir established The Forbes Trust which funds innovative and groundbreaking projects in the UK and abroad, including the establishment of the Charities Evaluation Services, The Hospice Arts and a micro-credit NGO in Gambia.

He gives freely of his time, experience and business acumen in financial and project management. He chairs a number of charities and committees, including the Local Investment Fund and The British Muslim Research Centre.

Recently he was responsible for the establishment of The Ethnic Minority Foundation (EMF) and the Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations (CEMVO). These aim to bring marginalised ethnic minority communities into the mainstream and to champion ethnic minorities as a major source of achievement and innovation in the UK. Under his direction the Millennium Commission provided a grant of £2.4 million to the EMF, which so far has made 350 awards of up to £6,000 to individuals and organisations

"Amir Bhatia is amongst the most accomplished and respected individuals form the ethnic minority community in the UK. Indeed the breadth of his past and present achievements would and should, in my view, mark him out for accolades from amongst the most worthy in the country, let alone the ethnic minority community."

Museji Ahmed Takolia, Senior Advisor, Diversity Strategy and Equal Opportunities, the Cabinet Office

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