Sayeeda Warsi

"Baroness Warsi has been a lawyer, a government minister, and has the honour of being the first Muslim to serve in a British Cabinet. A successful business woman and champion of UK business and manufacturing, she has been the driving force behind three start-ups and is still involved in running two family manufacturing businesses. A lawyer by training, Warsi began her career at the Crown Prosecution Service and Home Office before setting up her own legal practice.

Warsi is passionate about creating a level playing field for underprivileged and marginalised groups. An expert adviser to government departments, third sector and industry interested in integrating minority groups, she has developed holistic strategies that build capability and workforce satisfaction. Her values and ideas apply not only for minorities but for all of the workforce. Warsi encourages Social Action and getting the whole workforce volunteering, she unpicks the “unwritten rules” that prevent organisations from diverse recruitment and challenges business to operate in an ethical framework to improve performance.

Warsi was previously Chairman of the Conservative Party, a Senior Minister of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and a Minister for Faith and Communities. During her time at the Foreign Office she worked on fostering trade ties with many Islamic countries, working closely with Bangladesh, Pakistan and Central Asia, acquiring a deep understanding of how to work with and do business in the region. She led the campaign to make Britain the first western country to issue a Sukuk, an Islamic bond structured to generate returns to investors without infringing religious prohibitions on usury.

Conscious of the rise in right-wing populism spreading across Europe and many other countries, Warsi offers tremendous insight into what effect apparent Islamophobia has on trade and society. Her book The Enemy Within has been described as “a vital book at a critical time...a seminal text on British Muslims”."