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Diversity and Inclusion Festival of Speakers - November/December 2022
12 November 2022
Welcome to the Diversity and Inclusion Festival of Speakers events page.
This event is being held by the Health Education England Midlands team and open to all NHS colleagues.
It’s great to see the difference being made across our region. We pride ourselves on the richness and diversity of our communities and it’s only right we celebrate achievements made. It’s everyone’s business to connect on inclusion.
We are holding a Diversity and Inclusion Festival of Speakers to learn from internal and external speakers from a wide range of backgrounds and professions that have the ability to inspire, educate and motivate audiences across Health Education England and the NHS.
We want to open up and learn from others outside the organisation who can share stories with audiences regarding their own careers, challenges they faced and teaching people various skills that they can take on board in their own lives to overcome them. The speakers will be able to demonstrate that each of us has an important part to play towards becoming an inclusive society and organisation.
We will be hosting speakers from Tuesday 29 November to Thursday 1 December at 10:00 - 11:30, using Microsoft Teams.
We are pleased to announce Dr Navina Evans, Chief Executive of Health Education England, will be opening the panel session on Wednesday 30 November.
Speaker sessions and biographies
Tuesday 29 November, 10:00 - 11:30
Steve Mannix, Executive Director of the Mercury Theatre
Sandra Samuels, Mayor of Wolverhampton
Wednesday 30 November, 10:00 - 11:30
Aaqil Ahmed, Founder of Amplify Consulting Ltd. Former Head of Religion and Ethics at both Channel 4 and the BBC
Asma Iqbal, Partner at Chadwick Lawrence LLP
Opening by Navina Evans, HEE Chief Executive
Thursday 1 December, 10:00 - 11:30
Raj Joshi, Midlands Deputy Regional Director, Health Education England
Carol Love-Mecrow, HEE Regional Head of Nursing and Midwifery
Chaired by Tom Kirkbride, Interim Regional Director (Midlands), Health Education England
Aaqil Ahmed , Founder of Amplify Consulting Ltd. Former Head of Religion and Ethics at both Channel 4 and the BBC
Aaqil Ahmed is the former Head of Religion and Ethics at both Channel 4 and the BBC. At Channel 4, he was also the Head of Multicultural Programming. He has won numerous awards from EMMY to BAFTA and has an Oscar nomination. Aaqil is currently a Non Executive Director at the Advertising Standards Authority, OFCOM, The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales and The Bradford Literature Festival.
Aaqil runs media production and communications consultancy, Amplify Consulting Ltd with a number of clients in the media, broadcasting, festivals, education, Government and the corporate sector.
Aaqil is Professor of Media at the University of Bolton and teaches at a number of Universities in the UK. He is a published writer, speaker, event chair and leader in media, diversity, religion, demographics and culture.
Asma Iqbal, Partner Chadwick Lawrence LLP
Asma Iqbal is a partner and head of the Corporate Recovery and Insolvency Department at Chadwick Lawrence. This area of practice includes advising business, directors and insolvency practitioners in corporate pre-insolvency and insolvency situations.
During 2020-2021, Asma represented Yorkshire cricketer Azeem Rafiq in his claim of institutional racism against Yorkshire County Cricket Club and supported by Chadwick Lawrence’s employment team, secured a settlement in his subsequent employment tribunal. She has now taken on a proactive role to tackle racism and promote inclusion, diversity and equality, working with institutions to audit their practices, procedures and behaviours to help them implement meaningful and lasting change.
Raj Joshi, Midlands Deputy Regional Director, Health Education England
Deputy Regional Director for Midlands HEE, with over 25 years of leadership and development experience gained in retail, finance, private equity, manufacturing, technology, FIN-Tech, consulting, health, skills and education sectors. Raj has a proven track record in leading change and transformational programmes and organisational development through effective resource management and has considerable experience in designing, developing and leading diversity and inclusion programs, employee life-cycle systems, executive reward and compensation.
Raj is an experienced international HR director and chief operating officer and has a proven record in building high performing teams, talent acquisition and development. He has been inspirational in directing people performance through business goals and is passionate about delivering great people experience.
Carol Love-Mecrow, Regional Head of Nursing & Midwifery, Health Education England
Carol Love-Mecrow has been a nurse for almost 35 years; starting her nurse training at the Dudley and Stourbridge School of Nursing in 1986 at the age of 18. Since qualifying she has held a number of senior nursing and educational roles and her current role is as the Regional Head of Nursing and Midwifery for HEE.
All of Carol’s career has been in Dudley, a fact that she is extremely proud of and feels that this has given her insight into the needs of people in this area and the factors that affect their health requirements. In addition, it has enabled her to be instrumental in the development of healthcare professionals working in the region.
As a senior nurse from a BAME background Carol also feels that her progression as a nurse has helped to inspire other BAME staff visualise what they too could achieve and has spent a lot of her time supporting and mentoring these staff to enable them to recognise and achieve their full potential.
Carol is proud to be a nurse and to have been able to work in education and be part of the development of the future nursing and midwifery workforce.
Steve Mannix, Executive Director of the Mercury Theatre
Steve Mannix was appointed Executive Director of the Mercury Theatre in 2014 and in the last year, along with the rest of the team, completed a £14.3 million capital programme to update and refurbish the whole venue.
Steve has held various senior roles in the arts and campaigning over the years, including as Cultural Programme Advisor for 2012, Chief Executive of Shape the national disability arts development agency, Stonewall, Hackney Empire, Battersea Arts Centre, Graeae Theatre Company and The Albany Empire.
Alongside these roles he has supported organisations with business planning, strategy, producing and fundraising.
Steve currently serves on the Boards of Visit Essex, Colchester LCEP and the Haven Gateway Partnership and was appointed an Ambassador for Colchester in 2018.
Sandra Samuels, Mayor of Wolverhampton
The 163rd Mayor of Wolverhampton is Cllr Sandra Samuels OBE who has made “dare to dream” the theme for her year in office. The Mayor’s consort is her husband Karl Samuels. Cllr Samuels is extremely proud to be the city’s first Mayor of African-Caribbean heritage in almost 200 years of history and only its 11th female Mayor.
She has given more than 40 years of public service as a nurse, NHS manager, trade union official, school governor, community activist, volunteer and city councillor since 2004. She is a former member of the council’s cabinet and currently represents the Ettingshall ward of the city. She was awarded the OBE by Her Majesty the Queen in 2015 for services to local government and politics.