The Asian Jewel Awards celebrate a half-century of ongoing endeavour and achievement in the UK's Asian communities. Sainsbury's sponsored the Woman of the Year award.
On Tuesday 8th July, twelve individual 'Asian Jewels' in particular were recognised from amongst the many nominees from businesses and organisations across the south of Britain, in an awards ceremony at London's Grosvenor House Hotel. Four remarkable women were nominated for the Sainsbury's-sponsored Woman of the Year Award; Professor Shahina Pardhan, Professor of Optometry at Anglia University and the first female professor in her field in the UK; Meera Syal MBE, Actress and Playwright; Baroness Shreela Flather of the House of Lords and Yasmin Jetha, Director of Abbey National.
The winner was Baroness Shreela Flather, whose achievements include becoming the first ethnic minority woman councillor in the UK in 1976, and then the first Asian woman mayor in the country ten years later. She was the first ethnic minority woman to be nominated to the House of Lords in 1990.
One of Sainsbury's major suppliers was also honoured at the ceremony, receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award. Sir Gulam Noon MBE founded Noon Products Ltd, of Southall, in 1989 and has spent a lifetime in the food business. He is also a member of the Advisory Council of The Princes Trust and is on the Board of CARE International UK and Cancer Research UK. He is a trustee of many other charities and Chairman of the Noon Foundation that supports a wide range of UK and International causes.
