Each year, with the support of our readers and communities, Asian Standard curates its Most Influential List to recognise British Asians who are shaping Bradford and beyond, not always from the spotlight, but often from the frontlines of change.
This list is not exhaustive, nor does it claim to capture every individual making a difference. Across our communities, there are countless people leading, building, advocating and serving in ways that may never make headlines. Many operate quietly, driven by purpose rather than profile.
So why does the Influential List matter?
It matters because too often, influence is measured narrowly, by wealth, status or visibility alone. This list challenges that idea. It exists to spotlight leadership in all its forms; to share stories that inspire the next generation; to reflect the breadth of influence within our communities; and to ensure that those creating real, lasting impact are seen beyond their immediate circles.
The 2025 list reflects a year of challenge, resilience and transformation. From healthcare and education to business, technology, culture and grassroots action, this year’s honourees demonstrate how influence is exercised through service, innovation, courage and consistency. Some lead institutions, others lead movements. All are shaping lives.
At a time when representation and role models matter more than ever, Asian Standard’s Most Influential List is both a celebration and a record, capturing the people helping to define who we are, and where we are going.
Presented in no particular order, we are proud to introduce Asian Standard’s Most Influential of Bradford, 2025.
Arfaan Ahmed: Taking Bradford’s creativity to the world — and bringing opportunity back home
Arfaan Ahmed is one of Bradford’s most influential creative talents, a self-taught stop-motion animator whose work has reached global audiences while remaining firmly rooted in his hometown.
What began as a hobby has evolved into an international creative career. Ahmed’s distinctive animation style first caught the attention of Mattel, leading to collaborations with some of the world’s most recognisable entertainment brands. Despite this global reach, he has continued to operate from Bradford, investing his time, skills and influence back into the local community.
In 2025, Ahmed’s impact was both international and deeply local. He partnered with Mattel’s Masters of the Universe team to celebrate the 40th anniversary of She-Ra, producing a stop-motion animation shared across Mattel’s global platforms and generating more than one million impressions. He followed this with a viral animation for Mattel WWE celebrating the career of John Cena, achieving over two million impressions worldwide and being showcased at San Diego Comic-Con, the world’s largest entertainment and comic convention.
Alongside commercial success, Ahmed has remained committed to widening access to creative careers. In 2025, he collaborated with the Science and Media Museum, working directly with young people from ethnic minority backgrounds to introduce them to digital and creative pathways. He also took part in the Bradford Creative Careers Festival, offering practical insight and inspiration to aspiring creatives.
That commitment was formalised with the launch of Imaginative Skills CIC, a community-focused organisation designed to expand skills development and creative opportunities locally. His work has been recognised by national and international media, including BBC Radio and ESPN.
Arfaan Ahmed’s influence lies in range and purpose — proving that world-class creative work can emerge from Bradford, and that success is most powerful when it opens doors for others.
Ali Naushahi: Redefining British storytelling from Bradford to primetime television
Ali Naushahi has emerged as one of Britain’s most influential filmmakers in 2025, blazing a
trail through television drama and documentary while reshaping who gets to tell Britain’s cultural stories.
Raised in a working-class household in Bradford, Naushahi was the first woman in her family to attend university. From those beginnings, she has forged a formidable career in one of the UK’s most competitive industries, becoming a powerful example of what is possible for creatives from immigrant, Muslim and working-class backgrounds.
Her defining achievement in 2025 came with a landmark three-part BBC series exploring the life of Jane Austen, commissioned as part of the author’s 250th anniversary celebrations. Directed by Naushahi, the series was both a critical and ratings success. It received five stars from The Guardian, and Naushahi is currently listed for consideration in the BAFTA Best Factual Director category, a rare and significant recognition.
Alongside this cultural milestone, Naushahi also directed six episodes of Emmerdale, becoming the first Muslim woman of Pakistani heritage to direct on the long-running series. The achievement marks an important moment for representation within mainstream British drama.
Beyond the screen, Naushahi has used her growing influence to advocate for systemic change within the industry. In November 2025, she was invited to speak as an industry panellist at the inaugural TV for the Working-Class Festival in Manchester, led by Sir Phil Redmond. There, she spoke candidly about barriers of privilege and access, calling for a television landscape that better reflects the society it serves.
Known for an exceptional creative eye, Naushahi brings a fresh yet familiar perspective to her work — expanding audiences while creating inclusive, modern storytelling spaces. Ali Naushahi’s influence lies not only in success, but in transformation: changing what British television looks like, and who it is made by.
Maryam Iqbal: Quietly redefining wellbeing, care and enterprise in Bradford
Maryam Iqbal’s influence in Bradford is defined not by visibility, but by outcome. Through consistency, care and long-term commitment, she has helped reshape how wellbeing, work and community-led enterprise operate in the city.
Iqbal is the founder of Royal Onsen, Bradford’s first luxury spa and dedicated wellbeing destination. When it opened, the concept challenged entrenched assumptions that premium wellness experiences belonged only in major metropolitan centres. From the outset, Royal Onsen was designed around calm, inclusivity and quality rather than spectacle, prioritising how people feel over how things look.
By 2025, Royal Onsen has proven itself not as a short-term concept, but as a sustainable business embedded in daily life. Thousands of clients have passed through its doors, many returning regularly. The spa has maintained a consistent five-star reputation, reflecting not only service standards but the trust built with its clientele over time.
The business has created 15 permanent jobs, offering stable employment within the local community. These roles have provided more than income alone, giving staff professional experience, transferable skills and a working environment grounded in respect and care. In a city where high-quality opportunities within the wellness and hospitality sector have historically been limited, this has opened pathways that did not previously exist.
While not a clinical service, Royal Onsen has become part of many people’s mental health and wellbeing routines. In 2025 alone, an estimated 18,000 visitors travelled to Bradford from across West Yorkshire and beyond, including Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield, specifically to access the spa. This inward movement reflects a quiet shift in perception: Bradford as a destination for calm, care and quality.
Alongside commercial success, Iqbal has embedded community responsibility into the business itself. Refugees have been welcomed for complimentary wellness experiences, Gaza fundraising initiatives supported, and ongoing work maintained with Breast Cancer Now, all without fanfare.
Maryam Iqbal’s influence lies in continuity. Jobs remain sustained, clients continue to return, and expectations around wellbeing in Bradford have been raised. Her work is a reminder that influence often operates quietly, through care, consistency and the changes that endure long after the headlines fade.
Eyarun Nessa: From resilience to renewal — leading with integrity, creativity and care
Eyarun Nessa’s influence in 2025 is inseparable from resilience. Hers is not a story of overnight recognition, but of sustained service, integrity and renewal under pressure and of
what can be achieved when values are not compromised, even in the face of profound challenge.
For more than two decades, Nessa has worked quietly across community development, wellbeing, culture and heritage, often behind the scenes. Her reluctance to self-promote has meant that much of her impact has historically gone unseen, despite shaping outcomes for individuals and communities across Keighley and Bradford. Like many South Asian women, she has balanced leadership with motherhood, care responsibilities and cultural expectation carrying responsibility long before recognition followed.
At the end of 2024, a serious breach of trust brought a platform she had co-founded to an abrupt end. What followed could have been retreat. Instead, 2025 became a year of renewal through action.
In one year alone, Nessa secured four simultaneous roles rooted in service to South Asian communities in Keighley: Community Development Officer at Manningham Housing Association; Creative Practitioner and Curious Communities Practitioner for Bradford 2025 City of Culture; and Artist with Keighley Creative Arts. Communities followed her into these new spaces rapidly, a testament to trust built in the person, not the platform.
Within six months, she delivered more than 30 community and cultural projects, produced eight community films, and curated major public screenings at the National Science and Media Museum and Keighley KCA Cinema. Her work brought together South Asian community centres across Keighley in a shared public exhibition, the first of its kind, challenging assumptions around creativity, masculinity and self-worth, particularly among older men rarely engaged in such spaces.
A defining feature of her influence in 2025 was film. Stepping into professional filmmaking without formal training, Nessa used visual storytelling to explore cost-of-living pressures, migration, identity and belonging, with screenings attended by civic leaders and community dignitaries alike.
Alongside this, she led the Men in Motion wellbeing project, engaging Bangladeshi men in outdoor activity, nature photography and reflection, quietly shifting cultural norms around men’s mental health. She also facilitated deeply impactful vision-board work with South Asian women, creating space for aspiration where it had long been absent.
National and local recognition followed, including the British Bangladeshi Who’s Who Award 2025 and the Keighley Town Mayor’s Chamber Award. She was also selected to carry the Baton of Hope in Keighley, recognising her leadership in mental health and suicide prevention.
Eyarun Nessa’s influence is not defined by visibility, but by trust. By choosing what is right over what is convenient, she has created lasting change — through creativity, care and an unwavering commitment to truth.
Ishfaq Farooq: Values-led leadership shaping Bradford’s hospitality, health and hope
Ishfaq Farooq is one of Bradford’s most influential business leaders, not simply for the scale of his commercial success, but for the consistency with which he has used that success to serve others.
As director of MyLahore and sister brand Wunder Crumble, Farooq has helped shape Bradford’s hospitality landscape for more than two decades. In 2025, MyLahore celebrated its 23rd anniversary, a milestone reflecting longevity, evolution and sustained relevance in a highly competitive sector.
That influence extends far beyond food. In 2025, Farooq continued a long-standing tradition of donating Christmas meals to elders through the Khidmat Centre, ensuring dignity and inclusion for some of the city’s most vulnerable residents. His year-round support of the NHS, particularly Bradford Royal Infirmary and the Neonatal Unit, has become a defining part of his public contribution.
This year saw the official launch of the Home from Home campaign in partnership with Bradford Teaching Hospitals Charity, pledging to raise £25,000 towards a new kitchen and dining space for parents of babies in neonatal care. In recognition of years of genuine commitment, Farooq was appointed the charity’s first official Ambassador and received an Appreciation Award from its Chief Executive.
Alongside healthcare advocacy, Farooq has championed enterprise and opportunity. Working with Wunder Crumble, he helped launch Bradford’s first Winter Wunderland, creating a platform for local vendors and start-ups. He has supported student entrepreneurship at the University of Bradford, mentored aspiring chefs through Bradford College, and engaged with young offenders at HMP Wetherby to explore how enterprise can support rehabilitation.
His leadership has also been recognised nationally, with MyLahore receiving Catering Business of the Year 2025, multiple TripAdvisor five-star awards, and top environmental health ratings across all sites.
Ishfaq Farooq’s influence is defined by values. Through humility, consistency and action, he continues to shape Bradford as a city of compassion, opportunity and ambition, proving that true influence is measured by who you uplift along the way.
Imran Khan: Craft, community and care stitched into Bradford life
Imran Khan is widely known as Bradford’s Royal Tailor — a master craftsman whose bespoke designs have been worn by royalty, including King Charles III, whom he has met
twice and for whom he tailored a bespoke jacket. In 2025, his work and influence were further recognised when Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester visited his flagship premises.
But Khan’s influence extends far beyond tailoring.
As founder of IK Collections, Khan has transformed his recently renovated flagship store into a multi-purpose community space, using enterprise as a platform for connection, opportunity and care. Above the shop floor, the ballroom and adjoining spaces now host free sewing and tailoring classes, creative workshops, shared office facilities with free Wi-Fi, and wellbeing-focused community projects.
In 2025, Khan formally launched the IK School of Fine Tailoring, offering free classes to anyone interested in fashion and craftsmanship, regardless of background or ability to pay. Opened by the Duke of Gloucester, the initiative provides hands-on skills, confidence and pathways into employment for young people and career-changers alike.
Alongside this, Khan has led initiatives such as Helping to Cut Loneliness, welcoming people, particularly women, into a safe, inclusive working environment where conversation, creativity and belonging are prioritised. For many, IK Collections has become more than a workplace; it is a space where isolation is eased and confidence rebuilt.
Employees and participants speak of being opened up to new environments, skills and experiences, from tailoring and design to arts and crafts projects that transform everyday objects into expressive works. Khan’s approach is rooted in generosity: sharing space, time and knowledge without expectation.
Imran Khan’s influence lies in how he has redefined what a business can be. By blending craftsmanship with compassion, and enterprise with community, he has created a model where success is measured not only by reputation, but by the lives touched along the way.
Humayun Islam BEM BCAc: Building inclusive pathways through trust, sport and culture
Humayun Islam’s influence across Leeds is grounded in delivery rather than display. His work is defined by sustained community impact, creating access, opportunity and inclusion for those who are often overlooked, and by leadership built on trust rather than visibility.
Through his work with ISSE Ltd, Islam has played a central role in strengthening relationships between institutions and communities, particularly within South Asian and Muslim neighbourhoods. His approach is collaborative and values-led, focused on long-term empowerment rather than short-term intervention. Families, young people, faith groups and local partners consistently engage with his work because it is rooted in listening and follow-through.
Youth development has been a core pillar of Islam’s influence. Through football-led initiatives connected to the SCORE Development Centre, he has helped create safe, structured environments where young people can build confidence, discipline and teamwork. For many participants facing social exclusion or limited access to organised sport, these spaces have provided positive role models and a sense of belonging at critical stages of their lives.
Cultural activity has also been integral to his work. Islam has supported initiatives that celebrate heritage and identity, using culture as a bridge to strengthen community cohesion and civic participation. These programmes have helped families and young people feel represented and valued, fostering shared understanding across communities in Leeds.
One of his most impactful contributions in recent years has been the expansion of female-only exercise sessions. By supporting culturally sensitive and accessible opportunities for women and girls, Islam has helped remove long-standing barriers to physical activity. These sessions have delivered tangible benefits, improved wellbeing, increased confidence and stronger social connection, while enabling greater participation of women in wider community life.
Humayun Islam’s influence is measured by outcomes. Opportunities have been created, access widened and trust strengthened. Through quiet, consistent leadership, he has helped embed inclusion into the everyday fabric of community life in Leeds — leaving structures in place that will continue to benefit others long after the spotlight has moved on.
Professor Adeeba Malik: Redefining leadership at the highest civic level
Professor Adeeba Malik has become one of the most significant public figures in Britain today — not through symbolism alone, but through decades of sustained service, leadership and institutional influence. In 2025, she once again made history, becoming the
first South Asian woman in the UK to be appointed Lord Lieutenant, representing West Yorkshire as the King’s official representative in the county.
It is a landmark moment, not only for West Yorkshire, but nationally. Already a familiar and respected name on Asian Standard’s Influential List, Malik’s appointment follows an extraordinary trajectory of civic leadership, including her tenure as High Sheriff of West Yorkshire, where she was also the first woman of colour to hold the role. Few individuals have so consistently broken barriers at the highest levels of public life.
With more than 35 years of service across education, the voluntary sector and public institutions, Malik’s influence is deeply rooted. Beginning her career as a teacher, she went on to join QED Foundation in 1992, where she continues to serve as Deputy Chief Executive, shaping programmes that promote social mobility, educational attainment and economic inclusion across communities.
Her national influence is reflected in her service on the House of Lords Appointments Commission, the Cabinet Office Honours Committee, and the Home Office Strategic Race Advisory Board. As a Visiting Professor at York St John University, she has also helped shape future thinking on leadership, equality and civic responsibility.
Malik’s appointment as Lord Lieutenant represents more than personal achievement. It signals a shift in who is seen, trusted and empowered to represent the Crown and the country. Her influence lies in the confidence she inspires — particularly among women and ethnic minorities — that leadership at the highest level can be both representative and rooted in service.
Professor Adeeba Malik’s career stands as a testament to what long-term commitment, integrity and quiet authority can achieve and why her influence continues to shape West Yorkshire’s civic life at the very highest level.
Noor Ali BEM: From checkout to changemaker in British retail
Noor Ali’s influence on British retail is both profound and measurable. In 2025, she capped an extraordinary career by winning two global awards, one recognised internationally in Riyadh and another from the Women in Management Top50 Global Women UK Chapter — reaffirming her status as one of the most impactful figures in inclusive retail leadership.
From leaving school to work on a supermarket checkout to becoming Senior Commercial Manager at P&B Foods, home of the iconic Heera brand, Ali’s journey is a masterclass in resilience, insight and innovation. Her career has consistently reshaped how Britain shops — and who is seen in those spaces.
Ali’s pioneering legacy began during her 12 years at Asda, where in 2007 she identified a major gap in the market and launched the UK’s first World Foods category. This included the country’s first complete halal supermarket range and more than 1,200 new product lines. She also transformed retail calendars by introducing culturally relevant campaigns around Ramadan, Eid, Diwali and Passover, a model that has since become industry standard and now delivers billions in value.
She later took that vision to Morrisons, revitalising its World Foods offer across 330 stores and launching new cuisines and seasonal ranges that significantly expanded reach among underserved customers.
In her current role at P&B Foods, Ali is driving the next phase of growth for Heera, expanding into Europe and the Middle East through joint innovation partnerships, new product development and global market strategy. A major milestone ahead is the opening of a state-of-the-art ghee factory in 2026, positioning the business as a global leader in the category.
Beyond commercial success, Ali’s influence is deeply values-led. She mentors extensively through programmes including Ahead Partnership and Cranfield Trust, sits on charity boards including Age UK Bradford and Shantona Women’s Centre, and founded Noor’s Den — an innovative mentoring initiative supporting prisoners to build confidence and future pathways.
In 2025, she also appeared on Secrets of Supermarket Buyers, offering rare insight into the power behind Britain’s shopping aisles.
Awarded a BEM for Services to Diversity in Retail, Noor Ali’s influence lies in structural change. She has not only opened doors — she has redesigned the building.
Dr Amir Khan: The GP changing how Britain understands healthcare
Dr Amir Khan has become one of the UK’s most influential medical voices, bridging frontline
NHS experience with national media reach.
A Bradford-based GP, author and television doctor, Dr Khan’s influence in 2025 lies in trust. He uses his platform to explain healthcare issues with clarity, compassion and cultural awareness from public health messaging to everyday medical concerns.
As an author and regular media contributor, he has helped demystify medicine while advocating for accessible, patient-centred care. His background enables him to speak credibly about health inequalities and the realities facing communities often underserved by healthcare systems.
In 2025, Dr Amir Khan’s influence continues to grow as he combines medical expertise with humanity, reshaping how health information is delivered and received.
Dr Amir Khan, has had both national and local influence and is the only figure to have appeared in Asian Standard’s London and Bradford issues for 2025.
Nabeela Ahmed: Giving voice to heritage, language and belonging through poetry
Nabeela Ahmed has emerged as one of Bradford’s most influential cultural voices in 2025, using poetry and storytelling to bring grassroots communities together, particularly those whose languages and histories are rarely centred in mainstream cultural spaces.
A writer and multilingual poet, Ahmed played a prominent role in Bradford 2025 City of Culture, performing at the opening ceremony RISE and delivering the Artist-Led Award project, The Pahari–Pothwari Literature Project. As part of the programme, she curated and hosted a dedicated event celebrating Pahari poetry, drawing a full house and receiving widespread praise for creating a space where language, heritage and identity were honoured with dignity and depth.
Her influence lies in her ability to connect culture with community. For many attendees, the event was the first time they had seen Pahari language and poetry formally recognised on a major cultural platform. In doing so, Ahmed not only preserved an oral tradition but elevated it — affirming its place within Britain’s contemporary cultural narrative.
In 2025, Ahmed’s work has reached national audiences. She featured on Word of Mouth with Michael Rosen, contributed poetry to Contains Strong Language, and served as the Travelling Poet for Word Up North over the summer. Her debut poetry collection, From Kashmir to Yorkshire, published by Yaffle Press, was launched through the Bradford Literature Festival, marking a significant milestone in her literary journey.
Ahmed’s first monologue, A Woman’s Work, is hosted on the Royal Literary Fund Writers Mosaic platform, further cementing her contribution to British literature and representation.
Alongside her creative output, Ahmed continues to teach and facilitate creative writing in schools, community settings and festivals, working with organisations including the NLT and First Story. She has curated six multilingual anthologies drawn from these sessions, ensuring that new voices are not only nurtured but published.
Nabeela Ahmed’s influence is rooted in cultural restoration and connection. Through poetry, she has created spaces of recognition, belonging and pride — reminding communities that their language, stories and voices matter.
Dr Samina Karim: Leading research that reshapes child protection policy and practice
Dr Samina Karim has become one of Bradford’s most influential academics and social
advocates, driving research that is shifting how child protection is understood and acted upon, both in the UK and internationally.
An Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work at University of Bradford, Karim has spent her career working at the intersection of academic rigour and real-world impact, with a focus on safeguarding vulnerable children and influencing policy and practice. Previously a social work practitioner, she holds a PhD in Power and the Institutional Abuse of Children, giving her both lived insight and scholarly depth in one of society’s most challenging fields.
In 2025, Dr Karim’s influence continued through a major programme of research funded by a prestigious UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellowship, which awarded her around £1 million to lead a four-year study into the sexual abuse of children from Pakistani backgrounds in both the UK and Pakistan, a subject that has historically been under-researched and clouded by cultural barriers to reporting. Her work seeks to deepen understanding of the barriers that prevent disclosure and effective response, linking knowledge from country-of-origin contexts back into policy and practice at home.
Across 2025, Karim has also led community engagement activities in the three Pakistani districts with the highest reported rates of child sex abuse, empowering local voices and strengthening cross-cultural dialogue on protection and prevention. She has worked with frontline professionals including doctors, lawyers and social workers to explore why reporting remains low and how systems can better support children and families.
Her work is more than academic: it informs dialogue, policy and professional practice in some of the most sensitive and complex areas of child welfare. Karim’s research has been widely recognised for its pioneering scope, international relevance and deep ethical grounding, and has featured as one of Asian Standard’s most impactful stories of 2025, highlighting how evidence-based research can catalyse cultural as well as systemic change.
Dr Samina Karim’s influence in 2025 lies in her ability to bridge worlds: academia with community, evidence with action, and cultural nuance with public policy. In doing so, she offers new pathways to safeguard children and strengthen protective systems for generations to come.
Sofia Mahmood MBE: Safeguarding communities through insight, courage and prevention
Sofia Mahmood has become one of Bradford’s most influential figures in community cohesion, safeguarding and preventative education — trusted to lead conversations that many find difficult, yet essential.
As founder of Empowering Minds, Mahmood has spent years equipping communities, educators and professionals with practical tools to address radicalisation, vulnerability and safeguarding, not through fear, but through understanding. Her work is rooted in compassion, evidence and lived experience, enabling meaningful dialogue where stigma and silence once prevailed.
In 2025, her influence reached new heights. Mahmood led high-impact initiatives including Radicalisation Awareness & Prevention, with a specialist focus on neurodiversity and vulnerability. Attendees praised her ability to create safe, reflective spaces, noting her sensitivity, clarity and deep understanding of what frontline professionals truly need to hear. Her sessions are consistently described as transformational, encouraging reflection, confidence and action rather than compliance alone.
Her leadership was recognised nationally and internationally this year. Mahmood received the Global Transformational & Power Leader Award at the Global Leadership Conclave 2025, held at the UK House of Lords. Organisers praised her courage, resilience and purpose-driven leadership, describing her work as shaping a more hopeful and inclusive future.
Mahmood is also an MBE recipient for services to education, recognition of her long-standing commitment to prevention, empowerment and learning. Her most successful and enduring programme, Empowering Mothers Against Radicalisation and Grooming, funded by the Home Office and Bradford Council, has supported families to identify early warning signs, challenge harmful narratives and protect young people before harm occurs.
Sofia Mahmood’s influence lies in trust. She is called upon not because she is the loudest voice, but because she is the most credible, able to bridge safeguarding, education and community realities with empathy and authority. Her leadership continues to define how prevention is delivered, understood and sustained.
Sobia Bashir (Sobia Spice): Bringing confidence, culture and colour back into home cooking
Sobia Bashir, widely known as Sobia Spice, has become one of Bradford’s most influential
grassroots food creators, using social media to reconnect audiences with the joy, confidence and cultural pride of home cooking.
A home-cooking expert and self-confessed foodie, Bashir went viral last year after sharing her now-famous “magic curry” recipe on TikTok, a moment that saw national media outlets rush to spotlight her approach. But her influence did not begin with virality. For several years, she has been steadily building a loyal following by sharing accessible, flavour-packed recipes rooted in South Asian home cooking traditions.
What sets Bashir apart is not just the food, but the reassurance she brings to the kitchen. Through her videos, she actively encourages people not to fear bold colours, textures or unfamiliar ingredients, demystifying Indian and South Asian cooking for both seasoned cooks and beginners alike. Her tone is warm, practical and inclusive, making cooking feel achievable rather than intimidating.
In 2025, Bashir’s influence continues to grow as her content reaches audiences far beyond Bradford. Her platforms have become a space where cultural knowledge is shared organically, passing down techniques that are often learned informally within families but rarely documented or celebrated publicly.
Beyond food, Bashir has also extended her influence into community and culture. She has worked as a community ambassador with Lawrence Batley Theatre, supporting engagement with arts and culture and helping to bridge everyday community life with creative spaces.
Sobia Bashir’s impact lies in relatability. She has shown that influence does not require a professional kitchen or formal training, just authenticity, generosity and consistency. In doing so, she has helped thousands rediscover confidence in their cooking, while celebrating the richness of South Asian food culture in modern Britain.
Shahnaz Gulzar: Shaping Bradford’s cultural voice on a national stage
Shahnaz Gulzar has been one of the most influential creative leaders in Bradford’s cultural life, and 2025 marked a defining year in a career that has consistently bridged local identity with national and global platforms.
Recognised in the King’s New Year Honours for her services to culture, Gulzar played a central role in delivering an ambitious and wide-reaching programme of events as part of Bradford 2025 City of Culture. Her leadership helped shape a year that not only celebrated artistic excellence but placed community, heritage and lived experience at the heart of Bradford’s cultural narrative.
Born and raised in Keighley, where she still lives, Gulzar’s work is rooted in place. Her career spans film, visual arts, theatre, public art and media, and she has long been recognised nationally as an artist and creative producer. She previously worked as a producer at Manchester International Festival and brought a contemporary artistic perspective to the region through the BBC’s Yorkshire Walks. In 2019, she also presented the documentary Hidden Histories: The Lost Portraits of Bradford, uncovering overlooked stories and voices embedded in the city’s past.
Across her career, Gulzar has worked with a wide range of cultural partners, including Bite the Mango Film Festival, Illuminate, Bradford City Parks, Impressions Gallery and the Yorkshire Film Archive. She has co-practised with arts organisation Adept, served as an ambassador for the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust, and contributed to nationally significant projects such as Enchanted Parks in Gateshead, site-specific work for the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, and as an associate artist with National Theatre Wales.
What distinguishes Gulzar’s influence is her ability to operate across scales, from intimate, community-led projects to large-scale cultural programmes, without losing authenticity or purpose. In 2025, her work helped position Bradford not simply as a host city, but as a confident cultural contributor with stories worth telling.
Shahnaz Gulzar’s influence lies in vision and delivery. Through creativity, collaboration and deep local knowledge, she continues to shape how Bradford is seen, heard and valued, both at home and far beyond the region.
Nasar Hussain: Powering Bradford’s culture year through connectivity and enterprise
Nasar Hussain has emerged as one of Bradford’s most influential business figures, using
enterprise, advocacy and local commitment to support one of the city’s most significant moments in a generation.
Founder and Managing Director of ITC, Hussain marked a milestone year in 2025 as his company became the official telecommunications provider for Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture. The partnership placed ITC at the heart of the city’s cultural infrastructure, delivering essential connectivity that enabled the programme to operate at scale.
Throughout 2025, ITC provided IT and mobile telecommunications services across both Bradford 2025 headquarters, supporting the 130-strong City of Culture team with internet access, landline and mobile packages. As an official corporate supporter, the business played a behind-the-scenes but critical role in ensuring the smooth delivery of a nationally significant cultural year.
Founded by Hussain in 2006, ITC celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Having previously worked for a major national telecoms provider, Hussain identified a gap in the market for a local company offering responsive, tailored services to local businesses. At just 24 years old, he made the leap into entrepreneurship, a decision that has since resulted in sustained growth, national reach and industry recognition.
In 2025, Hussain also became a vocal advocate for Bradford’s City of Culture year, championing its economic and reputational value. That advocacy has translated into tangible success, with ITC entering 2026 on a strong growth trajectory, benefiting from increased visibility and trust built through its City of Culture role.
Beyond business, Hussain is committed to mentorship and enterprise development. He actively supports start-ups, including mentoring his own son as he enters the car trade, reflecting a belief in passing on skills, confidence and opportunity.
Nasar Hussain’s influence lay in connection, not just through technology, but through belief in Bradford’s potential. By backing the city at a defining moment, he has helped demonstrate how local business leadership can power cultural ambition and long-term growth.
Amir Hussain: Taking Bradford’s tech-led community solutions to the heart of government
Amir Hussain has emerged as one of Bradford’s most influential voices in technology, community finance and public-sector innovation — using lived experience and data-led thinking to reshape how communities and small businesses are supported.
Founder and CEO of Yeme Tech, partner at Yeme Community Capital, and a commissioner with Yorkshire & Humber Climate Commission, Hussain operates at the intersection of technology, policy and social value. His work focuses on using community-needs data, social value coordination and procurement reform to reduce red tape, strengthen SMEs and deliver measurable community uplift.
In 2025, his influence extended well beyond the region. Hussain travelled internationally to explore emerging tech opportunities, while closer to home he was invited to 10 Downing Street to share insight on business and trade with Chancellor Rachel Reeves. The meeting marked a significant moment, positioning a Bradford-based start-up voice at the centre of national economic conversation.
He followed this with high-level engagement at HM Treasury and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, presenting practical solutions for improving procurement systems and aligning public spend with local impact. For Hussain, these discussions reflected a wider shift: recognition that innovation born from community experience can inform national policy at a time of acute need.
Often described as a go-to voice on business infrastructure in Bradford, Hussain brings credibility grounded in action rather than theory. As he has noted, adversity teaches lessons no MBA can and the solutions he champions are shaped by real-world challenges faced by communities and entrepreneurs.
Amir Hussain’s influence lay in connection: connecting data to decision-making, SMEs to opportunity, and Bradford’s innovation ecosystem to the very heart of government. With 2026 on the horizon, his trajectory suggests his impact is only just beginning.
Naveed Khan: Crafting global excellence while creating local pathways
Naveed Barugzai Khan is internationally recognised for his work in high-end car customisation, but his influence in Bradford runs far deeper than the vehicles that leave his
workshop.
Founder of ENKAHNZ, Khan has built a world-renowned brand rooted in precision, discipline and respect, values forged long before the business existed. His journey began in Bradford’s boxing gyms, where as a teenager he trained relentlessly, balancing early-morning roadwork with after-school bag sessions. When opportunities in professional boxing proved limited, he channelled that same discipline into entrepreneurship, turning small repair jobs into what is now one of the UK’s most respected customisation studios, with a global client base that includes high-profile and celebrity customers.
In 2025, Khan’s influence has been defined not only by commercial success, but by mentorship. Recognising familiar potential in local amateur boxing champion Abbas, Khan invited the young fighter into the ENKAHNZ Apprentice Programme, creating a carefully structured pathway that balances trade skills with elite sport. Training schedules, fight weeks and workshop responsibilities are managed with the same rigour expected on the gym floor.
The mentorship is grounded in practicality: learn a trade, take responsibility, and build habits that translate across every area of life. Inside the workshop, Abbas is trained by senior technicians in bodywork, paint correction, detailing and bespoke customisation, with no shortcuts and uncompromising standards. Outside it, he trains at Aztec Boxing Club under coach Mo Ali, where discipline and fundamentals shape his fighting style. His rapid rise, culminating in a Yorkshire championship title, mirrors the ethos Khan instils at ENKAHNZ.
This dual-pathway approach reflects Khan’s broader philosophy: success should be transferable. Skills learned in one arena should strengthen performance in another. In a city where young people often struggle to see viable futures, Khan has created tangible routes into skilled employment while supporting ambition beyond the workshop.
Naveed Khan’s influence lies in balance, balancing excellence with opportunity, global recognition with local responsibility. By investing time, trust and structure into young lives, he is proving that world-class businesses can also be engines of community uplift.
Kamran Rashid: Building regional power through community-led enterprise
Kamran Rashid has become one of Bradford’s most influential civic and social enterprise leaders, quietly shaping how opportunity, investment and collaboration are delivered across West Yorkshire.
Founder and Chief Executive of Impact Hub West Yorkshire, Rashid’s vision has transformed what began as a local initiative into a regional force for inclusive growth. In 2025, his leadership reached a defining moment as Impact Hub Bradford formally evolved into Impact Hub West Yorkshire, reflecting both scale and ambition, and Rashid’s belief that opportunity should not be limited by postcode.
Founded in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, Impact Hub was launched during a period of global uncertainty and personal risk. Five years on, it has supported more than 1,000 individuals and businesses, from social entrepreneurs to grassroots organisations, delivering regeneration projects, accessible funding models, youth empowerment programmes and inclusive economic initiatives across underserved communities.
Rashid’s influence in 2025 extended well beyond organisational growth. He served as an Executive Board member for Bradford UK City of Culture 2025, contributing to the strategic direction of one of the city’s most significant cultural moments. Earlier in the year, Impact Hub’s headquarters in Little Germany was visited by King Charles III, who met social entrepreneurs and community leaders supported by Rashid’s organisation, a powerful endorsement of its national relevance.
The year culminated in a landmark celebration: Impact Hub’s five-year anniversary gala dinner at Bradford Live. The event brought together nearly 300 civic leaders, entrepreneurs and partners, and marked the first formal dinner held in the restored ballroom since 2000, symbolising both Bradford’s regeneration and Rashid’s role in convening the region’s changemakers.
Kamran Rashid’s influence lies in scale and substance. By placing community at the centre of enterprise, he has built infrastructure that enables others to lead, collaborate and thrive — shaping not just projects, but a movement grounded in equity and long-term impact.
Dr Javed Bashir: Shaping national conversations on identity, cohesion and civic responsibility
Dr Javed Bashir is one of Britain’s most influential educators and public intellectuals, whose
voice in 2025 has consistently shaped civic debate, cultural understanding and community reflection at both local and national level.
A Senior Lecturer in Policing, Dr Bashir brings ethical leadership, cultural competence and community engagement into professional education at a time when public trust in institutions is both fragile and vital. His academic work is closely aligned with lived reality, ensuring that research and teaching translate into real-world practice, particularly around policing, faith literacy and social cohesion.
In 2025, Dr Bashir’s influence has been most visible through his extensive written commentary for Asian Standard, where he authored a series of widely read and shared columns tackling some of the most pressing civic and cultural issues of the moment. His writing challenged simplistic narratives on integration, immigration and belonging; examined community behaviour and shared responsibility; and offered thoughtful, sometimes uncomfortable, reflections on internal divisions and collective accountability.
Notable pieces included reflections on British Muslim belonging, critiques of immigration policy, an evaluation of Bradford’s City of Culture year, and a powerful warning on the consequences of fragmentation within communities. These articles were widely discussed across community networks and social platforms, reinforcing his reputation as a principled, balanced and credible voice in public life.
Beyond Asian Standard, Dr Bashir’s commentary has been amplified through outlets including the Telegraph & Argus and national platforms such as Yahoo News UK, particularly during Islamophobia Awareness Month, where he called for proactive engagement, empathy and narrative change.
His influence also lies in convening dialogue. In 2025, he played a key role in bringing together senior leaders at the Professional Muslim Dinner, facilitating thoughtful discussion on leadership, representation and ethical responsibility. He also led a Faith Trail with policing students at Leeds Trinity University, giving future officers direct exposure to faith spaces and community voices, an approach grounded in experiential learning and trust-building.
What defines Dr Javed Bashir’s influence is not volume, but resonance. Through rigorous thinking, accessible writing and courageous engagement with complex issues, he has helped elevate public discourse and strengthen the shared fabric of civic life in Britain.
