For 25 years, Fara Butt thought she knew exactly what her future looked like.
She was an English teacher, later becoming Head of English, spending her days helping young people find their voice, build confidence and believe in possibilities beyond what they thought they could achieve.
Then one phone call changed everything.
Her father had become critically ill.
He spent four weeks in a coma, and doctors warned the family to prepare for the worst. At the same time, the family business needed someone to step forward.
Suddenly, the classroom she loved had to wait.
“It wasn’t something I had planned,” Fara says. “But it was the right thing to do.”
Leaving education after 25 years was not simply a career change. It was a daughter stepping into a responsibility she never expected, at a moment when her family needed her most.
“It was my father’s illness that became the catapult for that to happen,” she said. “Having responsibility on you in those circumstances, when all we were thinking about and praying for was his good health, it was a steep learning curve.”
That learning curve would take her from teaching English to helping lead one of Yorkshire’s most established manufacturing businesses.
Today, Fara Butt is Commercial Director at Shire Beds, President of the National Bed Federation, founder of DaWN, the Diverse Women’s Network, and Entrepreneur in Residence at Birmingham City University.
But despite the titles, she still sees herself through the same lens she always has.
“I approach work through imparting knowledge and creating opportunities for those around me,” she said. “And I learn continuously too.”
The classroom has simply changed.
Her parents believed learning created independence, confidence and opportunity values that would later shape how she approached leadership.
But stepping into manufacturing was very different from marking essays and teaching literature.
Although she had spent time around the family business, taking responsibility for a manufacturing company while dealing with the uncertainty of her father’s health was an entirely different challenge.
The first days on the factory floor brought a new reality. Many employees had spent decades in the industry. They understood production, processes and the craft of manufacturing in a way Fara was still learning.
She was entering their world and she knew she had to earn their trust.
“It was unusual for them to see me walking the factory floor and taking an interest in manufacturing,” she said.
Rather than pretending to have all the answers, she asked questions, listened and learned from the people around her.
Manufacturing remains one of the UK’s most male-dominated industries, with women still underrepresented, particularly in senior leadership positions.
In order to help other women in similar positions, Fara founded the Diverse Women’s Network. The organisation was born from a desire to create a stronger support system for female founders, leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs. For Fara, it was another form of teaching.
She wanted women to have access to the confidence, encouragement and opportunities that can often determine whether someone takes the next step in their career.
Every organisation begins with a moment of realisation, and for Fara, that moment came from recognising the importance of women seeing themselves represented in leadership.
“We all have imposter syndrome,” she said. “Being a woman, of Asian Pakistani heritage and a Muslim, this diversity did not exist amongst the board before me.”
For Fara, representation is not just about occupying a position. It is about showing others that those positions are possible.
“It’s an honour to do so,” she said. “The lesson in that is don’t ever put a glass ceiling on what you can achieve.”
Fara’s leadership has come during some of the most challenging years for businesses.
Brexit, Covid and global supply chain disruption placed huge pressure on manufacturers.
“The whole supply chain was affected,” she said. “Our business relies on a global supply chain. Many businesses were stress-tested to the extreme.”
Through each challenge, her approach remained the same. Listen, learn and support the people around her.
“Success is about continually learning, helping others to grow and making a positive contribution,” she said.
Shire Beds now employs around 70 people and the company has won multiple awards, the most recent being the Best of British at The Furniture Awards 2022.
Although her career has taken her into boardrooms, manufacturing plants and industry conferences, Fara believes the principles that guided her as a teacher have never changed.
She still measures success by the people she helps. The students she once encouraged have become colleagues, entrepreneurs, leaders and the next generation of people shaping industry.
Looking back, the family crisis that changed the direction of her life became the defining moment of her career.
The four weeks her father spent in a coma forced her into an unfamiliar world, but it also revealed a strength she did not know she had.
Today, she is grateful not only that her father recovered, but that the experience taught her the importance of faith, family and resilience.
And when asked what achievement makes her proudest, she does not mention awards or positions. She talks about her family.
“I’m incredibly proud of my three wonderful children,” she said.
Just as her parents encouraged her to value education, work hard and never limit what she could achieve, she hopes to pass those same lessons on to the next generation.
Everything she has built, from leading a manufacturing business to championing women through DaWN, has been driven by the same purpose: creating opportunities for others.
The classroom may have disappeared, replaced by a Yorkshire factory, boardrooms and industry conferences.
But Fara Butt still measures success in the same way she always has, not by what she achieves herself, but by the confidence she gives others to achieve it.
