Tech entrepreneur, property developer and Morrisons buyer recognised in Queen’s Honours list
Several regional business people have been honoured in the Queens Birthday Honours list, including entrepreneurs, a Morrisons buyer and council leaders.
Edward Ziff has received an OBE for services to the economy and the community in Leeds for his work with property group Town Centre Securities which has developed major Leeds sites including Whitehall Riverside and the Merrion Centre.
Harrogate’s Brian Dunsby, an entrepreneur who launched a horticultural business with his wife Beryl before launching the Yorkshire Business Market and was lately chief executive of Harrogate Chamber of Trade and Commerce, has also received an OBE.
Alongside Dunsby, Richard James Lake secured an OBE as owner and chief executive Eastern Airways and Humberside Airport, for services to aviation.
Noor Jahan Ali, a senior buying manager at the World Foods division for Morrisons has been honoured for services to diversity in the retail industry with a British Empire Medal.
She worked at Asda for 12 years before moving on to competitor supermarket Morrisons. She has been involved in the retail sector since 1992 when she opened a family independent supermarket.
At Morrisons, she helped launch a World Foods range, partnering with 85 suppliers to grow the category from just 500 lines to over 1,350 and increasing year on year sales by more than 145%.
Noor was one of the first volunteer lead mentors for the pilot mentoring programme that the BITC Race Equality Campaign launched in 2010-11.
She then went on to become a mentor for MOSIAC which she continues to this day.
The next is Ajaz Ahmed, co-founder of Freeserve, president of the Yorkshire Asian Business Association.
He has been honoured for services to young people, and is also on the board of Huddersfield University and a mentor at the Mosaic Network.
As part of his voluntary work with the organisation, he has delivered speeches and conducted workshops with pupils aged 7-11 from disadvantaged and low socio-economic backgrounds, and has proved a positive role-model for countless children from Asian and other ethnic minority backgrounds.
He receives a mention alongside Professor Graham Andrew Leslie, also of the University of Huddersfield, who received a CBE for services to entrepreneurship.
These are just a few of the long list of Yorkshire representatives on this year’s list including ex-footballer John Beresford, for his services to organisation Show Racism the Red Card, Councillor Judith Blake of Leeds City Council who received a CBE for services to local government and Brian Noble, who was awarded an MBE for services to rugby league having coached Bradford Bulls for six years as part of his 40-year career dedicated to the sport.
