Chair
Commissioners
- Carol Adams
- Khurshid Ahmed
- Yaseer Ahmed
- Mohammed Aziz
- Sir Colin Budd
- Julia Chain
- Jane Codona
- Rev Aled Edwards
- Dilwar Hussain
- Sir Dexter Hutt
- Uzo Iwobi
- Sir Digby Jones
- Gloria Mills
Related pages
Did you find this page useful?
Page information
This page was last updated on 18 May 2007
CRE chair and commissioners
Kay Hampton
Chair
Professor Kay Hampton became chair of the Commission for Racial Equality on 1 December 2006. She took over from Trevor Phillips, who is now chair of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR). Previously, Kay had served the CRE as deputy chair, and its commissioner for Scotland.
Kay is currently a lecturer in criminology at Glasgow Caledonian University. As a former research fellow and director of the Scottish Ethnic Minorities Research Unit between 1995 and 2000, she researched and published widely on racism, ethnicity and discrimination. Kay has also been employed by University of Durban-Westville, South Africa (1978-1989) and Durban City Council, Strategic Planning Department (1990-1993).
Kay was closely associated with the voluntary sector in South Africa. Since her arrival in Scotland in 1994, she has served on several management committees, trusts and boards that work in the field of inequality and disadvantage, including the Community Fund, for whom she was board member and Chair between 1998 and 2003, and the Wellcome Trust Society Awards [2001-2003). She is also Trustee of the Scottish Refugee Council.
Carol Adams
Commissioner
Carol Adams sadly passed away in January 2007. To read the CRE's tribute, please click here.
Carol Adams is the first Chief Executive of the General Teaching Council for England, which was established in September 2000 as the professional body for teaching. Before this she was Director of Education for ten years in Wolverhampton and then in Shropshire.
Carol taught in inner London secondary schools for a number of years and held senior posts of responsibility for equal opportunities in London and in Haringey. She has published materials for the classroom in collaboration with colleagues and has served on national education advisory bodies.
The GTC works to support teachers in promoting race equality in schools by building teacher networks and supporting and disseminating effective practice.
Khurshid Ahmed
Commissioner
Khurshid is chair of the British Muslim Forum and the Dudley Muslim Association. He also chairs the Local Strategic Partnership in Dudley and is a director of the Black Country Association.
He has previously held positions as chair of the National Association of British Pakistanis, general secretary of the Pakistani Students Federation and as a member of the executive of the Standing Conference of Pakistani Organisations. He was previously a non-executive director of the Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Trust, and before that was assistant chief executive at Birmingham City Council.
Khurshid is a member of the Attorney General's Advisory Group and the Preventing Extremism Together Task Force, which was set up following the July 2005 bombings in London. He also served on the official enquiry into the Danall disturbances in Sheffield in 1995/6. A member of the Labour Party since 1968, Khurshid has previously chaired the Dudley North constituency Labour Party.
Yaseer Ahmed
Commissioner
Yaseer is Managing Director of Pearl Commercial Investments Ltd, a strategic independent advisor on the Race Independent Advisory Group to the Greater Manchester Police Authority, and a Non-Executive Director at the Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust. His appointment as a CRE commissioner was made in November 2006.
An ardent believer in voluntary and community work, Yaseer is Vice Chair at the Bolton Council for Voluntary Services. He also chairs a number of organisations ranging from entrepreneurial networks to bodies providing opportunities for young people from ethnic minorities to engage in mainstream sport.
Mohammed Aziz
Commissioner
Mohammed is the founding Chief Executive Officer of the Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism and the British Muslim Research Centre. His appointment as a CRE commissioner was made in January 2004. He has also been a commissioner for the Equal Opportunities Commission since April 2005.
He completed his LLB (Hons) and LLM at UCL, University of London and was called to the Bar by the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn in 1996. He has worked as a youth and community worker, research assistant and health advocacy officer, education social worker, schoolteacher and FE college lecturer, local government lawyer and policy/project development officer.
Presently a director of FaithWise Ltd, Mohammed is an advisor to the Muslim Council of Britain. He is also a member of the government's steering group on the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, a board member of the European Network against Racism (ENAR), a Council Member of Liberty and trustee of several voluntary sector organisations including the East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre. Mohammed also sits on two Honours Committees - the State and CVLS Committees.
Mohammed specialises in religious discrimination and provides specialist advise in this area to various government departments and statutory agencies.
Sir Colin Budd
Commissioner
Sir Colin Budd is a retired member of HM Diplomatic Service, in which he served 38 years, including two spells as Private Secretary to a Cabinet Minister and another two in the Cabinet Office.
He was HM Ambassador to the Netherlands between 2001 and 2005 and Deputy Under Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office between 1997 and 2001.
Julia Chain
Commissioner
Julia was appointed as a CRE commissioner in January 2004. She is the managing director of the Kite Consultancy Limited, which provides strategic and operational advice to law firms and in-house legal departments.
Julia read anthropology and law at Girton College, Cambridge and qualified as a solicitor at Herbert Smith in 1984 after spending two years in New York at Shearman and Sterling. After practicing as a lawyer specializing in corporate affairs, Julia became a managing partner of Garretts, the first inter-disciplinary law firm set up by the accountin firm Andersens. In 1998, Julia joined the board of T-Mobile as General Counsel where she remained until 2004.
Julia is involved in a number of charities. She is a trustee of the Jewish Association for Business Ethics which, among other things,produces courses on ethics that are taught to sixth form students throughout the country. Julia is also a member of the Academic Counsel of BPP Professional Education plc, the UK's leading training organization for lawyers.
Julia is a member of the Board of Management of Golders Green Synagogue in north London.
Jane Codona
Commissioner
A Romany Gypsy by birth, Jane has spent a large part of her life travelling around the UK with her family.
Jane is employed by the children's rights charity Ormiston as the manager of Norfolk Travellers Initiative Project, and works to support members of the Gypsy & Traveller community through providing advocacy services.
She is also a member of many national and international organisations dealing with human rights and equality in general, and specifically issues relevant to Gypsies and Irish Traveller issues, including the National Travellers' Action Group (NTAG), One Voice, and the Metropolitan Police's Gypsy and Traveller Advisory Group.
Jane has also been involved in policy development and worked with government at both central and local levels. She has been a member and Substitute delegate representing women on the European Roma & Travellers Forum and the International Roma Women's Network, where she campaigned to help raise the profile of Gypsy women in politics, to promote equality for women.
Jane mentors young people from the Gypsy and Irish Traveller communities on issues relating to policy development, consultation, human rights, diversity training, and the preservation of Gypsya nd Irish Traveller culture, history and lifestyle.
Reverend Aled Edwards
Commissioner
Rev Edwards is chief Executive Officer of CYTÛN (Churches Together in Wales). He was appointed as the CRE's Wales commissioner in October 2006.
Aled comes from the predominantly Welsh-speaking community of Trawsfynydd in north Wales. He read history and theology at Saint David's University College Lampeter. Following his ordination in 1979, he served a number of Anglican parishes in north and south Wales. He worked as CYTÛN's National Assembly Liaison Officer between 1999 and 2006, and has written extensively on Welsh devolution both in Welsh and English.
Aled chaired the Welsh Refugee Council’s Board of Trustees in 2005-6 and helped set up the pioneering WARD refugee doctor training scheme in 2003 as chair of Displaced People in Action. He was awarded an OBE in June 2006 for his services to charities in Wales.
Dilwar Hussain
Commissioner
Dilwar is Head of the Policy Research Unit and Senior Research Fellow at the Islamic Foundation, Leicester. He currently teaches a post-graduate course on Islam in Europe and his primary research interests are citizenship, Muslim communities in Britain and Europe, and British Muslim identity.
He has worked in academic research and policy consultancy for the last ten years, and is an advisory editor to the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World.
He has served on the Archbishop of Canterbury's Commission on Urban Life and Faith (2004 to 2006), worked on the Preventing Extremism Together workgroups set up by the Home Office after the events of 7 July 2005, and is co-Chair of Alif-Aleph UK, a network which brings together British Jews and Muslims. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Foundation of St. Katharine's Contextual Theology Centre, London and a Fellow of the Citizen Organising Foundation.
His recent publications include 'Can Islam Make us British?' in Madeleine Bunting's Islam, Race and Being British in 2005, British Muslims between Assimilation and Segregation (co-author) in 2004, and British Muslims: Loyalty and Belonging (co-editor) in 2003.
Sir Dexter Hutt
Commissioner
Dexter was appointed as a CRE commissioner in April 2004.
He was educated in Guyana and England and graduated with a Social Sciences degree from Birmingham University. After leaving university, he taught in Handsworth and Coventry before taking up the Headship of Ninestiles School in Birmingham in 1988. Ninestiles has progressed from being a failing school to one of the country's leading schools and Dexter has received a knighthood for services to education. He is heavily involved in school improvement both locally and with the DfES.
He is now Executive Headteacher of the Ninestiles Federation of Schools - Ninestiles, Waverley and The International School - and Chief Executive of Ninestiles Plus, a company which provides training and consultancy in the field of school improvement.
Uzo Iwobi
Commissioner
Originally from Nigeria, Mrs Uzo Iwobi holds a law degree from the University of Nigeria, where she qualified as a solicitor and a barrister and was called to the Nigerian Bar.
After moving to Wales, where she now lives with her husband and two children, she took up the post of Lecturer in Law at the Swansea Law School, Swansea Institute of Higher Education, where she taught a range of law subjects including anti-discrimination legislation for nine years. She delivers diversity training to a variety of public and private sector organisations on all equality strands, as well as multicultural diversity.
In 1998, Uzo set up the first multicultural gospel choir in Wales. Five years later, she obtained a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) with Distinction from the University of Wales.
In 2004, she joined South Wales Police as a Race and Diversity Trainer. In the same year she founded the very first African Community Centre in Wales and continues to chair this organisation.
In November 2005, Uzo was appointed to the Police National Diversity Team (PNDT) based at the Home Office to represent the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) on the tripartite partnership including the Home Office and the Police Authority (APA), tasked with developing national policies on race relations and diversity. Uzo now works as a Principal Equality and Diversity Officer for South Wales Police.
In 2006, Uzo's work within the community was recognised and commended when she was given the Swansea Bay Woman of the Year (Community Achievement) Award.
She sits on the boards of several voluntary organisations and provides support and guidance to various organisations on a voluntary basis.
Sir Digby Jones
Commissioner
Sir Digby has been the Director-General of the CBI since January 2000. After some time in the Royal Navy, he started his career in law and specialised in corporate finance, becoming Senior Partner at Edge & Ellison in 1995 before moving to KPMG as Vice-Chairman of corporate finance in 1998. Some of his many roles outside the CBI include non-executive Directorships of Alba plc and Leicester Tigers Rugby Club, and membership of the National Learning and Skills Council. He is also involved in a wide range of charitable activities and is Vice-President of UNICEF.
Gloria Mills
Commissioner
Gloria is a former President of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), and, following her election in September 2005, became the first black woman to hold the post. She has been on the TUC Executive Committee since 2000 and the General Council since 1994.
Gloria serves on the European TUC and Womens Committee and the Employment Appeals Tribunal, and chairs the Race Relations Committee.
Gloria's early career was spent in law publishing. She held various elected positions in the print unions NATSOPA and SOGAT. She also worked for the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) as a regional officer responsible for industrial relations, collective bargaining, organisation and representation. In 1987, she was promoted to senior national officer. She pioneered campaigns on equal rights including issues on women, race, disability, lesbian and rights, black workers, immigration and asylum and the EC Article 13 Directives.
Gloria has played a key role in developing the implementation strategy for the Stephen Lawrence Action plan and Race Relations (Amendment) Act and Article 13.
In 1993, following the merger of NUPE, NALGO, and COHSE, she was appointed Director of Equal Opportunities of the combined new organisation, UNISON. This involved managing the Unions Equal Opportunities Department and its strategic policies, programmes and campaigns. She has written articles and publications on equality and is a specialist practitioner in race, employment, and equal pay.
Gloria was awarded the MBE in 1999 for services to the trade union movement, and the CBE in 2005 for her contribution to equal opportunities.
