In the frame - Deirdre Kelly, Christine Braddock, Mohammed Naseem, Tim Watts, Stuart Griffiths and Bishop Joe Aldred
Jun 9 2009 Power 50
Deirdre Kelly
The director of the liver unit at Birmingham Children’s Hospital was born and brought up in Calcutta, India, while her father was working for Lipton’s Tea. She had the idea for the liver unit, which she set up in 1989, while working at the university of Nebraska in Omaha, USA, where she had to care for children undergoing liver transplants The unit turned into a huge success and is one of the busiest paediatric liver transplant programmes, with survival rates of more than 90 per cent.
Christine Braddock
The principal of Sutton Coldfield and Matthew Boulton colleges, Ms Braddock is one of the country’s most respected educationalists.
In 1998, she was appointed to head Matthew Boulton College which, at the time, was struggling with debts of nearly £4 million.
Its fortunes have since turned round and one of Ms Braddock’s biggest achievement was to secure funding for Matthew Boulton College to move from its former dilapidated premises to a new £40million building in Eastside.
Mohammed Naseem
The 84-year-old chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque is one of Birmingham’s most outspoken Muslim leaders and is often on the national stage.
A former Aston GP, he has been a vocal champion of Islamic integration into British society, and led the way in promoting what he believes is the true peaceful message of Islam by opening the mosque to people of all faiths without restrictions.
Tim Watts
Last year, Tim Watts said he had reached the culmination of his 40-year career in the recruitment sector when he became chief executive of Network Group, the parent company of the restructured Pertemps Group, the family business he joined in 1970.
Mr Watts, who actively supports education, the arts, sport and charities and who is a trustee of numerous institutions, saw Pertemps achieve a turnover of £400 million and win a host of awards. Pertemps was named as one of the UK’s most visionary companies and Mr Watts was pinpointed as one of the Midlands’ most powerful figures.
Stuart Griffiths
Chief executive of Birmingham Hippodrome since 2002, Mr Griffiths took over a theatre which had just emerged from a £40 million redevelopment as one of the best-equipped theatre complexes in Europe, but with financial problems arising from the unexpectedly protracted period of closure. As well as successfully repairing the Hippodrome’s finances, he has gone on to build on his previous work at the Swan to develop an international contemporary dance programme.
Bishop Joe Aldred
A bishop in the Church of God of Prophecy in Aston, the third largest black Pentecostal church in Britain, since 1989, Joe Aldred is also chairman of the Council of Black Led Churches and secretary of the Minority Ethnic Christian Affairs for Churches Together in England.
He is not afraid to make his views - and the views of the community he represents - known, and he has been vocal on a number of key issues.
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Power 50 - In the frame this year:
> Faraz Yousufzai, Sarah Gee, Richard Riley, Gurjeet Kaur Bains, Jemima Prasadam, David Waller
> Digby Jones, Michael Lyons, Suzie Norton, Mike Whitby, Joan Blaney
> Andrew Mitchell, Paul Bassi, Salma Yaqoob, Paul Tilsley, Clive Dutton, Jon Bounds
> Liam Byrne, Lord Bhattacharyya, Julia King, Alan Chatham, Paul Thandi
> Ammo Talwar, David Cragg, Glenn Howells, David Bintley, Graham Vick, Soweto Kinch, Sandra Hall
> Jerry Blackett, Johnnie Turpie, Ronnie Bowker, Gary Taylor, Ranjit Sondi, Parminder Singh Jutla
> Julie Moore, Dorothy Wilson, Derek Webley, Steve Dyson, Albert Bore, Ian Squires
