Lord Bilimoria is President of the CBI. Lord Karan Bilimoria CBE, DL is the founder of Cobra Beer, Chairman of the Cobra Beer Partnership Limited, a Joint Venture with Molson Coors, and Chairman of Molson Coors Cobra India. Lord Bilimoria is the Founding Chairman of the UK India Business Council, a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London, Chancellor of the University of Birmingham, and a former Chancellor of Thames Valley University (now the University of West London) - the youngest University Chancellor in the UK when appointed. Karan was a former Senior Non-Executive Director of the Booker Group now TESCO PLC (2007-2016); he is one of the first two visiting entrepreneurs at the University of Cambridge; and a founding member of the Prime Minister of India’s Global Advisory Council. In 2006, Karan was appointed the Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea, making him the first ever Zoroastrian Parsi to sit in the House of Lords. In 2008 he was awarded the Pravasi Bharti Samman by the President of India. He is an honorary fellow of Sidney Sussex College Cambridge and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Judge Business School, Cambridge University. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young and graduated in law from the University of Cambridge. He is also an alumnus through executive education of the Cranfield School of Management, London Business School and Harvard Business School. In July 2014, he was installed as the seventh Chancellor of the University of Birmingham, making him the first Indian-born Chancellor of a Russell Group University in Great Britain. Karan is also the President of the UK Council for International Students Affairs (UKCISA). Since 2017 Lord Bilimoria has been a Bynum Tudor Fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford.
Cherie Blair, Founder Cherie Blair Foundation for Women Leading Queen’s Counsel, wife of the former British Prime Minister and committed campaigner for women’s rights, Cherie Blair CBE QC set up the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women in 2008 to help women build small and growing businesses in low and middle income countries so that they can contribute to their economies and have a stronger voice in their societies.
Cherie is actively involved in the Foundation, generously and tirelessly giving her time and resources to ensure its success. Travelling internationally to visiting projects, donors and attend conferences, our founder is an ambassador for women entrepreneurs everywhere, encouraging other non-profits, corporations and governments to do more to support women business owners. Cherie was awarded a CBE in the 2013 New Year’s Honours List for services to women’s issues and to charities in both the UK and overseas.
Shamin Lalji
Shamin Lalji has spent more than 45 years dedicating her time to Canadian and International charities. In particular, she has a passion for improving the lives of women and children. From an early age, Shamin was involved in assisting marginalised women in Vancouver. She has a strong desire to assist women and their families to move out of poverty through education, skill development and increased financial independence. Shamin has had an interesting and varied career, she has worked for the British Columbia Development Corporation and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, in addition she has been a Commissioner, West Vancouver, B.C. assisting the West Vancouver Mayor and Council. Shamin has also been involved in many organisation at board level including the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation Board, India Music Society, Vancouver Playhouse, The CHILD Foundation (Vancouver), Kinsmen’s Rehabilitation Foundation, Ismaili Women’s Organisation and the North Shore Battered Women’s Organization to name but a few. In 1999 Shamin became a Trustee of The Loomba Foundation, The Foundations helps to educate children of poor widows in India and in many countries globally. The Foundation also empowers widows by providing them with sewing machines and garment sewing training. The Foundation was recognised as a United Nations accredited global charity in 2011 with June 23rd being declared as International Widows’ Day.
Raj Loomba CBE
- Founder and Chairman Trustee, The Loomba Foundation
Lord Raj Loomba CBE, Philanthropist, Founder and Chairman of The Loomba Group of Companies and member of the House of Lords, began his journey in a small Punjabi village in India. When his father passed away, leaving his mother a widow, life changed dramatically for Raj and his six siblings as they experienced first-hand the prejudice and suffering faced by his mother, ultimately providing the impetus for The Loomba Foundation. Using her late husband’s funds Pushpa was able to educate all her children and sent Raj to America to study at the University of Iowa. He arrived in London in 1962 with nothing but a strong work ethic. Under the guidance of his uncle in Wigan, he started trading on a market stall in Widnes, near Liverpool. In 1964, he married Veena, with whom he had two daughters, Reeta and Roma, and one son, Rakesh. Over the next 25 years Raj grew his business into a successful London based clothing company, supported by his wife. In 1997, Raj’s journey took a new turn with the founding of The Loomba Foundation in his mother’s memory. The Foundation is dedicated to the cause of alleviating the suffering and discrimination of widows in the developing world. In 2008, in recognition of his contribution to society, Loomba was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE). In 2011 Loomba was elevated to the House of Lords, as a Life Peer. Over the past two decades Raj has devoted his life to advocate and improve the lives of widows and their children around the world.
Carolyn Moor
Carolyn Moor is the President, Founder and Development Director of Modern Widows Club. Widowed on Valentine’s Day 2000 and with two young daughters to raise solo. Carolyn struggled to find the mentors she needed to model the healing and growth she desperately sought in the stage of widowhood. This ultimately led to the founding of Modern Widows Club in Carolyn’s very own living room in 2011.
Carolyn is a TEDxOakland speaker and bereavement consultant. She has participated in the UN Women Commission on the Status of Women, the Global Leadership Network, and she has been featured as a model of resilience in the Wall Street Journal, the Oprah Winfrey Show and numerous other women’s health media broadcasts. Her work on behalf of widows is recognized nationally and internationally. She is honoured to represent widows around the world.
Carolyn is the host of the Healthy Widow Healthy Woman Podcast and curriculum developer at the Widow Empowerment School of Thought. Her latest interview with the WOW Factor Leadership Podcast shares more of her story.
Abhi Naha
- Digital Accelerator Director, PwC UK
Abhi Naha is the Digital Accelerator Director at PwC. He is creating and leading a new tech division for PwC. The Digital Accelerator solves innovation challenges using the power of scale ups and ecosystems for greater insights, impact and value creation.
Abhi was the CCO of CW Cambridge Wireless and CEO of the Product as a Service Consortium. At CW, Abhi initiated and lead on the 5G private network testbed in Cambridge, corporate digital innovation accelerators and high value collaborations.
Abhi was the CEO and Founder of Zone V a Cambridge start up backed by Qualcomm and ARM focused on empowering people with aging eyes and visually impairment through inclusively designed smartphone software. He held senior roles at Powermat, San Jose based Synaptics and advisory roles for Goldman Sachs and Silver Lake in the area of mobile user interface technologies. Abhi is a senior advisor to an autonomous vehicle mobility scale up Conigital, Industry Partner (Digital Infrastructure) for Arjun Infrastructure Partners with 5 Billion Euros of assets under management and an Ambassador for the United Nations Global Sustainability Index Institute. Abhi studied Electronics and Electrical Engineering, has an MBA in International Marketing and authored a book on Mobile Handset Design when approached by Cambridge University Press. More recently Abhi has created an initiative to help train widows in developing countries learn python programming, gain financial empowerment and become future leaders.
Eleanor Nwadinobi
Dr Nwadinobi is a medical doctor and international health, women peace and security, gender and human rights expert. She holds a European Union masters in Human rights and Democratisation (EMA) from Venice, Italy.
As President of the Widows Development Organisation, Dr Nwadinobi joined in advocating for the law protecting widows in Enugu State, the Violence Against Persons Prohibition(VAPP) Act at Federal level and most recently Abia State VAPP act.
She is currently the International President of the Medical Women's International Association (MWIA).
She is founding Co-Chair of the Every Woman Treaty, coalition advocation for a global Treaty to end violence against women and girls (VAWG).
Dr Nwadinobi sits on the boards of several National and International Organisations. She has authored several publications and received numerous awards of merit. Her personal profile is featured in Friedrich Ebert Stiftung publication, “The hands that build Nigeria: Nigerian women role models”.
Charles Ocici
Charles has over 20 years of micro, small and medium enterprise development; in Uganda and the rest of Africa. He is a widely respected and notable speaker at international conferences organized by the UN, the World Bank, the British Council and an acknowledged authority on Private Sector issues in Africa and has featured on CNN, BBC and leading local media houses. Charles is the Founding Executive Director of Enterprise Uganda, the country’s premier enterprise and business management institution. In 2009 he was an award winner under the annual ‘British Most Influential Alumni’. He was the First President of Enterprise Africa, a 14-member umbrella body of Enterprise Development Institutions in Africa. In 2009 Charles was declared one of the 6 Ugandan National Heroes by readers of the New Vision, one of Uganda’s leading media houses. Charles holds board directorships in banking, education, and NGO sectors; he also holds an MBA as well as MSC in Investment Analysis from the UK.
Rosaline Orwa
Roseline Orwa is an award-winning advocate for widows, and a campaigner for cultural, social and policy change around the inequalities and stigma that widows face. She was widowed aged 32, when her husband was killed in post-election violence. Like many Kenyan women, she had to face “sexual cleansing” in order to be able to return to day-to-day life. In 2008, she founded the Rona Foundation, an acclaimed non-profit organisation that supports and champions the rights of widows across Kenya. It offers social, economic and leadership training to widows and schoolgirls, and also works with male champions to change harmful traditional practices around widowhood. Roseline is a Commissioned Expert with Kenya’s Ministry of Labour and Social Services, and has served as a widows’ rights consultant for numerous local, national and global civil organisations. She is an Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity at the London School of Economics, a 2021 Aspen New Voices Fellow, and a global leader with Modern Widows Club (USA). In 2021, she addressed the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women CSW65 conference, in which she called for global action on the rights of widows during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond, and spoke to a Cornell Law School audience on the role of activism in transformative lawmaking. She was invited to address the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) at the 38th Human Rights Council session in 2018, and that same year she spoke via video link on “The Forgotten Plight of Women of All Ages – How Europe can Impact” to a session of the European Parliament in Brussels. A life skills coach and a mentor whose work is replicated across Kenya, Roseline holds a non-graduate degree in public relations and communication from Daystar University, a diploma in printing and graphic design from the Technical University of Kenya, and a diploma in project management and innovation. Roseline is a childless mother to 26 orphaned children. In her work with the Rona Foundation, she leads a centre in rural Kenya that supports widows and orphans.
Peter Rajsingh has been involved with the Loomba Foundation since its first event at the United Nations in New York on October 21, 2005, at the UNA-NY UN Day Gala celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the UN with then Secretary-General Kofi Annan in attendance. At the time Peter was President of UNA-NY and he continues to serve on the UNA-NY Board, as well as being a Trustee of the Loomba Foundation.
He works in alternative asset management and also teaches at various universities including New York University where he has lectured since 1991. He is on the boards of a number of charities and private companies and splits his time between the United States and Europe.
Shoury Reddy
Singareddy Shoury Reddy is the Executive Director of Bala Vikasa Social Service Society, an internationally reputed non-profit community development organization, which has impacted the lives of over 6 million rural poor in 6500 villages spread across 6 states of India through various innovative community empowerment initiatives. Shoury Reddy holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work and also a Diploma in Community Development from St. F.X. University, Canada. He has worked with Bala Vikasa since its inception in 1991 and has played a key role in making Bala Vikasa a globally influencing organization. Over the past 32 years of working passionately with Bala Vikasa, he has innovated some of the best community development project models in the country which have gone on to inspire not just NGOs and social workers but also governments at both state and national level. He has been a strong advocate for widows’ rights and has been leading a social movement against widow discrimination in the two Telugu states involving students, religious leaders, poets, journalists, opinion leaders, lawmakers, and the civil society at large through seminars, conventions, and awareness campaigns. Under his leadership, Bala Vikasa has worked steadfastly with over 15,000 widows helping them with intellectual, social, legal and financial aid. He is the architect of two Mega Conventions with 10,000+ and 15000+ widows where four key demands were made to the Governments on behalf of the widows, the latter event made its way into the Limca Book of records for the same.
Rose Sarwatt
Founder/Executive Director, Tanzania Widows Association. TAWIA. Widows Rights Activist.
Harjiv Singh
Harjiv is an entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in building and scaling companies globally, Harjiv is the founder and CEO of Gutenberg a global digital marketing agency. He has also founded BrainGain Global, a technology-enabled international higher education marketplace for content, tools and programs. He has a keen interest in international higher education, experiential learning technology, international relations, economics, history, and the impact of globalization. He is an Executive Fellow at Cambridge University, Independent Director, Indag Rubber Ltd., Trustee of The Loomba Foundation and on the Advisory Council of American India Foundation (AIF). Harjiv is an alumunus of Stanford Graduate Business School’s SEED program. He received his Master’s in International Affairs in Economic Policy from Columbia University and an MBA and a bachelor’s degree in finance from New York Institute of Technology.
Lily Thapa
Lily Thapa pioneered to establish an organization which solely focuses on the issue of widows. She is the founding president of Women for Human Rights (WHR) that has been working for the social, political, economic and legal rights of widows in Nepal and in South Asia for the past 25 years. Through WHR, her advocacy has changed government policy, and has succeeded to mainstream the issue of widows into the government agenda and to change many discriminatory legal policies from country code of Nepal. She continues to raise pertinent issues concerning the rights of women at the national and international level. She was also the General Secretary for the South Asian Network for Widow’s Empowerment in Development, (SANWED) where she actively lobbied various issues pertaining to women and widows across South Asia. Since 2016 she has been a Think Tank member in the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizen. Lily also serves as President in a women’s alliance for peace, power and participation - Sankalpa since 2018. Her efforts have been recognized by numerous national and international awards, including the 2019 Jan Sewa Padak (2nd) and 2013 Jan Sewa Padak (3rd) from the President of Nepal on her work towards women empowerment. In 2019 she was awarded the International Human Rights Award by the International Human Rights Council. She is also nominated as Woman Manager of the Year by Management Association of Nepal for her leadership to organize single women groups all over the country. By profession Lily is a Lecturer in the University of Nepal teaching Sociology and Gender and currently appointed as Honorary Member of the National Human Rights Commission
