Waqar Azmi

Waqar Azmi, OBE, is the current chairman & managing partner of Waterhouse Consulting Group, a multi-disciplinary management consultancy firm based in Birmingham. He is also listed in the Asian Power 100 list of the most influential Asians in the UK.

Life and career

Waqar Azmi grew up with his family in Uttar Pradesh, India, and moved to the UK at the age of 13, speaking no English when he arrived. He attended the University of Central Lancashire, graduating in 1993 with a degree in Politics and Social Policy. During his time as an undergraduate, Waqar helped set up and teach an Urdu language course at the University while still studying for his own degree.

He has worked as the UK director of equality & diversity practice at TMP Worldwide and played a key role in the creation of the British Federation of Racial Equality Councils, a national British body of racial equality councils and partnerships, which now represents over 100 councils across the UK.

In October 2004 he was appointed by the Home Secretary to the role of Chief Diversity Adviser at the Cabinet Office, his task was to improve the representation of women, ethnic minorities and disabled people at senior levels in Whitehall..

Waqar has been involved in several high-profile public inquiries in the UK. In 2004 he was invited by the then Home Secretary, David Blunkett, to sit on the judicial public inquiry into the murder of Zahid Mubarek, a British Asian teenager who was murdered by his cellmate on March 21, 2000, at the Feltham Young Offenders' Institution in southwest London . He was also a member of the Oldham Riots Inquiry, chaired by David Ritchie, which was set up to investigate the riots that occurred in May 2001. He was an open critic of the inquiry, claiming that under government pressure the inquiry was steered towards language and citizenship, instead of the growing influence of far-right groups such as the British National Party (BNP).

Awards and honorary degrees

Waqar Azmi received an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2002 at the age of 32 by Her Majesty the Queen in recognition of his major contributions to equality and diversity in the UK and in 2003 he was awarded Britain’s Young Asian Achievers Award by the Institute of Asian Professionals at the Asian Jewels Awards .

In 2001 Waqar was awarded an Honorary Masters Degree by the University of Worcester and in 2004 he was awarded an honorary FRSA from the Royal Society of Arts. In 2006 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by Southampton Solent University , later that year, the University of Central Lancashire awarded him an honorary fellowship.