AWARDS
Meet Teesside’s
BME business stars
The annual Tees Valley BME
Achievement Awards champion
minority ethnic talent from our region
including businesses and business
leaders from the black, Asian and
minority ethnic community.
The awards are hosted by Halo Project boss Yasmin Khan,
who was last year joined by her fellow advisor to the Welsh
government, top barrister Nazir Afzal OBE, who as chief crown
prosecutor hit the headlines for helping to prosecute the
Rochdale sex trafficking gang.
As with many events, the 2020 BME Awards look set to
lose out to Covid, but here we look back on just a few of the
impressive business winners from years gone by.
DR RASHPAL SINGH
An internationally registered cosmetic
specialist, Dr Singh has spent years
mastering the art of non-surgical facial
rejuvenation.
A graduate of Newcastle University,
Middlesbrough-born Dr Singh now runs
Linthorpe-based DRS Medispa, where he
specialises in facial contouring, volume replacement
and skincare.
Earlier this year, he was one of only four UK specialists
selected for mentoring by one of the world’s leading
cosmetic surgeons, Mauricio de Maio. DRS was Tees Valley’s
BME Business of the Year in 2018.
RANJEET KHANDA
Middlesbrough-born Ranjeet is the
owner of groundbreaking online
dispensary Linthorpe Pharmacy,
whose bespoke prescription
service is headquartered on the
town’s Riverside Park.
Discovering a local gap in the market,
fully-qualified pharmacist Ranjeet – a graduate of Sunderland
University – launched a delivery-only service early last year.
JAVED MAJID
Pakistan-born Javed was the visionary behind
two of Teesside’s most famous nightclubs of
the past, Tall Trees and The Mall. Through
his business, Maher Entertainments, he spent
£3m transforming Stockton High Street’s
derelict Odeon cinema into The Mall, voted
the UK’s Best Discotheque for three successive
years between 1988 and 1990.
Javed, who was also a hugely successful property
developer, is still working and leading overseas charity
projects.
RAJ SINGH
One of Teesside’s best-known
businesspeople, Raj Singh’s
empire includes care facilities,
a construction firm and
investment properties across
the UK – and yet it all began with
a small Redcar off licence.
Last year Raj spoke with pride about
his plans to further expand his Prestige Care
Group. After 25 years in the care business, he
employed nearly 500 professional staff across five
Tees Valley care centres.
Raj is also well known as the former owner of
Darlington Football Club and current owner of
Hartlepool United FC.
AMANDA ADEOLA
Amanda was named Woman
of the Year in last year’s
BME Awards just 18 months
after joining Tees firm BHP
Law as an associate.
Having moved to England
from her native Nigeria as
a teenager, she was made a
partner by the firm after further
enhancing her reputation for her work in family law.
Amanda works to inspire the legal profession
to open up opportunities for the next generation
of lawyers and is helping to kick-start the careers
of aspiring professionals through a new network
for law students, graduates, trainees and newlyqualified
solicitors.
She is also regional representative of the North
East Women Lawyers and Mothers Network, which
seeks to inspire female lawyers and other
senior professionals who are mums.
And here’s
someone who
hasn’t yet
won a BME
Achievement
Award but
perhaps
should have…
SHAB MEHDI
Born in Pakistan, made in Middlesbrough. Born in Kashmir, Shab’s parents moved to
England in the early 1950s and he was raised in North Ormesby.
He helped run family firm Boro Electronics before setting up his own store, MSV, on
Middlesbrough’s Borough Road and later a megastore on Stockton’s Portrack Lane.
He then built a successful Middlesbrough-based sports apparel and merchandise
company, MSV Sport, whose customers included football clubs Atletico Madrid, Stuttgart, Basel,
Feyenoord, Tottenham, West Ham United, Bournemouth, Watford, Norwich City – and his beloved Boro.
The Tees Valley BME Awards team is planning a future event. Find out more at bmeawards.co.uk
The voice of business in the Tees region | 31