Tees Business Tees Business Issue 18 | Page 21

Serving the Teesside Business Community | 21 Speaker – Yasmin Khan will be the guest speaker for the 2019 Tees Businesswomen Awards event at Wynyard Hall on October 24. “I feel privileged to have a role where change can be affected. That’s my absolute goal.” Yasmin received the Inspiring Others Award from Nicola Duffey of category sponsors SABIC at the inaugural Tees Businesswomen Awards. She enjoys cooking, going to the gym and, she laughs, “organising events”. She also likes travel and has plans to visit the Far East. She has, she says, a fantastic network of family and friends who support her and that philosophy is one she carries through to her professional life. “I feel like and honorary Teessider now,” she laughs. “I have a fantastic network of support, family and friends, and that’s come from the Tees Valley. It has been a brilliant learning curve for me, I’m the type of person that needs to be learning - that’s what help me develop as a person.” She loves the part of her job that takes her to Wales as national advisor to the government on equality and diversity issues. “I feel privileged to have a role where change can be affected. That’s my absolute goal.” And going forward? Halo aims to grow, she says, and to expand the vital services it offers as well as looking at ways it can be more business focussed. Personally she wants to continue the work she does in government, helping ministers provide for the potential she sees in business, services and people every day. There is a can-do attitude in the North- East and she aims to spread that message too. “Why not us?” says Yasmin. “We have fantastic talent. “I want to make sure those groups that need it have a voice. That every single person has an opportunity to be safe, to reach their potential and to have hope.” *BBC Radio presenter Charlie Charlton will host the 2019 Tees Businesswomen Awards, which has again been sponsored by Northern Skills Group, the training and apprenticeship arm of Middlesbrough College. It takes place on Thursday, October 24, 2019 in the Grand Marquee at Wynyard Hall. Visit teesbusiness.co.uk for details on how to enter.