It is the manifesto time, and I would like to give this paper an exclusive scoop: I am the new Chairman of the City Hindu Network. Whilst I have been on the Advisory Board for several years, I have been asked by the Chair of the Advisory Board, Lord Gadhia, to step in to lead the Executive Committee and am delighted to do so.
So here is my manifesto. I am keen to use my networks to make a high impact organisation to open doors for its membership, plus have some fun events too.
Events with Tier 1 global organisations, Parliament, Banks, UN, Embassies etc, as well as of course cultural events, and access to training on issues such as making media impact with BBC/Bloomberg Journalists, making an impact at work from experienced high calibre individuals eg CEO of OakNorth, Starling Bank, Goldman Sachs, etc.
I want the Committee to be excited at being part of such an organisation and of course the membership get something they cannot anywhere else to help their careers and open doors for them.
I want our membership to have the benefit of access to people and networks they could not normally get. We will keep of course our ‘Hindu’ aspect to all we do too – but your very presence fulfils that. I want Hindus to get higher and further thanks to CHN opening doors – and that is good for Britain too as it makes our society more representative.
I know we are low on funds, so I will work on hosts paying for the events, and work on increasing membership at www.cityhindus.org. If we have great events – people will see membership costs as a no-brainer and we will build our bank balance.
I have already reached out to experienced business people, journalists to help me and the existing Exec Committee too and all have agreed – more on that later – as part of our Committee – more hands, less work for all. I am speaking to Indian High Commission and Canadian High Commission to host drinks pre-Xmas and a separate City Drinks too for all. Will keep you posted.
We stand in custody of the oldest faith, in one of the most important cities in the world, with the leaders of tomorrow!
Britain needs more cohesion, it needs organisation to reinforce its values of multiple religions living peacefully together, and so I will look to do more events like we did in the past few months with those of other minority faiths such as the Islamic, Sikh, Jewish faiths. We will also as our former Chair, Prerna Bhardwaj did on BBC Newsnight, stand up to unjustified criticism and incorrect portrayals of our faith – using the eloquence of our qualifications.
I co-founded TiE-UK back in 1999 and I’ve brought some of my original team to help me. For me that organisation helped me build a hedge fund and changed my life. I want CHN to open doors for you and have the same potential through networks to change your life too.
My family congratulated me on this role – I’m 48! Think they’re prouder of this than anything else I’ve done. I want yours to be so proud when you tell them you’re part of CHN too.
