Lopa Patel

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Lopa Patel Lopa Patel.jpg
Lopa Patel

Lopa Patel, MBE, is a digital entrepreneur. [1] Her parents were shopkeepers who arrived in Britain as refugees from Kenya in the 1970s. After graduating BSc from UMIST in 1986 and pursuing a graduate traineeship at ICI, Patel took over a printing business which she developed into the database management and direct marketing company DMS Direct. [2] She went on to found Redhotcurry.com (a recipe-sharing site that developed into a South Asian lifestyle portal) and the online shopping site TheRedhotshop.com. She is also the founder and CEO of Diversity UK, a think tank that studies and promotes diversity in Britain. In 2009 she was appointed to the board of Becta (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency). [3] In 2014 she set up the online news and lifestyle publisher New Asian Post. [4]

Contents

Patel was one of eight media experts appointed to a panel to advise on a review of the BBC Charter in 2015. [5]

Awards

Patel won an Asian Woman of the Year Award in 2005 for her work as a new media entrepreneur, an achievement showcased in a Department of Work and Pensions report to Parliament on equality of opportunity. [6] In 2009 she was awarded an MBE for "services to the creative industries". [7] In 2015 she became the first Asian woman to receive the Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion. [8] She was also a finalist for Businesswoman of the Year in the English Asian Business Awards. [9]

In 2017 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by The Open University "for her exceptional contribution to diversity in the STEM sector". [10]

References

  1. ↑ Lynsey Barber, BBC charter review panel: Meet the eight people deciding the broadcaster's future, City A.M. , 12 July 2015. Accessed 22 November 2015.
  2. ↑ Andrew Bounds, "Queen’s Awards for Enterprise Promotion 2015 winners", Financial Times , April 21, 2015. Accessed 22 November 2015.
  3. ↑ "Three New Board Members for Becta and Reappointment of One Existing Member".
  4. ↑ "DueDil".
  5. ↑ Jasper Jackson, BBC Charter Review: What the panel members have said in the past, The Guardian , 12 July 2015. Accessed 22 November 2015.
  6. ↑ Department for Work and Pensions, Opportunity for all: Seventh Annual Report (Presented to Parliament, 2005), p. 91.
  7. ↑ Honours: Order of the British Empire, Civil - MBE, The Independent , 12 June 2009; updated 23 October 2011. Accessed 22 November 2015.
  8. ↑ #Honour: Lopa Patel becomes first Asian woman to receive Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion, UK Asian, 23 April 2015. Accessed 22 November 2015.
  9. ↑ High flyers are announced for the prestigious English Asian Business Awards [ permanent dead link ], Asians UK Magazine, undated. Accessed 22 November 2015.
  10. ↑ Christine Drabwell (29 September 2017). "OU honours digital entrepreneur for encouraging diversity in science and technology". The Open University.

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