sPONSORS

Dr Mohammed Ali OBE is the founder and chief executive of the QED Foundation. Dr Ali has worked in ethnic minority community development for over 40 years, in the UK and Europe. He is a social entrepreneur, pioneering and developing new ways of addressing the social and economic challenges facing ethnic minority communities. He worked in newly-created roles with Glaxo Pharmaceuticals, Bradford Community Relations Council, Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council, Sheffield City Council and Fullemploy, a London-based ethnic minority social and economic development agency, before setting up the QED Foundation in 1990. QED is a leading national charity which has directly supported 40,000 people and, indirectly, many more, by training and advising senior managers in the public, private and the third sectors in recruiting, retaining and developing an ethnically-diverse workforce. In four decades he has served on numerous public, private and voluntary sector boards and committees, including for the NHS, Home Office, DWP, IOD, EU, ACEVO, Bradford University and York St John University. He has won many accolades for his work including an honorary doctorate from the University of Bradford in 1997 and the OBE in 2001.

Adeeba Malik is the Deputy Chief Executive of QED. Born in Bradford to immigrant parents, she has been with the organisation for 33 years. Previously she was a teacher in Hull and Bradford. In addition to her role at QED, she has held numerous roles on various boards in Bradford, Yorkshire, and nationally. These include Yorkshire Forward, Spirit of Bradford, Northern Ballet, British Waterways, Women and Work Commission, Lapage Primary School, National Ethnic Minority Business Forum, National Clinical Assessment Authority, The Waterways Trust, Sheffield Hallam University, Green Deal Advisory Board and the National Muslim Women’s Advisory Board, the Race Disparity Audit Advisory Group at the Cabinet Office, Trustee of Carers Resource and Poverty Alleviation Scholarships. Currently she is Member of a State Honours Committee, Home Office Race Strategic Board, FCDO UK – PAK Advisory Board and Director of Bradford 2025. She was the High Sheriff of West Yorkshire 2024 – 2025. Adeeba has won many accolades for her work over the years, and was awarded the MBE in 2004 and the CBE in 2015.

Rob has been Chief Operating Officer at York St John University since 2016, and a YAYA judge since the first awards in 2020. He is a member of the University’s Executive Board and responsible for professional services teams spanning finance; Human Resources; IT and digital; estates and campus management; marketing, student recruitment and admissions; strategy and projects; and sports.

Prior to moving into his current role, Rob worked in both economic development and project management consulting for GVA, Deloitte and PwC, and in business transformation in the rail industry for Network Rail. He holds degrees from Lancaster University, the London School of Economics, the University of Leeds, and the University of Bath, and his research interests and publications are mainly in the areas of the financial sustainability and diversification of Higher Education. Rob is also a Chartered Surveyor. A season ticket holder at Newcastle United and an avid cricket fanatic, Rob can be found most weekends rambling around in the Yorkshire Dales or coast with his dog. Whilst not born in the county, Rob has been an adopted Yorkshireman for the past 14 years.

Jo Quinton-Tulloch became the director of the National Science and Media Museum in 2013. Her 27 years in museums started in the Learning Team at the Science Museum. She has delivered world class galleries and exhibitions, including as part of the team that created and launched the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. Jo’s focus in Bradford has been to forge new sustainable partnerships which reposition the Museum as a STEM learning centre of excellence. Jo led a major relaunch of the renamed and rebranded NSMM in 2017. Jo has an honours degree in Biological Sciences from the University of East Anglia; a Masters in Science Communication from Imperial College and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Bradford. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts; a Member of the University of Bradford Council; a Board Member for: The UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres; the National Coal Mining Museum for England (ex officio); and on the Advisory Board for the National Videogame Museum.