Dr. Waqar Azmi OBE is a prominent and respected figure. He is listed in the World's 500 Most Influential Muslims published by the Georgetown University's Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talaal Center and the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Jordan.

He is Chairman & Managing Partner of Waterhouse Consulting Group and EU Ambassador of Intercultural Dialogue (EYID). Prior to this, he was the UK Government’s Chief Diversity Adviser at the Cabinet Office. He worked at the highest levels with responsibility for driving forward Government priorities. He sits on numerous top-level boards and committees and is also listed in the Asian Power 100 list of the most influential Asians in the UK.

Before that he was managing director at one of the world’s largest recruitment & management consulting firms, TMP/Monster Worldwide.

Waqar has played a significant role in public life on a national and international scale. He was appointed by the Home Secretary to sit on the judicial public inquiry into the murder of Zahid Mubarek. Prior to that he served as a member of the Oldham Riots Inquiry, which was set up to investigate the riots that occurred in May 2001. He became the Vice-Chairman of the National Rural Race Equality Trust and Chair of the British Federation of Racial Equality Councils, which represents 100 councils in the UK.

In 2006 the Southampton Solent University conferred on him the award of Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) in recognition of his major contributions and in the same year, the University of Central Lancashire conferred on him an honorary fellowship.

In 2004 the Royal Society of Arts conferred an honorary FRSA on him and in 2003 he was awarded Britain’s Young Asian Achievers Award. He received his OBE at the age of 32 by Her Majesty the Queen in recognition of his major contributions and, in 2001 the University of Worcester awarded him an Honorary Masters Degree.

Lord Herman Ouseley

Lord Herman Ouseley is a Senior Partner at Waterhouse Consulting Group. He was previously the Executive Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (1993-2000). Before that he was a local government officer for some 30 years, serving as Chief Executive of the London Borough of Lambeth as well as the former Inner London Education Authority, where he was also previously a director of education. He held a wide variety of different positions in other authorities during that period.

Herman is actively involved with several charitable and voluntary organisations, such as being a Council Member of the Institute of Race Relations, a Trustee of The Manchester United Foundation and holds the role of Patron for several others, including the National Black Police Association and The Daneford Trust. He is currently the Chair of PRESET Education and Training Trust, KICK IT OUT (National campaign to kick racism out of football) and POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE ON AGEING AND ETHNICITY.

He is also an independent Adviser to HMRC and Council Member of the Football Association.

He was knighted in 1997 for services to local government and community relations in Great Britain. He was appointed as a member of the House of Lords in 2001 and sits on the cross-benches as an independent peer. He recently completed a three-year stint as the President of the Local Government Association (2002-2005).

Faraz Yousufzai

Faraz Yousufzai is a Senior Partner at Waterhouse Consulting Group heading up the Communication & Government Relations Division. 

A law graduate from Southampton University, Faraz is the former Head of Business Development at one of the UK’s leading regeneration companies and has had a successful cross sector career in social enterprise, regeneration, health and communications, with board level experience in operations, sales and strategy.

He has previously been Governor of two secondary schools where he led an award winning citizenship programme called Birmingham Young Citizens, an organisation he founded in 2002. Faraz is also a member of the Government’s Ethnic Minority Advisory Group, Non-executive Director at Heart of Birmingham Primary Care Trust and a columnist/blogger for the Trinity Mirror Group.

Listed in the Birmingham Power 50, Faraz is an accomplished public speaker, renowned MC and the founding Director and Presenter of the internationally acclaimed Muslim Writers Awards 2008. Hailed by the likes of Jermaine Jackson, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and James Caan as one of the best organised and most entertaining awards events in the national calendar, it was attended by over 1000 people and broadcast live across the globe.

Born and raised in Four Oaks, he now lives in Birmingham with his four children and in his spare time plays lead guitar with his band Silk Road which has been described as the UK’s first Sufi Soul fusion group.

Andrew Thomson

Andrew Thomson is a Senior Partner at Waterhouse Consulting Group. His current projects include working with the BBC, Demos, The Work Foundation, Baker Tilly, Harvey Nash, Promoting Excellence, and the senior leadership teams of colleges across the UK.

Andrew is a highly successful leader and an innovative manager. He was appointed Chief Executive of the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) in 2004, which he led through its split into the Quality Improvement Agency (QIA) as a Non-Departmental Public Body and the Learning and Skills Network (as a trading company) in 2006.  He then led the QIA through its set up and so to the next step in its evolution as it merges with the Centre of Excellence in Leadership and transfers into being a sector-owned body.

Jafar Mirza OBE

Jafar Mirza is a Senior Partner at Waterhouse Consulting Group. He is a well known figure in further and higher education sectors.

He started his career in the private sector, and following a series of private enterprises he served as the Managing Director of Anglian Healthcare Limited. His passion for education led him to become the Chairman of Cambridge Regional College [the first Asian Chair of Governors of a FE college in the UK] as well as on several boards and committees advising the Government on governance issues in the education sector. In 2006 he received an OBE for services to education whilst the Cambridge Regional College named its £5m Arts building as ‘Jafar Mirza Building’ in recognition of his major contributions to education.

He is currently the Governor of Anglia Ruskin University; Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (FCMI). Jafar is a regular speaker and expert trainer of boards and committees in the education sector. 

In 2008 Jafar was awarded the Muslim News, Sankore University Award for Excellence in Education and in 2007 he was given the House of Lords British Muslims Honours Award. In 2006 he was awarded the Top 10 Cambridgeshire Local and Historical Role Model and in 2001 he was granted the Lifetime Membership of the Millennium Awards Fellowship.

Jafar supports a number of projects and initiatives in his local area through the roles he plays as Vice President of Cambridgeshire ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England) and Chairman of Diabetes UK Cambridge. Previously he has been the Chairman of Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum, Member of the Cambridge Community Health Council and Senior Vice President-elect of the Rotary Club of Cambridge.

Tina Faulkner

Tina Faulkner is a Partner at Waterhouse Consulting Group. She is a media professional with 20 years’ experience of the regional Press and has held key roles including News Editor at the Worcester Evening News.

She has worked on numerous high profile articles with journalists from
broadcast and print media, both locally and nationally, and therefore has a clear understanding of the way news rooms are run and how national and international news agencies operate.

She is well used to liaising with editors, reporters and specialist writers and pitching potential articles to them, as well as anticipating issues likely to arise out of particular situations which will need careful handling by groups and organisations.

Latterly, her work has seen her take on an advisory role to those who need help and guidance on how to handle the media – whether in crisis situations or on a long term basis. It is a daunting prospect to many but Tina’s knowledge in this field can help build relationships in an often difficult environment.

Dr. Frank Reeves

Dr Frank Reeves is a Partner at Waterhouse Consulting Group. Prior to this, he was chief executive of Rights and Equalities West Midlands.  

He is a well known expert and has published widely on community needs, community cohesion, race equality and Muslim community issues. He currently holds numerous positions including Visiting Professorship at the University of Birmingham and Membership of the ACPO National Independent Advisory Group on Gun Crime.

Frank is focusing on research, communities & cohesion at Waterhouse Consulting Group.

Jennie Bashforth

Jennie is a Partner at Waterhouse Consulting Group. Beginning her career in Bristol as a social worker in 1975 Jennie has over 23 years experience of working in the public sector, 12 of which have been at second, first tier and deputy Chief Executive level. After leaving Bristol in 1996 Jennie was appointed as Assistant Director of Social Services in the newly created Authority of Bath and North East Somerset.  During this time Jennie completed a Masters degree at Bristol University in Leadership and Organisational development.

In 2001 Jennie took up the post of Director of Social Services at Worcestershire County Council where she has spent the last seven years. During this time Jennie was also appointed as the deputy Chief Executive which included a period of acting Chief Executive.

Driven by an ambition, strong sense of strategic direction and urgency for service improvement, Jennie has a proven track record in cultural change and 'turning around' poorly performing organisations and teams.

Jennie is well known in Local Government and seen as an inspirational leader with vision, energy and whose dynamism has made a massive difference in a relatively short time.

As an experienced leader, coach and mentor in large organisations Jennie will be focussing on executive leadership and talent development work at Waterhouse Consulting Group.

Andrew Tromans

Having started his career as a management consultant with Deloitte & Touche, Andrew has more than ten years experience as a consultant and professional recruiter supporting clients in UK public sector and in the professional services sector across Europe.

Andrew has particular experience of managing search and selection assignments to recruit senior management, chief executive, director, and non-executive roles. Clients have included Fortune 500 corporations such as ArvinMeritor, Eaton, and United Technologies, FTSE 250 companies such as Marks & Spencer and Serco, and professional services / public sector organisations such as Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Lovells, Deloitte Consulting, Thales, Dr Foster Intelligence and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

Shelagh Prosser

Shelagh is Associate Principal Consultant. She brings over 19 years experience of working on equality issues in employment and service delivery. She has particular expertise in strategy and policy development, equality audits, research and analysis, stakeholder engagement and partnership development.

Prior to this she held senior equality and diversity posts at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the BBC and London Buses Limited.

Shelagh is a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Vice-chair of the Institute of Equality and Diversity Practitioners, Chair of the Westminster Equalities Partnership and, a trustee for Women and Manual Trades and a cross cultural arts company, Border Crossings.

Her clients have included; Ofcom, Equality and Human Rights Commission, London Development Agency, Barrow Cadbury Trust, Westminster City Council, Metropolitan Police, NHS Westminster and the Independent Living Fund.