Lord Bilimoria to champion Sporting Equals work

Sporting Equals have announced today that Lord Bilimoria CBE, DL has pledged his support to Sporting Equals, Sporting Equals research highlights the inequality across the sport sector with Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities, who make up more than 14% of the population but are under-represented in key areas including the number of coaches (3%), the number of BAME professionals on the boards of sports governing bodies (4%), the number of BAME professionals on the senior management teams (3%) and in elite sport some BAME groups are underrepresented for example, there are only 9 British Asians out of 3000 professional footballers in the English football league. In participation, only 21.6% of Muslim women take part in sport compared to 30.9% of Christian women.

Lord Bilimoria who is now supporting the charity is an avid sportsman and enjoys playing several sports including tennis, skiing, rowing and scuba diving. Lord Bilimoria is excited to become the first Peer to become a Patron of Sporting Equals and looks forward to supporting the Charity in its quest for parity in the sport sector especially in the boardrooms of sport, coaching, elite sport and grassroot participation.

Lord Bilimoria CBE, DL who is the Founder of Cobra Beer and Chancellor of University of Birmingham, explained his reasons to commit his support to Sporting Equals,

“The excellent work that Sporting Equals carries out in promoting ethnic diversity across sport and physical activity in the UK is vital to the benefit of ethnic minority communities and the UK as a whole. Enabling Britain, a great sporting nation to excel even further”.

Arun Kang, CEO of Sporting Equals added,

“Sporting Equals are honoured to announce Lord Bilimoria as our Patron he is passionate about sport and totally empathises with our work and the challenges facing Sporting Equals and the BAME communities in the sport sector. We look forward to working with Lord Bilimoria in raising support to key agendas such as the lack of diversity in leadership positions and the absence of many BAME communities in elite sport. Lord Bilimoria will be an integral part of our major projects including the BEDSAs and the LeaderBoard programme.”

 

About Lord Bilimoria

Karan Bilimoria is the founder of Cobra Beer, Chairman of the Cobra Beer Partnership Limited, a Joint Venture with Molson Coors, and Chairman of Molson Coors Cobra India. In the Monde Selection, one of the most prestigious quality awards in the world for beer, the Cobra range have collectively been awarded a total of 94 Gold medals since 2001, making it one of the most awarded beers in the world.

Lord Bilimoria is the Founding Chairman of the UK India Business Council, a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London, a former Chancellor of Thames Valley University (now the University of West London); he was the youngest University Chancellor in the UK when appointed. Karan was a former Senior Non-Executive Director of the Booker Group PLC (2007-2016); he is one of the first two visiting entrepreneurs at the University of Cambridge; he is a founding member of the Prime Minister of India's Global Advisory Council. In 2006, Karan Bilimoria was appointed the Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea, making him the first ever Zoroastrian Parsi to sit in the House of Lords.  In 2008 he was awarded the Pravasi Bharti Samman by the President of India. He is an honorary fellow of Sidney Sussex College Cambridge and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Judge Business School, Cambridge University.  He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young and graduated in law from the University of Cambridge. He is also an alumnus through executive education of the Cranfield School of Management, the London Business School and the Harvard Business School. In July 2014, he was installed as the seventh Chancellor of the University of Birmingham, making him the first Indian-born Chancellor of a Russell Group University in Great Britain, and he is the President of the UK Council for International Students Affairs (UKCISA).