Unitas Communications was founded by Muddassar Ahmed and Shiraz Ahmad. They are skilled communications professionals with top level access to senior government, corporate and NGO leaders in the UK, the EU, USA and the Middle East, Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia.
The Unitas team works in a range of sectors and leverages the insights, knowledge base and expertise of its associates in assisting clients in local, national and international settings.
The Board
The Associates
The Regional Associates
The Board
Chairman: Stephen O’Brien CBE
Stephen O’Brien is Chairman of Tower Hamlets PCT, International Health Partners, Carl Jenner Productions/Unicorn Children’s Theatre Trust, NCH Leadership Board and Deputy Chairman of Woods River Cruises. He is also Trustee/Director of the Prince of Wales’s International Business Leaders’ Forum, Tomorrow’s People, Place2Be, Teach First and St Martin-in-the Fields Development Trust and Citizens Organising Foundation.
Previously Stephen was Chairman of Business in the Community (where he continues as Vice-President), the London Regional Council of the Prince’s Trust, London First, Charles Fulton Holdings - International Currency Brokers, Vice-Chairman of Think London and one of the convenors of the RSA Illegal Drugs Commission.
Chief Executive: Muddassar Ahmed
Muddassar is Chief Executive of Unitas Communications . He has worked in the past as freelance TV Producer, having worked on BBC, Channel 4 and Islam Channel productions. He has also worked for Paul McKenna (celebrity hypnotist) as corporate Sales Manager. Muddassar also presented the ‘Politics and Beyond’ show on Islam channel for 2 years between 2006 and 2008. He is currently also Public Affairs Director of the Facilitate Group, a global conflict resolution NGO.
Muddassar is a Director of The Newham Public Affairs Committee, a Director of The Adab Trust, a steering group member of Mosaic: the Muslim Led Network founded by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales and protagonist on a number of mainstream terrestrial television shows. Muddassar is also a graduate of the Oxford Leadership programme.
Operations Director: Shiraz Ahmad
Financial Director: Meriel Barclay
Meriel was Director of Corporate Services for the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) from 1998 to 2007 and continues as Chair of Trustees of the NatCen Pension Scheme and Company Secretary. She has previously been Director of Finance & Administration for a number of London Solicitors firms including for Sonnenschein, from 1995 -1998, for Radcliffes & Co. from 1992 -1995 and Winward Fearon, from 1989 - 1992. From 1987 - 1989, Meriel was Director of Finance & Administration for Business in the Community Meriel became a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA) in 1992.
Creative Director: Aaqil Ahmed
Aaqil is Commissioning Editor for Religion and Multicultural programming at Channel 4. He joined Channel 4 from the BBC where he was head of development for Religion. During his last two years at the BBC he was the executive producer of the award winning BBC Islam UK season, two series of Trouble up North and Headhunting the Homeless. He also produced BBC current affairs shows - The Crime Squad and Hard Cash, as well as on major news events such as the funeral of Princess Diana, the Turkish earthquake and the UK floods. At Channel 4 he has commissioned primetime and high profile series such as Children Of Abraham, God Is Black, Putting The Fun In Fundamental, and more recently Won’t Marry White. He was named in an AIM/ Guardian list as the fourth most powerful Asian in British media.
Associates
Professor Joseph E Connolly
Professor Joseph E Connolly is distinguished Professor of Finance and Management at The Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chausees in Paris. Prior to that he was the Willard Brown Distinguished Professor of Global and Islamic Finance at the American University In Cairo. He is an Advisor to the Islamic Finance Centre at the Swiss Banking Institute in Zurich and to the Institute of Islamic Banking and Insurance In London. He is also a Trustee of Richmond University in London. He serves as the US Commissioner for the Bilateral UK-US Fulbright Commission.
An MBA graduate of Harvard University’s business school and, earlier, Cornell, Professor Connolly was for many years an Executive Director and Head at UBS for Private Banking Research and a Managing Director for Global Finance Research at Citibank where he first formatted plans for developing Islamic Finance product offerings in New York, Zurich and London. He has been instrumental is setting up Islamic banking subsidiaries, working with Shariah scholars to understand capital markets and treasury products, and developing a context for rating sukuk and other Islamic obligations. He has published prolific articles about finance.
Clive Hambidge
Clive is an Abstract Painter whose works are imaged by the Bridgman Library (UK), Artisan Company (Spain), EasyArt (UK), World Art (UK), and Elo Art (Italy).
Clive works within the Hindu community, writing regularly for the Sevashram Quarterly News Journal distributed to scholarly institutions worldwide. He is Emissary to the former Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, His Grace, The Right Revd Bishop Riah Abu El Assal.
Clive is also Creative Director of Facilitate Global, a national and international conflict resolution organisation and a committee member of Rights and Humanity.
Wan Saiful Wan Jan
Wan is Director General of the Malaysia Think Tank London and Head of Policy for the Conservative Muslim Forum. Previously, he was at the Conservative Party’s Research Department, and the Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit, the think tank for the 53 Commonwealth countries. Wan’s work has brought him to various parts of the world, allowing him to build a network of contacts with politicians, thought-leaders and business people.
Konstantin Pavlidis
Konstantin is a businessman and Partner of Satways Ltd, he was previously Director of research and development of ETI industries Inc. More recently he has launched a successful property portfolio with key holdings in Indonesia, Australia, Morocco, Italy and the UK. He has a multi -disciplinary background having worked in various fields over the past 25 years. He received diplomas in Sports Injury Therapy, Shiatsu, Traditional Japanese Therapies, Yoga Teacher Training and Trulkor Tibetan Yoga In 1985, he received a BEd Science from the Institute of Education, Sydney University, where he majored in Biomechanical Analysis of Human Movement.
Omar Ali Grant
Originally Argentinean, Omar spent two years studying Sociology in Scotland before travelling to study traditional Islamic sciences in several countries like Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Jordan and finally Iraq, where he studied in the renowned seminary of the Holy City of Najaf. Since joining Al-Khoei Foundation, he has worked as an advisor on Muslim and social cohesion affairs for various European and Middle Eastern governments. He has also participated in several consultations at St George�s House, of which he is an associate, and Wilton Park. He has lectured on Islamic related topics at conferences in Sweden, Germany, Trinidad and Tobago, Kuwait and Jordan. He is also the author of several published papers and articles in prominent political, philosophical and religious journals.
Osman Khan
Osman is an IT and business consultant, having carried out work in commercial, space and defence sectors. He has a number of business interests including social networking software, web-based collaboration and Internet media, and currently runs an IT consulting and design agency.
Osman recently completed a Masters degree in Advanced Software Engineering at Kings College London, having graduated in Computer Systems Engineering from City University, London, and is also a graduate of the Young Muslim Leadership Programme.
Soraya Boyd
Soraya is founder of Facilitate Global, a not for profit national and international conflict resolution organisation and is Emissary to His Grace Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal (former Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem). Soraya is also a committee member of Rights and Humanity, a leading Human Rights NGO. With an academic background in Humanities and Social Science, as well as community development, Soraya has gone on to work alongside many voluntary organisations bringing together the secular, faith and inter faith sectors.
Zareen Roohi Ahmed
Zareen Roohi Ahmed is Founder and CEO of Lightbox Ltd; a consultancy working with national government departments, local authorities, community organisations and international agencies.
She was previously Chief Executive of the British Muslim Forum - the first woman to head up a major UK Muslim organisation and initiated a range of projects designed to improve the position of Muslims in Britain.
Zareen is the only woman on the Executive Steering Committee of the MINAB; the Mosques & Imams National Advisory Body. She has contributed toeards setting up a system of accreditation for Mosques and Imams in the UK.
Previous roles include National Operations Director of the Experience Corps, and various other senior executive roles.
Zareen is the Chair of Jobs, Education & Training, JET Derby and a Trustee of The Halimah Trust. She has also founded community arts organisation Silverleaf.
She holds a PhD in Islamic Studies, having studied the position of Muslim Women in British society.
Regional Associates
Pakistan Associate, Khurshid Ahmed
Khurshid is chair of the British Muslim Forum and Dudley Muslim Association. He also chairs the Local Strategic Partnership in Dudley and is a director of the Black Country Association. Khurshid is a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Group and the Preventing Extremism Together Task Force, set up following the July 2005 bombings in London. He also served on the official enquiry into the Danall disturbances in Sheffield in 1995/6. He has previously chaired the Dudley North constituency Labour Party. Currently, he plays a key role in the FCO reputation management efforts in Pakistan.
USA Associate, Azhar Hussain
Azhar Hussain is the Vice President for Preventive Diplomacy at the International Center for Religion & Diplomacy (ICRD). He has served as Senior Consultant to the Government of Mexico’s Ministry of Education. He has also collaborated with the United States Institute of Peace to deliver a peace education training program for Pakistani religious leaders. He heads ICRD’s Pakistan Madrasa Project and has helped to train nearly 1,000 madrasa leaders throughout Pakistan to date. He has also pioneered initiatives to engage religious and political leaders in Afghanistan and was awarded 2006 Peacemakers in Action Award by the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding.
West Africa Associate, Amadou Thiam
A business consultant and translator based in Bamako Mali. Amadou is also a founder and a director of the Ghanaian NGO Annur. He has worked in West Africa as project manager for UNICEF, Channel 4, and NBC. He is also one of the founders of The Malian National Association of Human Resource Managers. Amadou is fluent in English, French, German and Arabic and Bambara.