Museji Takolia
Museji Ahmed Takolia CBE has served in public and government service. His main business interest is as a strategic adviser to Intellicomm Solutions Private Ltd (India). He was the chairman of Wye Valley NHS Trust from June 2014 until October 2016 when he resigned.[1] He was appointed Chair of the Pensions Advisory Service in February 2016. He was formerly Group Chairman of the Metropolitan Housing Partnership, a non-executive director of the schools regulator Ofsted, and a senior civil servant in the Cabinet Office and a board member of the Commission for Health Improvement. He was appointed a CBE in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to Diversity and to Equal Opportunities.
Early life and education
Museji was born in 1960 in Coventry. Museji is the son of Indian-immigrant Ahmed Suleman Takolia from the village of Jalalpur near Navsari, Gujarat in 1952. Married in 1987 to Noorjehan Ebrahim (divorced 2006) they have 3 children, Nadiya, Firdaus and Zainudeen. Museji lives in Gloucester.[2]
Public and Government Service
He has served in diverse fields of public policy; advising on national policy developments in education (national reports on Muslim Education in the UK and Muslim Youth for the British Muslim Research Centre) and thereafter as a Secretary of State (Department of Education) appointee to the Board of the schools regulator OFSTED.[3] In the field of health too he was appointed by the Secretary of State at the Department of Health to the board of the first inspector/regulator of the NHS in England – the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI). He also served as a non-executive director on the Board of his local Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and as Chairman of the Wye Valley NHS Trust which was taken out of Special measure under his leadership.[4] Alongside this he served for five years as Chair of the Consumer/Members' Panel of the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) Corporation Pension Scheme delivering annual reports to the Secretary of State[5] on the performance of this new intervention through auto-enrolment of workers. The reports of his Panel laid the foundation for stronger consumer focus and protection in auto enrolment. His growing credentials as a consumers' champion were recognised when Ian Duncan Smith MP, Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) appointed him to Chair of The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS). A position he held for less than a year, resigning after failing to resolve a personal business matter that led to bankruptcy.[6]
Museji's community work started with the highly innovative community enterprise in Bristol; the St Paul's based Centre for Employment and Enterprise Development (Charity) Limited. He went on to serve on the Advisory Board of 'The Smart Company' later part of Chime Communications[7] and specialising on giving companies advice on corporate social responsibility where he served alongside Sir. Derek Wanless and Harriet Harman MP. In 1993 he was awarded the prestigious Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellowship.[8]
The NHS: its costs and value
Having served on the board of the national regulator of the NHS in England and two local NHS Trust boards Museji identifies the NHS in England as a victim of its own success. He was asked to lead the Wye Valley Trust during tough periods of the NHS.[9] With huge cost pressures facing the NHS he entered the national debate about its cost and value by writing about how the NHS could save money. Faced with turning around a failing hospital, these challenges came into sharp focus.[10][11] In 2015 writing jointly with the local MP for Hereford Jesse Norman he co-authored an article published by the Centre for Policy Studies "How Much Do We Use the NHS?" (Ref). In October 2016 shortly after his resignation, Wye Valley NHS Trust was taken out of "Special Measures" by the Care Quality Commission.[12][13][14]
Social Housing and community building
His Harkness Fellowship had a special focus on American Community Development Corporations (CDCs). This inspired his vision for taking what he had earlier started building with the CEED Charity in Bristol to look to apply a similar model of partnership in the UK. After a period as Special Adviser to the President of the LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation) in New York,[15] during which time he was member of a US delegation to No. 10 Downing Street, he moved onto the national stage in the UK when he was appointed Group Chairman of Metropolitan Housing Partnership or MHP[16] in 2003.
Muslim Affairs
Museji has served as adviser to the Government, including to the Cabinet Secretary as well as to successive Secretaries General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). He was as listed in the first 'Muslim Power 100' list published in 2007.[17]
Museji also advised on the implementation of the fledgling peace process in Northern Ireland (writing plans for and evaluating EU spending on rural communities), on urban planning and employment equity legislation in the Cape Metropolitan area of South Africa and finally, helped the FCO as a delegate on its international public diplomacy missions to Libya and India.[18] In this latter context he has been called upon periodically to offer advice periodically on Muslim affairs in the UK. As a relatively widely travelled liberal Muslim he has garnered broad perspectives and insights on developments both at home and abroad. Expressing concerns about current government policy on British Muslims he has written thought provoking blogs for the UK Huffington Post[19] following the Trojan horse affair in Birmingham, and latterly about the need for more tolerance as intra-ethnic politics from the Indian sub-continent creeps its way into British Asian communities.[20]
Business Affairs
Since 2009 he was Executive Chairman of Intellicomm Solutions Limited. The business has grown and diversified from IT to travel services in the Indian market where it is operating successfully from Bangalore. He remains a strategic adviser.[21]
Between 2010 and 2016 he held various directionships from which he has now resigned, notably Invest Eq Property Management Partners Ltd, Mill House (General Buildings) LLP and Liver Homes (General Buildings) LLP. Museji was petitioned for bankruptcy following failed property investments.[22]
References
- "Chairman of Wye Valley NHS Trust reappointed". Hereford Times. 10 June 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
- "Chair kept bankruptcy secret from trust". Health Service Journal. 2 November 2016. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
- "Chime acquires ethical PR firm". Retrieved 30 May 2017.
- "Ofsted". Government of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
- "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2017.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2017.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2017.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Museji Ahmed Takolia CBE appointed as the new Chair of The Pensions Advisory Service". Government of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
- "Subscribe to read". Financial Times. Retrieved 30 May 2017. Cite uses generic title (help)
- "2015-6 Annual Report and Accounts" (PDF). Wyevalley.nhs.uk. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
- "Pointmaker : HOW MUCH DO WE USE THE NHS?" (PDF). Cps.org.uk. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
- "Hereford County Hospital comes out of special measures". Hereford Times. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
- "Wye Valley Trust removed from special measures – NHS Improvement". improvement.nhs.uk. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
- "Wye Valley NHS Trust out of special measures". BBC. 3 November 2016. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
- "Metropolitan". Metropolitan.org.uk. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
- "Social Housing_Cover_V1" (PDF). Smith-institute.org.uk. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
- "British Muslims Are Asking: Are We All Extremists Now?". HuffPost. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
- "British Asians: Don't Join the Steady March Towards the End of Tolerance". HuffPost. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
- "Museji Ahmed Takolia – HuffPost UK". HuffPost. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
- India, Nerve – News and Analysis of. "Islam has nothing to do with terrorism: British delegation : India". Nerve.in. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
- "Intellicomm solutions". Intellicommsolutions.com.
- "Museji Ahmed TAKOLIA – Personal Appointments (free information from Companies House)". Government of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 30 May 2017.