Anita is currently the Chair of B:Music, the charity that runs Symphony Hall and Town Hall Birmingham; Chair of Birmingham City University; Governor of the RSC; Chair of Iniva; and past Chair of Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership)
Anita’s media career has been extensive. She spent more than 25 years working with the BBC – from setting up the BBC Asian Network to working as news correspondent, documentary maker (for which she received several awards) to being Head of Political and Community Affairs in England, then UK Head and Editor of the BBC’s Public Space Broadcasting. She was also President of Circom (a European-wide group of public service broadcasters).
Anita has spent many years working in local communities in various roles -from a community relations officer in Leicester to a community worker in Handsworth, Birmingham, where she championed working with women and young people.
Anita has a strong commitment to public services and her portfolio in this area ranges from being a trustee of the Children’s University; Commissioner on the Chancellor’s Commission (Warwick University); Vice-Chair of Council at the University of Warwick, and Member of
Birmingham’s Social Inclusion Commission. Previously, she was Chair of Mac (Midlands Arts Centre); non-Executive Director of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospitals NHS Trust; a Chair of a Junior and Infant School.
In 2009, Anita was awarded an OBE for services to Broadcasting and Communities. She is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Anita was named Brummie of the Year in 2019.
With respect to role models and heroes in her life, Anita says:
“If you look at my mom and all the women she worked with, the factories my parents worked at — to me, they are the heroes. They’re the people who matter to me. They’re the people who influenced my upbringing.”
