Chai and Chat: Women and Leadership

Join us for an inspiring evening of conversation as part of Sampad's Chai and Chat series.

Women from South Asian communities continue to shape leadership across arts, education, business, health and the voluntary sector. Their journeys are often marked by unique challenges, expectations and opportunities.

What are the challenges?

What were the lessons learned along the way?

What inspired and motivated them?

Is it harder for women?

How do they feel now?

Bring your questions and your own experience and thoughts to share.

Hear from:
Anita Bhalla OBE
Professor Hanifa Shah OBE
Surwat Sohail
Dr Niti Pall (Chair and host)

Anita Bhalla OBE

Anita is a currently Chair of B:Music the charity that runs Symphony Hall and Town Hall Birmingham, Chair of Birmingham City University, member of the Arts & Humanities Research Council, 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 of which she spent over 25 years working with the BBC; from setting up the BBC Asian Network to a News Correspondent, Documentary maker to being Head of Political and Community Affairs in England, then UK Head and Editor of the BBC's Public Space Broadcasting and 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 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, Member of Birmingham's Social Inclusion Commission to being a past Chair of mac (Midlands Arts Centre), non-Executive Director of Birmingham Women’s and Children's Hospitals NHS Trust, a previous Chair of a Junior and Infant School.

She is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Professor Hanifa Shah OBE

Professor Hanifa Shah OBE is Pro Vice-Chancellor at BCU, and the author of Orbit Shift: Break Free from the Leadership Patterns That Limit You. The daughter of South Asian parents who came to Britain in the 1960s, she grew up discovering what it takes to build a life from the ground up - and that early lesson in courage and belonging shaped everything. Over three decades in higher education and industry she has led real, lasting change: doubling income, securing major investments, and bringing universities, business and communities together as the architect of BCU's STEAM strategy. Awarded the OBE in 2025 for services to leadership and education, she cares deeply about why so many capable people hold themselves back, and what the ones who break free do differently. At Chai and Chat she'd love to share her own story — the doubts as well as the milestones — and what helps women step forward into leadership.

Surwat Sohail

Surwat Sohail is Chief Executive of Roshni, a charity that helps women who have endured abuse including forced marriages and honour-based violence, received the award of LLD on 22 July.
She is one of the country’s most experienced practitioners in the field of social care and health, with three decades of experience managing a range of different services. Originally from Walsall, she trained as a solicitor. She’s represented domestic abuse victims in front of House of Common committees and challenged policies that disadvantage black and minoritised communities.
Throughout her career, first at the Ashram Housing Association and later Roshni Birmingham, she has led the organisations through many accreditations and national awards, including the Chartered Institute of Housing Gold Award and Women’s Aid National Standards. Aston University has given an honorary doctorate to a woman who has supported black and minoritised women and their children, who have experienced domestic violence. Alongside her core work of managing various projects, Surwat continues to dedicate her time to the groups such as West Midlands Domestic Abuse Board, Birmingham Equalities sub-group and the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioners victim panel. She has also worked with Aston University Students’ Union to help increase awareness of issues such as forced marriage.

Dr Niti Pall (Chair and host)

She chairs the board of Harbr, a London based health tech accelerator. She is Senior Digital Health Advisor for AXA Emerging Customers and was recently Medical Director to KPMGs Global Healthcare Practice. She runs a boutique health system consulting firm Health4alladvisory Ltd and sits on the board of the Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital. Niti is immediate past President of IDF Europe.

Niti has worked with numerous charities in the health and social care space and has expertise on fundraising, governance and financial management of charities.

She is deeply interested in the arts both personally and professionally as a means to well being.

Niti is a senior Doctor who has deep expertise in Digital models of health care and funding of healthcare both from a public sector and private insurance perspective. Niti helped to build up the largest chain of primary care clinics in the UK – the Modality Partnership – and held several senior commissioning roles in the English NHS. She worked with HCL to operationalise their first healthcare venture.

Niti was Medical and Innovation Director of Emerging Markets for BUPA, where she helped to create an innovative model of micro-insurance in Bangladesh in partnership with Telenor, creating a digital front door to healthcare for 7.8 million people. She established and supervised clinics in China, Saudi Arabia, Poland and Hong Kong and helped create health benefit management systems in Saudi Arabia, UK, India, Hong Kong, and Thailand.

Niti has delivered universal healthcare work in India, Middle East , Kazakhstan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. She is currently working with countries developing mobile health propositions at scale that include financial protection models and new models of distribution and this has reached over a 11 million consumers in eight countries.

With Harbr, a wide portfolio of companies have been engaged and accelerated, a few examples being Drone delivery, fitness for endurance athletes, remote monitoring , digital pathology and biotechnology for COVID-19 testing ,genome sequencing, personalised cancer therapies, training and development of healthcare staff online. Currently, Harbr has set up a primary care accelerator in the NHS working with over 600,000 patients.