Britain's Asian Rich List

It includes first, second and third generation achievers. The list also provides the definitive guide to who's who in the Asian business world,” says Dr Spinder Dhaliwal, Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the University of Surrey, who has compiled the Asian Rich List for Eastern Eye magazine which will be launched 8 May at a star studded ceremony.

This is the fifth year in a row that Spinder has compiled the list and she has got to know the Asian business community well. “The list is testament to the diversity of Asian talent in the UK. Their success testifies to the staying power of Asian business which successfully combines the dynamism of the free market with the go-getting, risk taking heroism of the entrepreneur. Not forgetting, of course, the values of family, thrift and hard work and a commitment back to the community.”

The list includes top names such as Lord Swraj Paul, the Caparo Steel magnate and Mike Jatania of Lornamead pharmaceuticals. The list is testament to the growing importance of Asian entrepreneurs to the UK economy.

There has been a move from traditional sectors such as textiles and manufacturing to the high-tech, high growth pharmaceuticals and IT and media. Spinder wrote the report, Asian Entrepreneurs in the UK, for Barclays Bank in September 2006 which noted the changing sectors and phenomenal growth of this entrepreneurial minority. “The Asian business sector has created wealth faster than the rest of the economy. They have bucked the trend this year as they did last year and the year before that. Asian wealth now creates and sustains more jobs than it has ever done. It stimulates growth in industries and places that would struggle without the engine of Asian entrepreneurship.”

Dr. Dhaliwal is the programme leader for the new MSc Entrepreneurship degree at the University of Surrey which starts in October 2007. She is a Director of the Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Having grown up in a small business environment, she has been researching the area for several years and her main research focus is female entrepreneurship and ethnic minority businesses in the UK.