Owner, Entrepreneur Iqbal Wahhab

Iqbal Wahhab was born in Bangladesh and came to Britain at the age of eight months. Education : He was educated in London and is a graduate of the London School of Economics. At university he was Chairman of the Debating Union and Editor of the student newspaper. Career : After working as a journalist in the national press for three years, in 1991 he set up his own PR firm that specialised in food, drink and restaurants and then in 1994 he launched Tandoori Magazine. After editorial problems at Tandoori he left the organisation and ran Tabla in Docklands then in 2001 launched Cinnamon Club in London then Roast in Borough Market. 2002 voted Best in Britain (BIBA) 'Restaurant Personality of the Year). He has also acted as a voluntary advisor to the NHS on how food and drink is served to hospital patients and was chairman of the board of trustees for the educational charity Learning for Life. Iqbal has just been appointed to chair the Government’s Ethnic Minority Advisory Group to discuss ways to reduce ethnic minority unemployment levels and sits on a body with six cabinet minsters and the Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality to formulate policies to this end. His latest projects as CEO of The Glorious Group with Akbar Asif are located at 02 previously known as the Millennium Dome, where he opened Raan in October 2007 and was to open a British and an American restaurant at the same location. The group ran into problems in November and had to close down in December 2007 (not affecting Roast). Received an Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration from the University of East London (UEL) at a special ceremony held at London's Barbican Hall on Friday 30 November 2007 2008 became a patron of the charity Concern Worldwide Accepting his award from Lord Rix, Chancellor of the University of East London