My Story

BETWEEN WORLDS

I was born on a winter’s night in London in 1977, a few years after my parents arrived from Kashmir.

London was one of my earliest teachers. It was a city of different cultures, languages, faiths and ambitions. Growing up British Asian and British Muslim meant learning to move between worlds. I learnt to listen carefully, read the room and understand what mattered to different people.

At the time, I thought of this as code-switching. Sometimes, I thought of myself as a chameleon. Today, I understand it as strategic empathy: the ability to adapt to a context without surrendering your identity or point of view.

That instinct has shaped my life and my work. It taught me to recognise power, decode influence and understand how reputations are formed.

THE IMMIGRANT ENTERPRISE

My parents came to Britain with ambition, curiosity and an extraordinary capacity for hard work. Both of my grandfathers had served in the British Army and travelled extensively. For my parents, London represented possibility and the chance to build a different future.

They established businesses spanning property, consumer goods and professional services. My childhood unfolded between school and their offices and factories. I watched them manage employees, negotiate with suppliers, earn the confidence of customers and build relationships across cultures.

They encountered prejudice, but they refused to be defined by it. They responded with discipline, enterprise and resilience.

We did not really have hobbies. Work was the family pastime.

At ten, I took my first job in media, delivering newspapers before school. I can still remember the smell of rain on paper and printing ink. London provided plenty of both.

Those early mornings gave me an enduring respect for journalism and the power of information. Decades later, media remains central to my life, both as a strategic communications adviser and as a presenter of BBC Radio 4’s When It Hits the Fan.

DIVERSITY AS INTELLIGENCE

My upbringing took me through state and private education and introduced me to people across social, cultural, religious and political divides.

I became interested in what connected people, but also in the assumptions, loyalties and experiences that shaped their view of the world. I learnt that understanding difference is not simply a social virtue. It is a form of intelligence.

The strongest decisions are rarely made by rooms full of people who have lived identical lives. Diversity strengthens judgement, exposes blind spots and produces more rigorous thinking.

This principle informs how I have built Curzon PR. Our advisers bring experience from communications, government, law, finance, engineering and other disciplines. They represent different cultures, generations, political traditions and schools of thought.

That diversity matters because our clients operate in complex environments. When public trust, political pressure, media scrutiny and international reputation collide, a single perspective is never enough.

FINDING MY PURPOSE

I began by studying Economics and Mathematics, but left university during my second year. I took what was intended to be a year away and never returned.

Instead, I built an accounting firm specialising in tax services for people arriving in and leaving the United Kingdom. I ran it for ten years, learning how to build a business, advise clients and make decisions when the responsibility ultimately rested with me.

A voluntary role in political business engagement later introduced me to strategic communications. It changed the direction of my life.

I had found the field that brought together everything that fascinated me: business, politics, psychology, culture, language, media and power.

In 2010, I co-founded Curzon PR with James Ollerenshaw. Since then, I have advised governments, CEOs, sovereign institutions, global corporations and NGOs across the United Kingdom, United States, Middle East and South Asia.

The work is different in every market, but the fundamental questions remain the same. Who holds influence? What creates trust? Which story will people believe? What should a leader say when the stakes are high, the facts are incomplete and the world is watching?

REPUTATION, INFLUENCE AND PUBLIC TRUST

Today, I work with leaders and institutions operating at the intersection of business, politics, media and international reputation.

I am President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and serve as an expert at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. As a presenter of BBC Radio 4’s When It Hits the Fan, I examine the strategies behind major reputational crises, media storms and public controversies.

My board and public service roles include The HALO Trust, Soho Theatre and the Ministry of Justice’s English Law Promotion Panel.

I also speak internationally on reputation, influence, leadership, crisis communications, soft power, nation branding and the impact of artificial intelligence on trust.

Across all these roles, my purpose is consistent: to help leaders understand the environments in which they operate and communicate with clarity, empathy and authority.

I learnt to move between worlds long before I knew that it would become my profession.

BEYOND A BIOGRAPHY

I am a Londoner, a mother, a broadcaster, an entrepreneur and the owner of a very characterful cockapoo called Dante. They all keep me curious, connected and conscious that reputation may be strategic, but trust is always human.