Biography: An active figure in her community, Atifa Shah was elected Youth MP for Rochdale in 2005. A Graduate of University of Manchester and founder of four businesses, Atifa is currently a Technology Consultant at Accenture in the field of Infrastructure Consulting and has predominantly worked in Financial Services and Pharmaceutical industries. She leads the Accenture Muslim Network and plays a leading role in Accenture’s corporate citizenship affairs and recruitment. Her Active role in society is demonstrated through the various positions she holds such as a director of Link4Life, Governor for Rochdale 6th Form College and Regional Board Director for Mosaic, a national initiative set up by HRH Prince of Wales.
Atifa has in the past worked for IBM UK both in Software Operations and Recruitment (2007/2008), chaired a Muslim Advisory Panel (2005-2009), chaired Rochdale Women’s Welfare Association (2007-2010), and served on the Pakistan Britain Business Chamber Board of Directors at the Pakistan High Commission. She is also a graduate of HRH The Prince of Wales’ Young Muslim Leadership Summer School at Oxford and several other prestigious leadership programmes and regularly contributes to key Muslim issues in main stream media such as Sky News, Channel 4 and the BBC. In her capacity as Youth MP and a Muslim young woman Atifa has contributed to a number of government initiatives, policies and strategic debates around Terrorism, Housing, Private Health Care, NHS, Education and Welfare, Urban Development for the UK Core Cities, Safer Communities and Foreign Affairs.
On the philanthropy front, Atifa has played leading roles in number of charitable initiatives with organisations such as Islamic Relief, Springhill Hospice, James Caan Foundation and has more recently, evolved a fundraising brand “The White Table Dinner”, with the first event held at The Foreign Office London in October 2011. Her most recent focus and efforts have been on rebuilding Pakistan and the East Africa Drought.
Atifa brings to the board her skills, contacts and networks to inspire many others to become engaged in their own community leadership.