Monder Ram, an Indian-origin professor of Small Business at the De Montfort University in Leicester, has been appointed to the new government advisory group to shape best practice for equality and diversity.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has established the Equalities Advisory Group (EAG) to act as an advisory body to the BIS Equality and Diversity Governance Board.
The BIS Board is responsible for advising and
challenging approaches to progressing equality and diversity to support BIS' strategic priorities and help deliver key outcomes identified.
Professor Ram, who was awarded the OBE in 2004, has extensive experience of working in, researching and acting as a consultant to ethnic minority businesses.
He is a leading authority on ethnic minority
entrepreneurship research and has published widely on the subject.
Commenting on his appointment, Professor Ram said:"This is an excellent opportunity to work with a key government department to ensure that diversity features in all its key operations. I'm particularly interested in pursuing this issue in relation to enterprise."
Professor Ram was responsible for initiating the annual Ethnic Minority Business Conference in 1998, which has developed into the most important event in the calendar for disseminating policy and research on ethnic minority firms.
He also holds the positions of Visiting Fellow at the Industrial Relations Research Unit at Warwick University, and the Herbert Felix Visiting Professor at Lund University in Sweden.
Monder was named as one of Britain's most influential Asians by the Institute of Asian Professionals and was awarded an OBE in the 2004 New Year Honours List for his services to black and ethnic minority businesses.