Museji Takolia

Museji was born in 1960 in Coventry. Museji is the son of Indian-immigrant Ahmed Suleman Takolia from the village of Jalalpur near Navsari, Gujarat in 1952. Married in 1987 to Noorjehan Ebrahim (divorced 2006) they have 3 children, Nadiya, Firdaus and Zainudeen. Museji lives in Gloucester.[2]

He has served in diverse fields of public policy; advising on national policy developments in education (national reports on Muslim Education in the UK and Muslim Youth for the British Muslim Research Centre) and thereafter as a Secretary of State (Department of Education) appointee to the Board of the schools regulator OFSTED.[3] In the field of health too he was appointed by the Secretary of State at the Department of Health to the board of the first inspector/regulator of the NHS in England – the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI). He also served as a non-executive director on the Board of his local Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and as Chairman of the Wye Valley NHS Trust which was taken out of Special measure under his leadership.[4] Alongside this he served for five years as Chair of the Consumer/Members' Panel of the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) Corporation Pension Scheme delivering annual reports to the Secretary of State[5] on the performance of this new intervention through auto-enrolment of workers. The reports of his Panel laid the foundation for stronger consumer focus and protection in auto enrolment. His growing credentials as a consumers' champion were recognised when Ian Duncan Smith MP, Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) appointed him to Chair of The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS). A position he held for less than a year, resigning after failing to resolve a personal business matter that led to bankruptcy.[6]

Museji's community work started with the highly innovative community enterprise in Bristol; the St Paul's based Centre for Employment and Enterprise Development (Charity) Limited. He went on to serve on the Advisory Board of 'The Smart Company' later part of Chime Communications[7] and specialising on giving companies advice on corporate social responsibility where he served alongside Sir. Derek Wanless and Harriet Harman MP. In 1993 he was awarded the prestigious Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellowship.[8]

His Harkness Fellowship had a special focus on American Community Development Corporations (CDCs). This inspired his vision for taking what he had earlier started building with the CEED Charity in Bristol to look to apply a similar model of partnership in the UK. After a period as Special Adviser to the President of the LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation) in New York,[15] during which time he was member of a US delegation to No. 10 Downing Street, he moved onto the national stage in the UK when he was appointed Group Chairman of Metropolitan Housing Partnership or MHP[16] in 2003.

Museji has served as adviser to the Government, including to the Cabinet Secretary as well as to successive Secretaries General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). He was as listed in the first 'Muslim Power 100' list published in 2007.[17]

Museji also advised on the implementation of the fledgling peace process in Northern Ireland (writing plans for and evaluating EU spending on rural communities), on urban planning and employment equity legislation in the Cape Metropolitan area of South Africa and finally, helped the FCO as a delegate on its international public diplomacy missions to Libya and India.[18] In this latter context he has been called upon periodically to offer advice periodically on Muslim affairs in the UK. As a relatively widely travelled liberal Muslim he has garnered broad perspectives and insights on developments both at home and abroad. Expressing concerns about current government policy on British Muslims he has written thought provoking blogs for the UK Huffington Post[19] following the Trojan horse affair in Birmingham, and latterly about the need for more tolerance as intra-ethnic politics from the Indian sub-continent creeps its way into British Asian communities.[20]

Since 2009 he was Executive Chairman of Intellicomm Solutions Limited. The business has grown and diversified from IT to travel services in the Indian market where it is operating successfully from Bangalore. He remains a strategic adviser.[21]

Between 2010 and 2016 he held various directionships from which he has now resigned, notably Invest Eq Property Management Partners Ltd, Mill House (General Buildings) LLP and Liver Homes (General Buildings) LLP. Museji was petitioned for bankruptcy following failed property investments.[22]