Over the next few months, we will be introducing members of our Board of Executives to illustrate the importance of the work from our Board and highlight some of the decisions they make and the challenges we face as an organisation.
Meet Aziz Rashid, a Non-Executive Director. Brought up by a mother of eight in Bradford at a Council estate, Aziz went on to study at Exeter College in Oxford and after his studies he started working for the BBC, an organisation he would stay in for almost twenty years. Aziz was part of the team that facilitated the move of 20 percent of BBC production to MediaCity in Salford.
During his time at the BBC, he developed a deep respect for the importance of public services in Britain and wanted to transfer his skills to what he calls “the best public service organisation we have in Britain”, the NHS. From the very start, he acknowledges that choosing to work for the NHS during these times is a difficult choice to make because of the many challenges it faces.
Aziz is very passionate about diversity and ensuring that people have equal opportunities as he understands the struggle, having grown up in a working-class Pakistani community. He is also a champion when it comes to women’s equal opportunities at work, having ensured that the teams he led in the past had a strong balance of both men and women in both senior and technical roles.
In the NCA, one of his focus areas is wellbeing of staff and improving working conditions. He said: “No service can be delivered without the wellbeing of our staff.” Another priority of his is equality of outcome for all patients and treating each and every one as an individual regardless of their ethnicity, sexuality, gender or socio-economic and religious background.
Outside of the NCA, Aziz also works as a mentor at the Social Mobility Foundation which helps exceptional students from poor areas to get into the UK’s top universities. But Aziz’s work does not stop there because he is also a Board Member of the Royal Exchange Theatre.
View the full interview and find out more about Aziz and his role.