entrepreneurs 27


Photographs by Angus Thomas What’s your motto in life?


The harder you work, the luckier you become.


Tell us about your family I met my wife Cathy at college in Slough in 1974 and we married in 1985, so we’ve been together over 42 years.


Both our son Amal and our daughter Kaleeta are in recruitment, while our other daughter Nameesha graduated with a first-class honours degree from Bath University and now works there.


Where does the business go from here? Seven years ago, my son Amal joined Gravity


after graduating from Cardiff in business management and he has really grown the company. We have about 16 consultants, plus support staff and drivers who we employ to take the contractors to their various jobs.


You are well known for your charity work, what inspires you?


I have always been very grateful for the opportunities England has given me and about 12 years ago, when I was pretty much set and making some decent profits, I decided I wanted to put something back into society. That’s when I started doing charity work for a variety of organisations.


For many years we sponsored the Living and Learning education supplement in the Reading Post to give schools the chance to talk about what they were doing, and we also sponsored the sports pages.


I do a lot with The Avenue School, a special needs academy in Tilehurst, and I also like to help individuals. Sometimes I’ll read about someone in the paper and get in touch. I paid for injections to help stabilise the eyesight for an elderly navy veteran and kitted out two rooms at the Royal Berkshire Hospital for young cancer patients.


I became involved with ABF The Soldier’s Charity about eight years ago after they had a bucket collection at Reading Football Club and I invited them into my box for some food and drink. I have worked with them ever since and it was a great honour to receive the Lord Montgomery Award, which was donated by his grandson.


I had a serious car crash several years ago and after that I started to support the air ambulance. At the time they only had four helmets between about 18 paramedics, so I bought them individual ones.


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – FEBRUARY 2016


I continue to look for ways I can contribute, both time and money.


What was it like to receive your MBE?


Words can’t express how special it felt and that spurs me on to do more. To go to Windsor Castle and for the Queen to present the award was very special. I don’t do charity work to win awards and there are a lot of people that do a lot more than me.


Do you still play sport?


I train four times a week with a personal trainer and I like to keep myself fit – I owe that to my family and my staff – and I still play golf at Calcot Golf Club.


What does the future hold?


In mid-2014 I started to take a back seat from the business, but before that I never had any time off. There is so much you can do and it doesn’t always have to be financial. I just want to be able to contribute what I can, there are so many lonely older people or children who need help.


I’m always organising events such as The Big Curry Lunch on February 19, which is a big fundraiser for ABF, and I’m working on another fundraiser on March 3 at the Hilton Hotel, in Reading, to raise money to buy a new minibus for the Sue Ryder Home.


I look around sometimes and think the world isn’t a very nice place, but I don’t think it matters who you are or what you are. For me it’s about getting people to see the positive side of life – if you think negative, you will end up negative.


It is all about the mindset and I like to be positive all the time.


I like to get people motivated to do things and make them laugh. Details: www.gravity-personnel.com


www.businessmag.co.uk


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