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Waheed Alli, Baron Alli (born November 16, 1964) is a British multimillionaire media entrepreneur and politician. He was co-founder and managing director of Planet 24, a TV production company, and managing director at Carlton Television Productions. He is a Labour peer.
Biography
In British political terms he is considered Asian, though both of his parents are Indo-Caribbean. His mother, a nurse, is from Trinidad, and his estranged father, a mechanic, from Guyana. He has been claimed by both constituencies, see profiles below. He was named one of the 20 most important Asians in British media in 2005. At the same time, he maintains ties with his Caribbean roots, both with other British-Guyanese politicians such as Valerie Amos and Trevor Phillips, and with President Bharrat Jagdeo .
Alli grew up in humble surroundings, attended Stanley Technical College in South Norwood, London, and left school at 16 with nine O-levels.
Business career
He started work as a junior researcher for a finance magazine and worked his way up in the media business within Robert Maxwell’s stable of publications. He then went to the City for a second career in investment banking, through which he became wealthy . In the mid-1980s he met Charlie Parsons, who was to become his business and life partner.
Alli’s third career, and the first in which he achieved public prominence, was in the television industry. He and Parsons set up 24 Hour Productions, which produced The Word, “the most talked about television programme in Britain” . In 1992 they merged with Bob Geldof’s Planet Pictures to form Planet 24. Such was its success that it became one of the largest TV production companies in the country, and the main independent supplier to Channel 4 . It was responsible for genre-breaking programmes such as Big Breakfast, and Survivor. Carlton Television bought Planet 24 in March 1999 for £15 million, with Alli and Parsons prudently retaining the rights to the lucrative Survivor format. Waheed Alli became a Carlton board director before stepping down a year later.
In 2003 Alli took over as chairman of the media rights company Chorion, which owns rights to Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie. He is chairman of AIM-listed Asos and a director of Olga Television, entertainer Paul O'Grady's production company. He owns part of Shine Limited, a media production company he co-founded in March 2001 with Elisabeth Murdoch, daughter of media-magnate Rupert Murdoch.
He was part of a failed £100m bid backed by private equity firm 3i to buy Virgin Radio from SMG plc in 2005. In March 2007 he was appointed as SMG's non-executive director
Politics
Waheed Alli was made a life peer as Baron Alli, of Norbury in the London Borough of Croydon, in 1998 at the age of 34, becoming the youngest and the first openly gay peer in Parliament. Prime Minister Tony Blair had for years used Alli as a means to help him reach out to a younger generation (aka “yoof culture”), and as such he is considered one of "Tony’s cronies" .. The BBC summarised his appointment as “the antithesis of the stereotypical ‘establishment’ peer - young, Asian and from the world of media and entertainment”. He sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords.
Alli has used his political position to argue for gay rights. He advocated lowering the age of consent for homosexuals from 18 to 16, equal to heterosexuals. It was during a heated exchange with conservative opponents, led by Baroness Young, that he informed his fellow peers that he was gay. In April 1999, he said in a speech, "I have never been confused about my sexuality. I have been confused about the way I am treated as a result of it. The only confusion lies in the prejudice shown, some of it tonight , and much of it enshrined in the law." Lord Alli also spearheaded the campaign to repeal Section 28. He is one of very few openly gay Muslim figures in public life anywhere in the world.
He influenced the draft Communications Bill in 2003 .
He labelled the awarding of a knighthood to Salman Rushdie as a "controversial decision" that might harm community relations.
Other information
Alli is the President of the Croydon Youth Development Trust. Croydon is a borough in south London.
A portrait of him is held by the National Portrait Gallery, as is standard for peers.
He was a keynote speaker at the International Conference on LGBT Human Rights, part of the 2006 World Outgames.
In 2002 he became a patron of The Albert Kennedy Trust, stating “Being a teenager isn’t easy and it’s particularly difficult for vulnerable and socially excluded members of our community. The Albert Kennedy Trust offers young gay men, lesbians and bisexuals a unique and targeted service. My first task as Patron will be to support plans to extend these services across the UK, to help the increasing number of young people contacting the Trust.”
In 2005 Alli became a Patron of Oxford Pride, the annual Pride event in Oxfordshire.
Alli is the chancellor of DeMontfort University in Leicester.
See also
References
- http://oxfordpride.org.uk
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1047062.stm BBC profile, 29 November 2000.
- http://www.asiansinmedia.org/top20/2005/1.php Asians in Media profile, 2005.
- http://www.caribvoice.org/Profiles/peers.html. Caribbean Voice profile, October 2001.
- http://www.knittingcircle.org.uk/waheedalli. Knitting Circle profile, with press cuttings
- http://www.akt.org.uk/patrons.htm The Albert Kennedy Trust
External links
- Announcement of his introduction at the House of Lords House of Lords minutes of proceedings, 21 July 1998
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