INTERNATIONAL students studying in York need role models to help them face cultural challenges, a successful Asian businessman has said.

British Pakistani entrepreneur Shahid Azeem set up IT business Arcom IT in the late 1990s and has since won awards for social responsibility.

He was named one of the Top 100 most influential Muslims in the UK and Asian Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006/07. Shahid, chairman of The Woking Asian Business Forum and the Prince Charles charity Mosaic South East, attracted a number of international students to his talk at York St John University.

He told the students his story of how he worked hard to set up his business, getting up again the more knock backs he took.

He said it was important for people to have role models who understand them.

“There are huge challenges in society at the moment. I think we’re part of a selfish society and care about us rather than the public environment, and really it’s acting as a role model for the generation.

“A lot more of the business community needs to go out and take their social responsibility very seriously. At the end of the day, it is this community that gives them that business.”

He said the Asian community faced wider cultural challenges, such as a lost identity. While the first generation of families who migrated to Britain only believed they would be here for about five years, he said they are now into the third generation, who are born and bred British.

“It’s a really challenging time for people with the economy and student fees, especially for people coming from overseas.

“For a lot of them, they could be the next breadwinners of the family and their parents may have sold everything so they could come over here.

“We now live in a global village in the most multicultural society in the world. It is easier to set up a business today, with more support and encouragement from government and other organisations.

“But it comes down to people understanding people, listening to people and providing something they actually want.”

Brett Arnall, alumni development manager at York St John University, said he was working to use the university’s alumni, as well as his personal network – Shahid being a personal friend – to inspire students from all backgrounds.

He said he was hoping to appeal to all faculties, with alumni being able to pass on their lessons learnt as speakers and also help through mentoring.

Mark Arnall, Brett’s brother, a personal trainer, physio and sports therapist, who trains Formula One driver Kimi Raikkonen, will also speak to sports students in December.

‘York really needs to attract Europe’s best people’

YORK needs more diverse role models, the York Racial Equality Network said while celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Fred Ring, chairman of the network, said York had the second fastest growing population in the country and it needed to think bigger.

He said: “York’s an expanding city, and minorities are expanding, too.

“York really needs to attract Europe’s best people, politicians and councillors that will make a big difference.

“York has changed quite dramatically in terms of becoming more inclusive but we need to attract educators, politicians and people who can be role models, not only to black and ethnic minority but the whole of York.”

As the organisation celebrated its achievements at a dinner held at the Bengal Brasserie in Poppleton, Mr Ring said: “What we do now is a springboard to those ideas,” he said.

Yvie Holder, the first chair of YREN when it started, said: “We started with a group of us being interested in developing racial equality around our children.

“We came together really to discuss the practical issues of families and children and met in each other’s houses.”

The network has grown and is represented now on the local strategic partnership Without Walls, which has just published its five-year plan.

Rita Sanderson, director of the organisation, said they were keen to recruit more business people to represent York’s ethnic minorities on boards in the city.

She said: “A lot of work has been done, but there’s still a lot to do. Some of the organisations that didn’t think about diversity do now, partly because of legislation and partly because of organisations like YREN. York is more diverse and cosmopolitan as a city, but the issues don’t go away. People still experience discrimination and harassment.

“We would like to see more contact and development within the business sector, we can’t overstate the importance of that sector.”