ViacomCBS’ Simta Sawhney, Fashion UK’s Hannah Miles and Ravina Mehta join Saphia Maxamed as part of BLM Licensing initiative.
The committee for Black Lives Matter Licensing is taking shape, with three key industry executives coming on board to join Saphia Maxamed who is co-leading the movement.
Simta Sawhney, category director at ViacomCBS Consumer Products UK, Hannah Miles, md of Fashion UK and Ravina Mehta, graphic designer at BB Designs have joined the BLM Licensing committee to represent the industry and help shape the direction of the BLM core initiatives of inclusiveness and implementing the change.
“I am thrilled with the support the industry has shown so far – this stelaler committee is a proof of how the industry is really determined to support the movement,” commented Saphia. “I have always pledged for the industry to work together on this very important social justice issue. We are still pleading with retailers to work with us and we have developed a great CSR plan that we know could be a great resource and would help retailers with their D&I initiatives.”
Simta added: “I am very excited to be joining the BLM Licensing Committee and I look forward to be working with the team towards making positive change and improving inclusivity and representation within the licensing industry.”
Hannah said that she was “keen to join Saphia and the committee and be part of this journey, I hope to be a useful support to the movement within our industry”.
For Ravina, who is a humanitarian professional at the Conduit, it is also the chance to bring her humanitarian work experience to the important journey of the movement. “Since joining the movement last year, I have seen how much work we still have to do; being part of the committee is an honour,” she commented.
Black Lives Matter Licensing and Black Lives Matter.UK have formed the official trading company at Companies House: Black Lives Matter Movement Ltd.
Black Lives Matter.UK is currently working on supporting and funding a number of community projects.
These include the Black Advocates for Children Project, Breakfast Clubs Against Racism, a Black History Virtual Exhibition created for educational use and the backing of a new book called Untold Heroes: Extraordinary Black Figures.
It is also in discussions with the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation to potentially fund a performing arts scholarship and support talent students from under-represented backgrounds, while it is also poster partners of Missing People UK and has a new partnership with Incudability, which is a platform for employers with a commitment to treating people fairly and offering job seekers a fully accessible and equitable application process.
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