The 45-year-old economist and investment banker becomes the first Asian to be made a minister since Keith Vaz in 1999-2001.
LONDON: She had been threatening to part from her workaholic boss as he moved to his new job and retire to something less stressful, but he successfully seduced her to taking up an even more high-profile job than her previous one. We are talking about Shriti Vadera, the former advisor to Gordon Brown in the Treasury, who has been appointed a junior minister in International Development.
The 45-year-old economist and investment banker becomes the first Asian to be made a minister since Keith Vaz in 1999-2001. Vadera who is said to be of Sri Lankan descent, born in Uganda, her family moved to India in the early 1970s and then on to England, has a fearsome reputation as ‘Gordon’s representative on Earth’.
Having studied politics, philosophy and economics at Somerville College, Oxford University she has a phenomenal grasp of the economics of developing countries.
Formerly a UBS Warburg investment banker for over 14 years, Vadera was appointed to the Council of Economic Advisers at the Treasury in February 1999. She worked as a policy expert to Treasury Ministers on public private partnerships, the Private Finance Initiative and other business issues and also advised Brown on Africa.
A trustee of Oxfam, Vadera was a technical powerhouse behind Britain’s G8 drive to boost aid. Appointed as minister in the Lords, Vadera who has no political background, will be representing the expanded Department of International Trade and Development in the upper house. The appointment of Vadera, a media-shy, economic heavy-weight, to come out and speak on trade and aid issues in the Lords signals how important the new department is to Brown.
Vadera is joined in the International Development Ministry by the other Asian-origin minister appointed on Friday — Shahid Malik. The Pakistani-origin Malik becomes the first Muslim to become a minister in the UK. As MP from Dewsbury, the area from where some of the 7/7 suicide bombers hailed, Malik came out wholeheartedly in support of the Labour Party’s strategy in dealing with terror.
The 39-year-old Malik is urbane, bright, eloquent and courteous and is seen as a prime example of the second-generation British Asians who have made good in the country adopted by their parents. In January this year, Malik made headlines when a Pakistan TV matchmaker was asked to help him find a wife because his long hours meant he had struggled to meet the right women. He is still looking!
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