The Guardian reveals Top 30 ethnic media figures

MediaGuardian has today unveiled the Top 30 ethnic minority figures in the media. Can any of these make it to The Guardian’s offical Top 100 list of powerful British media tycoons?

The list throws up some interesting names who clearly would be contenders for the Media 100 but who have previously been overlooked: Raoul Shah, no 1 on the list, runs a �20m communications business; Jonathan Mildenhall is head of global marketing for Coca-Cola. And Zarin Patel’s promotion to director of finance at the BBC must surely guarantee her a place this year. But it is undeniable that many of the others on the list would be trumped by more senior (white) figures in the organisations for which they work. Dyke’s infamous words, it seems, still ring true in the 21st century.

There are some obvious omissions: Avtar Lit, the head of Sunrise Radio, does not figure; neither does Aaqil Ahmed, head of religion at Channel 4. Shami Chakrabarti, director of the human rights group Liberty, makes an appearance because of her media ubiquity; but an equally prominent spokesman, Inayat Bungawala of the Muslim Council of Britain, does not figure. Such is the subjectivity of these exercises.

Top 30 in full
1. Raoul Shah
Founder of Exposure

2. David Lammy
MP for Tottenham and culture minister in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

3. Zarin Patel
Group finance director, BBC and non-executive director, BBC Worldwide

4. Jonathan Mildenhall
Vice-president of global marketing, Coca-Cola

5. Trevor Phillips
Chair of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR)

6. Shami Chakrabarti
Director of Liberty

7. Kamal Ahmed
Executive editor, news, the Observer

8. Ekow Eshun
Artistic director, the Institute of Contemporary Arts

9. David Miller
Vice-president international marketing, Atlantic Records Division

10. Mervyn Lyn
Vice-president A&R and business development, RCA Label Group

11. Lorna Clarke
Head of programmes, 1Xtra/festival director BBC

12. Ivor Etienne
Managing director, Choice FM

13. Lee Jasper
Senior policy adviser on equalities and policing to the mayor of Greater London

14. Michael Eboda
Editorial director, The Ethnic Media

15. Chitra Bharucha
Acting chairman, BBC

16. ZEE TV
Asian TV network

17. Andrew Davis
Head of urban marketing, MySpace

18. Shabs Jobanputra
Managing director and co-founder, Relentless Records

19. Steve Gordon
Brand consultant

20 & 21. Billy Grant, Rob Stuart
Joint MDs 2Point9 Records

22. Kanya King
Founder of Mobo Awards

23. Ara
Managing director, Jumpoff

24. Mihir Bose
BBC sports editor/author

25. Gurdip Bhangoo
Head of BBC Asian Programme Unit

26. Gurinder Chadha
Film director

27. Hardeep Singh Kohli
Writer, actor, broadcaster

28. Sham Sandhu
Creative director, Amaze

29. Mark Strippel
Head of music at the BBC Asian Network

30. Oprah Winfrey
Television presenter, philanthropist