Peter Temple-Morris and former Tory ministers Michael Heseltine, Tom King as well as the former Lib Dem leader Sir Paddy Ashdown are among 24 retiring MPs to be given peerages. There are also two women, Llin Golding for Labour and Ray Michie, the Liberal Democrats Scottish affairs spokeswoman.

For the first time, an equal number of Lib Dem peers has been created. In addition to Paddy Ashdown and Ms Michie, are Robert Maclennan, briefly leader of the SDP and originally a Labour MP, Ronnie Fearn, and Richard Livsey.

The new peers bring the Tory count in the Lords to 229, still the largest single group, but Labour now has more than 200 and the Lib Dems 66.

PETER TEMPLE-MORRIS

Born: 12-Feb-38

Family: Married (Tahere). Two sons, two daughters

Education: Malvern College St Catharine's College, Cambridge

Non-political career: Former Barrister 1962-89, now a solicitor

Political career: Contested Norwood 1970 MP for Leominster 1974- Vice-Chairman, Commonwealth Parliamentary Assoc (UK Branch) PPS to Minister of Transport 1979 Executive Member, Inter-Parliamentary Union (British Group) Founding Co Chairman, British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body Chairman, Macleod Group

Mr Nigel (Nejat) Alliance, the UK's 38th wealthiest person and second largest shareholder of N Brown Group plc, received an OBE in the Queen's New Years' Honours List. The award was given in recognition of his charitable services.

The son of a textile merchant,, he was born in Kashan, Iran in 1935, a city famous for its textiles and carpets. Following the death of his mother when he was 3 years old, Nigel was raised by his sister. In 1959 he moved to Manchester, following in the footsteps of his uncle, Jeff Joseph.

The Alliance family found their mail-order business in the late 1960s after they had built a significant textile interest in the North West of England. The concept of mail- orders that is shopping from one's armchair was very attractive to them. After further research a small mail-order company was purchase. Over the years this venture has proven to be extremely successful and profitable. The N Brown Group plc now control a substantial part of the UK's mail order industry.

Nigel has been married to Victoria for 35 years, and has four children, and three grandchildren. He is a philanthropist and a staunch supporter of good causes. Over the years he has developed his passion for aiding charities. Until recently he was also directly in the operation of the Alliance Family Foundation, an organisation which donates funds to a wide range of charities, both local and national.

When I asked him how he felt on learning that he had been awarded the OBE, he felt very surprised and humble. He also added that the award not in recognition of his own efforts, but also in recognition of all those people who had worked with him over the years and without whose tireless efforts charitable organisations could not survive.

During my discussion with Nigel I asked his views on a number of topics;

Charitable Works

Q) Why is your charity work so successful?

A) For the reason that I do not look for a reward. I put my heart and soul in it, and finally I take it very seriously and I go on. It is all too easy for a person in my position to just write a cheque and leave at that. I believe that, running a charity is as same as running your own business, your have to a take it very seriously. When you are going to do business, if you are not let in form the front, you knock on the back door, and it is the same for charity

Q) Do you think that more business principals should be applied to charities?

A)It is imperative that the administration of a charity is tightly controlled and well organised if hard work and good intentions are not to be dissipated.

Q) Do you discriminate between charities when giving out donation?

A) No, I judge each charity on its needs and merits and donate accordingly.

Current Affairs

Q) What do you think the minimum wage should be?

A) In my opinion the introduction of a minimum wage will create problems for industry and the Government. If the minimum wage is set too high then a number of companies will be unable to maintain their current employment levels, or indeed increase them.

Q) Do you believe in Europe?

A) Yes, very much. We can not be complete without Europe. It is imperative that we are involved in the important decisions being taken on the future of a United Europe.

Q) How do you feel about the single currency?

A) In my own opinion, within the next two years or so the single currency will be in force. However we live in a democratic country and those who do not agree can object to it.

Q) What are your feelings on New Labour?

A) I feel that New Labour has a long way, and their ideas are very different-they are more realistic.

General

Q) How do you distinguish between being hard or compassionate in Business?

A) I do not actually think it is a question of being ''hard'' or being ''compassionate'' .It is about dealing with integrity and equity in all areas of one's life whenever it be in relation to business or personal mater.

Mr Hossein Rezaei was recently asked how he felt about receiving an MBE. He replied with "The British economy needs more entrepreneurs, more achievers, and more focused and determined people, particularly from the British-Iranian society, which I believe have so much talent and so much energy. It is a good way of getting an endorsement of how hard you have worked and that what you do is in the right direction and it is good for the economy, for employment, and for the country as a whole."

Pride Valley Food was founded in 1990 by Hossein Rezaei MBE, and started out supplying quality pitta bread to the retail market.The company was so successful that it quickly diversified into naan breads and in less than a decade Rezaei's business has become the UK flatbread market leader with over 40 product lines. Rezaei's business motto, which has earned him much acclaimed success, is to provide not only products, but also valuable services to customers. This approach ensured the company £1.8 million last year on sales of £16 million, and the combined sales of Rezaei's two closest competitors are less than half of Pride Valley's.

The National Entrepreneur of the year Awards 1999 were presented at the Grosvenor Hotel in London on 27th September 1999 to recognise the significant contribution brought to the British economy by entrepreneurs in the UK, celebrated the remarkable achievements of those entrepreneurs on that evening. Among the 50 finalists nominated was Hossein Rezaei MBE, Chairman of Pride Valley Foods Ltd.

Questions -

How do you feel about receiving an honours award?

I have had such a tough time with Pride Valley Foods, but receiving this award seemed to compensate for all the hard work and efforts that both myself, my company and my staff have endured. What it has given me in terms of confidence, apart from the fact that I am honoured and very happy to have received it, is that I know that somebody out there appreciates what I have done for this industry and values my efforts.

Are there any merits attached to receiving an honours award?

I have already received so many calls from our clients, who are all major retailers, and receiving an MBE seems to mean a lot to people. It seems to have given substance to my name under the company. The fact is, as I have always said openly in the media, the award is not for me only, it is for the company's achievements and what the team has achieved over the years.

Who would qualify for such awards?

The British economy needs more entrepreneurs, more achievers, and more focused and determined people, particularly from the Iranian society, which I believe has so much talent and so much energy. It is a good way of getting an endorsement of how hard you have worked and that what you do is in the right direction and it is good for the economy, for employment, and for the country as a whole.

Why were you selected?

The reason officially given to me was for my services to the ethnic sector. I came into the speciality bread industry when it was very small and stagnant. Having come from an engineering background it enabled me to bring so much innovation to this industry. I have automated processes, which I have also patented. I have brought so much capacity and innovation to the market in the last 9 years that I have been in it, that it is almost 6 to 7 times bigger than when I entered. So it has gone from a very small niche market industry to quite a large category now and has turned into quite a large industry to the point where all the major retailers now are starting to stock pitta breads and nan breads on their shelves. It is something that they cannot ignore. It is a category and an industry that it wasn't before I got into it. I believe that my drive, and more importantly my vision, along with my company's hard efforts for the market is the reason for being selected.

Business -

What do you think makes you good at your job?

Vision, knowing what you want to achieve. I believe that you must have a goal if you want to succeed. Secondly, you have to ensure that you reach that goal and achieve your target. Thirdly, you have to be committed and focused in achieving your goals and ambitions.

How do you study the competition? What goes into planning? How do you turn competition into your advantage?

The most important factor in marketing is research, which is all about who makes the products and who buys the products, in other words who are the consumers. I am aware of all the competition in the market, about their annual turnover and number of staff.

With Pride Valley Foods I did a market research with one project in mind. The question that I asked myself ten years ago was, what is the British consumer buying nowadays in terms of products? What is happening to the standard of sliced bread? The British palette seemed to be changing in terms of eating standard sliced bread. Their taste was changing and I had to predict all of that.


Hossein Rezaei receiving his MBE at Buckingham Palace

Secondly, you have to have a large factory, large company and an innovative process, innovative in product and a western style of management. In my factory, the products produced are highly automated and highly produced and consistent, which results in low prices. If you create a company with all these criteria, then you will succeed.

What is your main marketing strategy?

Marketing is all about what the consumer wants and then making it and selling it to them. That is what I have done at Pride Valley Foods. That is finding out what the end-user wants and then making it. I am therefore consumer oriented.

How do you keep your team motivated?

I am a talent spotter; I always bring out the best in people. I encourage my staff, train and support them and with a positive approach my team gets motivated. Every one wants to be part of a success. It gives them confidence and makes them want to work for my company and that is how I get the best out of them. I am a fair and firm manager, I expect a lot from my staff but I also give them a lot of support.

What are your future plans and goals?

I have plenty of plans for expansion. This includes a short-term plan of expansion of about £3.5 to £4 million in the next six months. That is doubling the size of the production facility that I currently have. I am bringing a totally new innovative way of producing these products into the industry. If I were to mark out of 100, the technology amongst my competitors is around 20 to 25, my current technology at Pride Valley is around 60 to 65 and now I am heading for 90 to 95 which means offering better quality, higher capacity, more consistency and much lower unit cost of production and much more efficiency.

In the long term, I expect in 5 to 6 years time I will be running a company with a turnover of £70 to £80 million and a profit of at least £10 million; market leader by a long way in a dominant position. You can therefore see that I have no intention of considering flotation or merger and acquisition.

In December of 1999 Mr Saeed Zahedi was awarded an OBE for services to the prostatic industry (artificial limbs). The last artificial limb that his team worked on, which became a millennium product, was micro-processor controlled. It was the first artificial limb to have intelligent prosthesis. The concept was developed at Blatchford, and then it was patented. A team of people who were closely working with him, two of whom were Andrew Sykes, an electronic design engineer, and Steve Lang, who was the pneumatic and hydraulic design engineer, were responsible for designing their parts of the system. Saeed is the design group leader in the project

Saeed Zahedi studied mechanical and bio-engineering at the university. That was followed by working for the National Health Service as a medical physicist, and then for the last twelve years working at Blatchford.

(BIBN) Why do you think you were awarded an OBE?

(SZ) I think that one of the main reasons for my receiving the award was the fact that the industry had always been based around traditional limbs, wooden or metal. In the late 1980's, there was the popularisation of the modular limb system, which was the first application of engineering in this area. But the limbs were relatively heavy, so the focus of the engineering was trying to use materials to reduce the weight. Until recently the convention was still the same, but what we have done has changed the culture for the future. For the first time we are introducing micro-processor technology into the lower limbs systems in a commercial scale. This will hopefully provide the future kinds of limb systems that will be available. There are even now about four or five different manufacturers who are working on computer-controlled lower limb systems.

(BIBN) What do the computer-processors contribute in terms of performance that the previous limbs did not possess?

(SZ) To some degree their mechanical devices use the pendular actions of the lower part of the knee, like inertial effects of the mass of the foot and the shin, then you have dampers which control the swing of the leg. There is no uneven heel rise or rapid reaction. If you wanted to speed up you don’t have to kick the leg. The computer will sense the speed of walking, and it will also be programmed for the individual characteristic of the owner. So as the amputee walks slowly the limb will swing slowly, and vice versa. Almost like the automatic gearbox of a car. The amputee can walk at an entire range of speeds without noticing.

(BIBN) And how does the intelligence of the limb work?

(SZ) There is a small board, about 70mm by 50mm, which has a small micro-processor on it. That acts as the heart of the system. There is a magnetic sensor inside the pneumatic cylinder which controls the speed, and there is a stepper motor on the cylinder which controls the pressure to able to resist the uneven heel rise, as well as provide assistance in extending the leg.

(BIBN) Where did the inspiration come from?

(SZ) Part of it was developed initially in Japan as a concept. Other parts were developed in various other locations, whether through university researchers or software development in Scotland, and the use of micro-controlled and processor-controlled devices in lower limbs. Upper limb systems had been using electric system for a long time, but the key factor was to take a bold step and bring it into mass production as a commercial device available on the national health services and to people. Making it available for all has really been the main inspiration. The process of design and development has been centred on making it commercially available, user friendly, and able to change the whole culture.

(BIBN) How did you make this breakthrough?

(SZ) It was initially by demonstrating it to the directors of the company I work for, and also demonstrating to the prescribers, those who prescide the limbs in the National Health Service, and to insurance companies and so on. That was done by demonstrating prototypes on amputees, and the key issue was showing the advantages they gained by giving live demonstrations with live feedback. That was sufficient evidence for people to invest in this and allowing it to go further.

(BIBN) How did you feel when you were awarded this OBE?

(SZ) It became a symbol of a collective effort of the team that I worked with. They wanted somebody to take the medal and obviously I got the short straw. I am grateful and honoured for the recognition, but I take it more as a symbol of recognition for the work done by everybody.

(BIBN) Do you consider yourself more of an engineer or medicalman?

(SZ) My profession is bio-engineering, so the emphasis is on engineering.

(BIBN) Are we getting more engineers going into medicine nowadays?

(SZ) Yes, because there are more technical issues in diagnosis as well as prognosis, so in order to diagnose you need to have a lot more technical ability and to provide devices. The medicine man of the past has become more the technologist of the future.