Saima Akbar to head up DE&I at HarperCollins 

HarperCollins UK has appointed Saima Akbar as senior manager for diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I).  

She will join HarperCollins on 10th June 2024, and will be reporting to John Athanasiou, director of people. She replaces Maheen Choonara.

In her new role, Akbar will be instrumental in driving HarperCollins’ strategy for diversity, inclusion and belonging, working closely with the people team, senior executives and chief executive Charlie Redmayne.  

“Saima Akbar brings a wealth of experience to HarperCollins from her previous role as diversity and inclusion senior project manager at the Telegraph Media Group,” HarperCollins said.  

“During her tenure, she effectively implemented policies and programmes across various areas, including social impact, gender equity and disability awareness, delivering tangible change and progress. Notably, Saima spearheaded the initiative that led to the Telegraph achieving the Disability Confident Level 3 (Leader) accreditation, making it one of only six media groups in the country to reach this level.” Prior to this, she was a management consultant at PwC and KPMG, focusing on equity initiatives.  

Athanasiou said: “I am delighted that Saima will be joining us in this crucial role. Saima brings invaluable and relevant experience from her time in the Telegraph Media Group, and will help us drive positive inclusive change as we work to continue making HarperCollins a more diverse and inclusive workplace.”  

Akbar said: “As someone who cares passionately about making the workplace more inclusive for everyone, I couldn’t be more delighted to join the team at HarperCollins. Joining an organisation of this calibre presents many exciting opportunities to deliver impactful, innovative change and I’m looking forward to building on the fantastic initiatives which have already been delivered.”    

She added: “It’s inspiring to see the genuine commitment to progress that HarperCollins demonstrates and I can’t wait to get stuck in.”