Anisa Morridadi BEM (; born April 1990) is a British

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

and social rights activist. , she has worked as founder and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of 'youth engagement' agency Beatfreeks.

Early life and education

Morridadi was born and raised in the

Northfield Northfield may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Northfield, Aberdeen, Scotland * Northfield, Edinburgh, Scotland * Northfield, Birmingham, England * Northfield (Kettering BC Ward), Northamptonshire, England United States * Northfield, Connec ...

district of in

Birmingham, England Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, attending King Edwards VI Five Ways School , before graduating from

Aston University Aston University (abbreviated as ''Aston''. for post-nominals) is a public research university situated in the city centre of Birmingham, England. Aston began as the Birmingham Municipal Technical School in 1895, evolving into the UK's first c ...

in 2012 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in Business and Management."Aston graduate awarded British Empire Medal in Queen’s Birthday Honours"
. Aston University. Retrieved 2nd Aug 13

Career

In 2005, aged 15, Morridadi set up her first

social enterprise A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners. Social enterprises ca ...

Strictly Street, a dance class at a YMCA Centre."Aston University graduate honoured by Queen... aged 23"
Birmingham Post. Retrieved 2nd Aug 13 In 2013, she co-founded Class Careers with Christos Orthodoxou, a company which connected school leavers directly to employers through live webinars. She has since co-founded Fifteen Minute Trainer Ltd, Identity Dance Project"Aston graduate awarded British Empire Medal in Queen’s Birthday Honours"
Aston Business School Canis Major, and Beatfreeks - an award-winning

engaging

young people Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. You ...

arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or Physical fitness, fitness that relate to specific practicality, useful Competence (human resources), competencies. Training has specific goals of improving on ...

and

leadership Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets view ...

opportunities. As part of Beatfreeks, Morridadi set up Free Radical in June 2017 with lead producer and poet Amerah Saleh, to focus on "arts activism and storytelling". Between June 2016 and May 2020, she was also a Director for GirlDreamer, a Birmingham-based female empowerment organisation. In 2018, Morridadi backed the West Midlands Combined Authority's failed bid for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

to relocate from London to the region. She was one of 82 high-profile creatives, led by regional mayor

Andy Street Andrew John Street (born 11 June 1963) is a British businessman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician who was the managing director of John Lewis & Partners, John Lewis from 2007 to 2016, when he resigned to run for Mayor o ...

, to put their names to a
open letter
urging Channel 4 to invest in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

. In October 2018, it was announced the bid had been won by the city of

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

Awards

In 2012, after being awarded the Birmingham Young Professional of The Year's 'Aspiring Talent Award', Haghdadi was invited to sit on the Birmingham Future Commission. In 2013, she was awarded a

British Empire Medal The British Empire Medal (BEM; formerly British Empire Medal for Meritorious Service) is a British and Commonwealth award for meritorious civil or military service worthy of recognition by the Crown. The current honour was created in 1922 to ...

for services to

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

and

. In 2022 Beatfreeks went through restructuring, removing the arts programmes to focus on FMCGs In 2015, Morridadi was awarded

Sky Academy Arts Scholarship Sky Academy Arts Scholarship was a scholarship award for artists, launched in 2011 by Sky and run in conjunction with IdeasTap and Hiive (Now Screenskills). The annual scholarship supported selected artists and creative individuals under the age of ...

for Creative Producing out of 1000+ applications to set up Doink which collects and communicates data in creative ways to help people make better decisions. In 2016, Morridadi was recognised as one of 50 New Radicals "who are actively changing their communities for the better" by

NESTA Nesta (formerly NESTA, National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) is an innovation foundation based in the UK. The organisation acts through a combination of programmes, investment, policy and research, and the formation of part ...

and The Observer and was celebrated on the front page of The Observer New Review on Sunday 10 July 2016. In the same year, Anisa and Beatfreeks produced a Data Rave to engage young people in the run up the United Kingdom's EU membership referendum. In July 2016, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from

. In the same month, she delivered a

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

talk in Birmingham about her work, where sh
spoke about
"rejecting the Western idea of success". In May 2018, she was included in BirminghamLive's 30 Under 30 initiative, "showcasing the 30 most inspiring individuals across the city". In June 2020, Morridadi returned a

in protest of the history of the British Empire and its ongoing legacy in the British Honours system, saying "If this is power, you can have it back".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morridadi, Anisa Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Place of birth missing (living people) People educated at King Edward VI Five Ways Alumni of Aston University Businesspeople from Birmingham, West Midlands British chief executives Recipients of the British Empire Medal