Riaz Ravat BEM DL is the Deputy Director of  St Philip’s Centre - a charity set up in 2006 and rooted in the multi-faith environment of Leicester, the UK’s most ethnically diverse city. Riaz heads up the Centre’s religion and belief training packages to corporate bodies and runs a number of other significant inter faith projects. His other responsibilities include community relations engagement, financial administration, media communications, crisis management and business and partnership development.

Riaz has contributed to the Commission on Islam in the UK, Prime Minister’s Extremism Task Force, Commission on Religion & Belief in Public Life and the Joint Committee on reform of the House of Lords. In 2016, on the occasion of the UN Day of Tolerance, he addressed an audience at the Sultan Qaboos Mosque in Muscat, Oman which included H.E. Sheikh Abdallah Bin Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al Salmi – Minister for Religious Affairs.

Riaz has several other significant roles where he acts as an advisor or contributes to provide strategic leadership or improved accountability. Currently these are:

• Member - Equality & Diversity Forum, Liverpool Football Club
• Member - Cross-Government Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group
• Member – UK National Honours Committee (Community, Voluntary & Local)
• Trustee - Leicestershire & Rutland Community Foundation
• Member - High Sheriff’s Consultative Panel
• Member - Crown Prosecution Service Hate Crime Panel
• Member - Leicester Cathedral Council
• Member - Leicester College Multi Faith Chaplaincy Service
• Advisor - Muslim Burial Council of Leicestershire

Having been conferred a British Empire Medal by HM Queen Elizabeth II in 2012, Riaz was commissioned as a Deputy Lieutenant in 2015 where he acts on behalf of the Crown. Riaz has been recognised widely for his efforts including being named as Alumnus of the Year by De Montfort University in 2013 for “uniting different cultures, races and religions” and in 2010 was the first winner of the Leicestershire First Citizenship Award. In 2017, he co-authored a book titled ‘Living Well Together – Case Studies in Interfaith Diversity’ which one review described as “a clear candidate for the best interfaith book of 2017”.

Riaz has a Masters’ degree in Inter-Religious Relations from De Montfort University, a Masters’ degree in European Politics from the University of Leicester and a BA (Hons) degree in Politics from Nottingham Trent University.