Speakers

Fara is the Director for Shire Beds, an award-winning furniture manufacturer in Dewsbury. Having trained as a teacher, Fara has been at Shire Beds since 2006.

Shire Beds is a family business established  in 1997 and has now become a multi award winning and one of the most successful bed making manufacturing businesses of West Yorkshire. 

Fara joined the company when sales were at £1m. Her particular distinctive vision, strategy and ability to combine innovation with entrepreneurship have helped the company to grow to  become a major manufacturer of beds and mattresses nationally.  With multi million pound growth in turnover, the company has gone from strength to strength in the last few years, winning all the major industry awards in challenging trading circumstances including NBF Product of the Year 2021 and Best of British Furniture Awards 2022.

Beyond her work at Shire Beds,  Fara champions manufacturing through her work as Chair of the West Yorkshire Manufacturing Advisory Board and sits on the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Business Board. 

She is a member of the NBF Board and Council and chairs the Marketing committee for the National Bed Federation. 

Fara is appointed to the Innovative Entrepreneurs Programme Board at the University of Leeds.  

For her hometown of Dewsbury she is a governor of Kirklees College and a Town Board for Dewsbury.

Fara was winner of Yorkshire Choice Business Woman of the Year 2022 and was on the Northern Asian Powerlist 2020 and  Northern Power Women Awards 2024. 

She is a published writer and continues to read and write in her spare time.