Profile - Jagtar Singh

Jagtar is a founder member of AFSA and has been the driving force to see the London based group become recognised a voice of the Asian Community. Jagtar was born in February 1954 in the Punjab, India and came to England in 1961. Living in Birmingham for over 40 years Jagtar was schooled, attended university and worked for the fire service for 24 years in the West Midlands before moving on promotion to Bedfordshire as Deputy Chief Fire Officer and then Acting Chief Officer. Jagtar was the first Asian of Black officer to hold a rank and is still the only Asian officer to have worked at the Fire Service Inspectorate.

In 2006 Jagtar was appointed Non Executive Director of East of England Ambulance Service and in the same year set up his now very successful Equality and Diversity consultancy. His experiences and deep interests in E&D matter have led to him being often asked to address and speak on behalf of the service on Equality and Diversity issue in the UK and internationally In January 2003 Jagtar received the Public Servant of the Year Award at the Asian Achievement Awards ceremony in Birmingham. In June 2003 he was included in The Queen’s Birthday Honours List and awarded an OBE for his work on equality and diversity in the Fire Service.

He is active in voluntary work being a Trustee for the Healing Foundation, Employment Opportunities for the Disabled and Bedford Race Equality Council. Until recently Jagtar was also President of the West Midlands Fire Service Romania with Aid, a charity that was set up in 1993 and is still going strong today. Jagtar has also helped to develop and establish a number of minority support groups in the fire service and is now supporting the Asian members of the fire service to set up a new national group and also the BME network in the Ambulance Service to be more strategic and effective critical friend.

His other interests include being a season ticket-holder of Birmingham City Football Club and playing cricket for a local cricket team, when time allows.

Jagtar is married to Gurjit and has a son Deneal, and a daughter Rumandip.