Winners of the Westminster Alumni Awards 2023 announced

Westminster Alumni Awards recognise and celebrate the outstanding achievements of graduates from the University of Westminster, as well as from its predecessors, including the Polytechnic of Central London and Regent Street Polytechnic and the Transnational Education partner institutions. The awards highlight the variety of ways our graduates make a real impact across the globe.

In 2023, more than 250 submissions were received for the Westminster Alumni Awards. Colleagues from across the University helped with shortlisting, selecting four candidates for each of the six categories. The vote was then taken to the public, where 3,000 people voted for the winners.

The winner of the Contribution to the Creative Industries Award is Shaun Moore who graduated from Architecture in 1975. He has worked as a Professor of Architecture in the UK and abroad and has been part of the BBC TV design team, which led to him to being awarded the Royal Television Society Production Design Award. Shaun became a freelance theatre and screen designer in the UK and for TV companies in Europe, the Middle East and India. He established the design training programme SafeSets for TV and Film, became a National Vocational Qualifications Assessor, and was in the team that set up Careers Advice for Creative Skillset.

Nevine Coutry, who graduated from the Marketing Communications MA course in 2005, is the winner of the Entrepreneurial Award. Nevine is the founder of Playdate, the UK’s first dating app for single parents. After finishing her MA at Westminster, she established her own marketing agency. Initially working with a few smaller clients from Egypt who wanted to break into the UK market, Nevine’s agency quickly grew and acquired clients from all over the world. As a travel and hospitality marketing agency, the COVID-19 pandemic hit Nevine’s business hard and she was unable to continue her marketing agency while homeschooling her son as a working single mother. Nevine took the closing of her marketing agency as an opportunity to enter a different industry and created Playdate. Drawing on her personal experience and marketing expertise, Nevine’s dating app now has nearly 50,000 users. 

The Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Lubna Shuja, who graduated from Law LLB in 1989 and made history in 2022 when she became the first Asian, first Muslim and only seventh female President of the Law Society of England and Wales. In her role as President, Lubna represented over 200,000 solicitors in England and Wales. She frequently appears in national and international media to speak on legal matters and has written extensively for many publications. Lubna has given evidence before the House of Commons Justice Select Committee and spoken at several All-Party Parliamentary Group events. Lubna has been instrumental in the opening up of the Indian legal services market to lawyers in England and Wales and she uses her position to advocate for access to justice for vulnerable people.

Michael McPherson, or Kwame, is the winner of the Outstanding Achievement Award. The MBA graduate is an author, life coach and entrepreneur. His writing has achieved international renown, including his most recent success in the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2023 where his short story Ocoee won both the Caribbean regional award and the overall prize. Kwame was also the 2007 Poetic Soul winner and the first Jamaican Flash Fiction Bursary Awardee for The Bridport Prize in 2020. 

The Recent Graduate Award, which is given to a graduate who has achieved something extraordinary within just three years of leaving Westminster, is Anoushka Pacquette. The Interior Architecture BA course graduate was one of the joint winners of the British Council of Offices (BCO) Next Gen Ideas Competition 2022 for her work on designing Digital Detox Zones for workplaces. Following this, Anoushka won the BCO Next Gen Graduate of the Year 2022 for her outstanding contribution both at her employer, WILL+ Partners, and across the wider industry. The BCO recognised Anoushka’s work ethic, organisation of community activities and passion for innovative, sustainable design solutions. Her design work focuses on human experience, wellbeing and sustainability, in her pursuit of diverse and welcoming workplaces for all. 

About the win, Anoushka said: “I can’t express how grateful I am for this award. I want to give a huge congratulations to all the finalists, you all are extraordinary people. I would love to give a massive thank you to my family, WILL+Partners and to Dr Ro Spankie, Diony Kypraiou and Allan Sylvester for all the support and guidance they have given me on my career and personal development. You have all made me know that I can do what even I sent my mind to, that the future is vast, and I can make a difference as long as I try. Every young person out there, no matter what field or profession, should aim for the stars and know that no matter what background you come from you can make the future bright.”

The final award is the Social Impact Award, which recognises a graduate who has made a positive contribution to the lives of others. The award was given to Betty Nairuba, who graduated from International Development Management MA in 2015. After studying at Westminster, Betty returned to Uganda. As Executive Director of Concern for Neighbors and Community Engagement, she works to make an impact in the lives of marginalised people in local communities. Through the charity initiative, over 1,000 adolescent mothers have been supported to return and stay in school, and 500 disabled women and teenage mothers have been empowered economically through vocational and entrepreneurship skills training. This has enabled them to realise their potential and participate in community development.

Read more about the 2023 winners and finalists in each category.