Dr Halima Begum is Chief Executive and Director of the Runnymede Trust, the UK's leading race equality think tank. Begum has held senior leadership roles with government, non-profit, philanthropy and international public sector organisations including the UK's Department for International Development, the British Council and LEGO Foundation. In 2021 the Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 named Begum one of the most influential disabled people in the UK. This followed her inclusion on similar lists of influential British-Bangladeshis.