Our Team

Deepak has over 40 years of experience in the community and voluntary sectors. He is currently the Chair of the United Religion Initiative (UK) Board.  He has been a Board Member of URI (Europe) since its inception, and is a member of the European Network on Religion and Belief.

Deepak runs a charity, Together in Action, which builds on the achievements of the Coventry-based charity Minorities of Europe (MoE) over its 15 years of existence. The work of MoE covered four areas – Interfaith, European and International Development, Community Cohesion and Young People.

Together in Action works with partners:

– to help create opportunities that transform lives,

– to help design and deliver projects and services that have a lasting and positive impact,

– to help incubate and maintain harmony between people and communities from different cultures, beliefs and backgrounds.

Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor is an Associate Professor in the Sociology of Islam at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University, UK. She is Chair (2020-2023) of the Muslims in Britain Research Network (MBRN) and is editor of the Review of Social and Scientific Study of Religion.

Her research emphasises collaborative methodologies that work with and for research participants. As a feminist sociologist of religion, she has a keen interest and appreciation of the power dynamics within knowledge production and the implications of the processes and systems of knowledge on society as a whole.

Her research portfolio critically interrogates how we ‘do’ knowledge while also giving voice to lesser-heard and harder-to-reach sections in society. Feminist, Pragmatist, and Decolonising methodologies are central to her methods toolkit. Her publications include Muslim Women in Britain: Demystifying the Muslimah (Routledge 2012), Religion or Belief, Discrimination and Equality: Britain in Global Contexts (Bloomsbury 2013), Islamic Education in Britain: New Pluralist Paradigms (Bloomsbury 2015), Digital Methodologies in the Sociology of Religion (Bloomsbury 2015), Islam on Campus: Contested Identities and the Cultures of Higher Education (OUP 2020), several journal articles, book chapters and mass-media articles.

Warwick worked on faith engagement for 18 years as a senior civil servant, most recently as head of the Faith Communities Engagement team of the Integration and Faith Division in the Department for Communities and Local Government. He has continued to work on interfaith projects in private, consultancy and Trustee capacities. He has worked in several other relevant civil service roles, including promoting neighbourhood empowerment through community rights and developing multi-faith events to mark the First World War centenary, the Millennium and the Golden Jubilee.

Warwick founded and continues to run a social enterprise, Faith in Society, which supports faith-based social action in various ways.

Mandip was the President of URI UK between 2005 and 2018. His career background of over 30 years is in the financial services industry in Senior Vice President regulatory compliance / AML and finance roles over a broad range of companies and with different nationalities. He often has had multiple roles attached, such as Company Secretary, Data Protection Officer etc.

Working with senior management, Boards, governance committees, both internal and external audits, clients, regulators and staff, as well as advising on the regulatory impacts to all areas of the business whilst being commercially aware of keeping the business goals in sight.  As regulations constantly change, Mandip has been involved in and led various projects to ensure the business complies with deadlines and deals with project and change management. His roles have involved systems implementations in helping mitigate regulatory risks, and provide scalability and automation.

Mandip has worked with various businesses, including small / start-up scenarios, where he has managed growth by ensuring an operating infrastructure and appropriate staffing exists. As well as working with charitable and non-profit organisations.