Current News
19 Sep 2007
Naveed in business as REC's youngest corporate member
The teenaged budding entrepreneur signed up for REC membership and took a Recruitment Industry Taskforce for Enterprise (RITE) start-up course after registering his new company, Luxury Recruit Ltd, which he launched in May this year.
Naveed has also qualified for a Prince’s Trust grant to help him develop his business, which is based in Holborn, London.
What has driven Naveed to achieve so much in such a short time is his incredible desire to succeed in business.
Born and brought up in Hackney, east London, he first got his taste for business when studying at Homerton College of Technology where he attained nine GCSEs in A to C grades.
The school has a business link which enabled Naveed to go on a mentoring scheme with ING. This in turn led to him securing a work placement as an IT Equity and Community Affairs Assistant at UBS Investment Bank in the City.
Such was the impact he made on senior staff at UBS that they have remained in contact with him and have been acting as his mentors as his career progresses. Naveed then went on work experience as an accounts management and information group junior assistant with law firm Herbert Smith LLP.After Homerton College, he then attended City and Islington College where he studied Business Studies, Economics and ICT to AS level.
However, Naveed then discovered his real passion was for retail having taken his first paid job as a sales assistant with H Samuel’s flagship store in Oxford Street. He followed this with a summer holiday job as a temporary sales assistant in children’s wear and nursery at John Lewis’s Oxford Street store.
He has also worked at Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge and Mamas and Papa in Regent Street. Even now, while he is building up his business, Naveed can be found in the beauty department of Peter Jones in Sloane Square where he is a weekend sales assistant.
On top of this, he has enrolled at Hackney Community College and is currently half way through a two year Business Retail BTEC Course.
As his real interest is retail, his business is dedicated to placing candidates in the retail and fashion sector especially for high profile “names” in central London.
But because of the contacts he made while on work experience, he hopes to expand into the banking and financial recruitment. In the meantime, to secure his Prince’s Trust grant, UBS bank organised a panel to interview him as a rehearsal for his submission to the charity.
He says of his achievements so far: “I am a confident person and always go for it. I never hold back.”
He adds that his ambition has meant he has had to forego a social life. “I have had to make a few sacrifices already, but I have to do this if I am to get myself started properly in this business.”
Naveed said eventually, he would like to “give something back to the community” in which he grew up such as starting a charity to help youngsters there develop their own business ideas.
Steve Othen, the REC’s Corporate Membership Executive, said of him: ““Upon meeting Naveed, you realise he is someone with a great future ahead of him, a future which he has begun to realise already. I feel his story will be great for the industry as he will become a benchmark for other young people who aspire to succeed in the world of business.
“I entered the industry at the age of 19 so can truly understand what an achievement this is; also the fact that he has become the youngest ever Corporate Member shows he is heading in the right direction relating to professionalism and standards. I wish him every success.”
