Entrepreneur changemaker philanthropist
Dr Jason Wouhra OBE

WHO IS JASON WOUHRA?

Dr Jason Wouhra OBE is a highly experienced company director and successful entrepreneur with a wealth of business leadership experience in addition to holding numerous civic and philanthropic roles, nationally and internationally.

Self-driven and highly ambitious, Jason was awarded an OBE by Her Majesty the Queen in 2017 for services to business and international trade.

Recently appointed Chancellor of Aston University, Jason is proud to be the first Chancellor of Asian heritage to serve, in addition to being the youngest in Aston University’s history.

BUSINESS LEADER

Jason Wouhra is Chief Executive Officer of Lioncroft Wholesale, one of the UK’s leading independent wholesale businesses, which supplies more than 10,000 independent retail and hospitality businesses in the West Midlands.

Prior to Lioncroft Wholesale, Jason was a director of his family-owned business East End Foods plc, one of Europe’s most successful Asian food ingredient businesses. East End Foods was sold in 2019 to private equity and during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Jason bought back the wholesale arm of the business and relaunched it as Lioncroft Wholesale.

Jason has a degree and masters in commercial law and is an Institute of Directors chartered director. In 2013, he became the youngest and first black and minority ethnic (BAME) chairman of the Institute of Directors in the West Midlands.

CIVIC ROLES

In addition to his appointment in 2024 as Chancellor for Aston University, Jason has held numerous prominent positions including non-executive director of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.

He has held past and present chairmanships of the West Midlands India Partnership, Library of Birmingham Advisory Board, Asian Chamber of Commerce, Birmingham Child Poverty Commission and Aston University Development Board. He was also vice chair of the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership and a board member of the European Structural and Investment Fund.

ADVISORY, CHARITY, PHILANTHROPY

Jason takes great pride in mentorship and advisory roles and is also involved in philanthropic work in the city and the wider region, including his patronage of Acorns Children’s Hospice charity since 2018.

In 2023, he and his family launched the Lioncroft Foundation to support good causes locally and across the world, including the funding of a brand new research fellowship into neuroblastoma, a form of childhood cancer.

Jason is also a founding patron of the Cancer Platform, and actively supports charities such as Macmillan, Disasters Emergency Committee, Ronald McDonald House, British Heart Foundation, ITV Text Santa, Cure Leukaemia, The Lord Mayor’s Charity (Birmingham) and WellChild.

NEWS

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